New Zealand singer-songwriter Kaylee Bell’s recent Boots ‘N All tour saw a transformation of its audio production with the adoption of an Allen & Heath dLive system. As someone who wears multiple hats during the live show, FOH engineer and Production Manager Joshua Anderson described the arrival of the dLive system as a game-changer for both him and the performers.
‘Eliminating the task of maintaining show files for multiple consoles has saved me endless amounts of time and has brought a whole new level of consistency to everything,’ he says.
The ability to use onboard processing like DYN8 with four bands of dynamic EQ and four bands of multiband compression, and other FX have allowed Anderson to move away from relying on the external plug-ins that were previously used. This transition has not only streamlined operations but has also significantly enhanced the audio quality of the performances.
The band’s monitoring has also been integrated into the dLive system, managed on a dLive Director set-up handled by Nick Campbell. dLive Director serves as an editor and control software for dLive, enabling users to pre-configure the system offline, review and modify Show files from guest engineers, and conduct live mix control using a laptop or touch tablet.
‘We have both loved the architecture Allen & Heath has built for gain sharing and separate show file/scene control within the one MixRack we travel with,’ Anderson says. ‘Shifting from the previous IEM system, the band instantly noticed the improvement in quality.
‘For our 17-date tour of New Zealand earlier in the year, we used a dLive C3500 Surface for FOH, a CDM32 MixRack, and DX168 expander. While the C3500 offers a fantastic Surface size, we absolutely love our CTi1500 Surface too. The flexibility of such a small and lightweight Surface is incredible.’
The C3500 is the largest C Class Surface in the dLive series, and features 24 faders over six layers, with dual 12-inch touchscreens for a smooth workflow. Meanwhile, the CTi1500 was designed for lightweight touring with a small footprint of 12 faders over six layers and one touchscreen, weighing in at under 23kg including flightcase.
With the national tour wrapped up following multiple sold-out shows and a performance at Auckland’s Powerstation, Kaylee Bell has since made her way to the US to focus on songwriting in Nashville.
More: www.allen-heath.com
