Up-and-coming Emo band Arm’s Length recently completed a headline tour across the US and their native Canada with labelmates Carly Cosgrove and Ben Quad. Having done some backfill work on previous tours, mainly on house consoles, Michael Urbizu found himself manning an Allen & Heath dLive console for this one.
‘I did about 15 shows, where every night I was on a new board,’ he recalls, but then the band’s management offered to rent a mic and console package. ‘Two colleagues of mine were touring with dLive and had recommended it, so I watched a few videos and said “okay, this thing is the real deal”.’
Urbizu opted for a compact and lightweight dLive CTi1500 control surface, along with a CDM48 MixRack for processing and I/O. ‘I knew the band’s trailer would already be packed with full sized amps and cabs,’ he explains. ‘I was also conscious of the fact that some of these venues were smaller and there wouldn’t be much room at front of house. Thankfully I could fit into anywhere with that CTi1500 surface.’
To compensate for the CTi1500’s single 12-fader bank, Urbizu made use of dLive’s DCA Spill function, which dynamically updates the fader layout to show channels in a selected DCA group. ‘I also liked how I can customize the different layers. I kept my groups on the bottom layer along with my FX and master buses,’ Urbizu says.
He notes that the extensive built-in processing of dLive also meant less external gear to move around. ‘My touring friends often bring in external compressors and FX, but after hearing the dLive’s native processing I put my trust in it.’
Before getting his hands on the physical hardware, Urbizu familiarized himself with the console’s interface and prepared his show file using dLive Director software and tutorial videos online. ‘I got some great ideas from tutorials and interview videos with engineers,’ he says. ‘When I actually got to use the mixer, I tried out as many different compressors as I could during sound check to see which ones I liked.’
After mixing a few shows, Urbizu felt fully comfortable with the dLive workflow and was impressed with the Deep compressor selection on dLive, including the Opto and Opttronik analogue emulations.
‘I also liked using the Mighty compressor on my guitars,’ he says. ‘I loved the experience of being able to pick and choose exactly what processing I liked on each channel, and just the overall customisation of the board. I hope to take it out again on my next tour.’
More: www.allen-heath.com
