The latest tour for Norwegian singer-songwriter and record producer Marie Ulven Ringheim’s indie pop project Girl in Red has seen the band grow both in size and venue capacity. Playing larger venues has meant greater complexity and production values, with sound engineers Kris Derry and Matt Wickens needing the most stable equipment available capable of withstanding the rigors of worldwide touring.

The solution took the form of two DiGiCo Quantum 338 mixing desks, Klang:DMI for stage monitoring, and Fourier Audio transform.engine, all provided by Entec Sound and Light, have been working for Girl in Red, night after night, across the world in arenas and at festivals, ever since.

Derry has been at FOH with the band since 2019, and has witnessed a huge change in the way they tour. ‘When I started, we were in a splitter van and I just brought a Peli-case of mics and no desk,’ he recalls. ‘Returning in 2021 for Reading and Leads festivals, Matt and I made a push to take an audio package. The gig had grown and we needed that reliability and consistency. So, at the start of that year’s album campaign, we specified DiGiCo – and we haven’t looked back.’

Headed by Production Manager Eric Wade, the team began with DiGiCo’s SD Range consoles, but requirements continued to expand. Having tried most of what DiGiCo has to offer, they are now using a Quantum 338, supplied by Entec Live, at front of house and monitors. Derry and monitor engineer Wickens, are making use of the Spice Rack, with Wickens liking the Nodal processing.

‘The Quantum 338 is great, the functionality is unbelievable,’ he says. ‘We’ve got an extremely dynamic drummer, so being able to send all the drum channels to him pre-compression, pre-dynamics, but post-gated compression to everyone else without having to duplicate channels is great.’

Joining in 2021, Wickens introduced the band to Klang for in-ear-monitoring. Accessed via the Quantum 338 console at the monitor mix position, Klang:DMI allows everything to be within easy reach, requiring fewer screens and allowing him to focus on what is important.

‘As soon as I introduced Klang:DMI, I was instantly able to lower the listening level for my artist mix, which was great,’ he says. ‘Then I could simply place instruments, vocals and track in a 3D landscape. I can push mix objects up and down, as well as left and right to create more space in the mix. It means that I can have every element of the band audible whilst keeping a lot of space for that all-important vocal.’

The console integration has proved important for both engineers, providing stability and a streamlined workflow.

Derry is using a Fourier.engine plug-in host at FOH, further improving stability of the set-up. The latest update enables engineers to recall plug-in states. Triggered by Midi, the cuelist stores favoured plug-in settings, and recalls them as required. Even if a plug-in fails, the Fourier.engine can continue to work.

‘Fourier is really stable, a few nights ago, my laptop had a moment, but I looked over at the rack unit of Fourier and saw four green ticks, so all was OK,’ Derry says. ‘I’d tried Fourier twice through different demos, and was excited to finally use it on a gig. I recently installed the cuelist update and it has been really helpful. It’s really nice to have a great product and also have communication available around product support.’

Mark Saunders and Dave Bigg, who have supported the engineers with set-ups and programming, has been invaluable throughout the band’s many tour dates. ‘There have been plenty of times where I’ve spoken to people such as Dave, especially in the early days of using Klang when I needed help,’ Wickens says. ‘I wouldn’t be without it now, it’s such a great tool and I would hate to do an in-ear-monitoring gig without it. Luckily, I don’t have to worry about that with Marie. It’s such a good tool for me that I’d be little bit stuck without it.’

Derry agrees: ‘We’ve had amazing support over the last few years. If we ever need anyone at DiGiCo, we just call. If we have any ideas to pass along, they listen, they actually care, and they’re there for you. That’s been great.’

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