With upwards of 50m across social media followers, Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh is on the road for his Dil-Luminati world tour, taking DiGiCo Quantum 338s mixing desks – supplied by Solotech Group on the UK and European legs – for both FOH and monitors – furnished with DMI-Klang immersive in ear monitoring.
Engineers Kenny Narayan and Ranjeet Singh have toured with Dilijit Dosanjh for many years, choosing DiGiCo because of the console’s durability and the range of features that enable it to cope with the demands of this multimedia artist. ‘The show is very heavy on Snapshots and Midi,’ Narayan explains. ‘Dilijit is very active on social media, so we use a lot of buses, too, and he console really meets our needs.
‘There are often TV news cameras, or social media teams that need feeds, so having the Madi streams at the desk to hit their recording platforms, rather than needing an additional rack, makes it seamless,’ he adds.
With such massive media interest in every aspect of the show, Narayan and Singh must remain focused on Diljit’s sound. Reliability and consistency are key to trusting the equipment to do exactly what is needed, every time it is asked. Redundancy comes as standard for the Quantum 338, with six single or three redundant Madi connections, dual DMI slots and a built-in UB Madi USB recording interface. Alongside the super-fast seventh generation FPGAs, the console offers security, speed and control.
‘Overall, there are no more than 56 channels in use at the monitor desk,’ Singh says. ‘We use time code for audio tracks and have additional monitor mixes for video, broadcast mixes and recordings. The console copes well with everything we ask of it.’
The consoles are connected via an Optocore fibre-optic bus, enabling additional send and return channels in addition to simplifying system integration. It is a set-up that works well. ‘For this tour, it has to be DiGiCo – there are so many features that we appreciate, especially the chat function, which makes it so easy to communicate during the show; the SPL regularly goes above 108dB, so it’s essential,’ Singh.says. ‘Spice Rack and Mustard work really well, too, especially the DiGiTube valve amp emulator, which means we don’t have to rely on external processing racks.’
Another feature available directly via the console is the DMI-Klang card. This fully integrated expansion card gives Singh access to the powerful Klang immersive in ear mixes, delivering a full 360° immersive experience for the artists. Klang is accessible directly from the console, allowing engineers to remain in their usual mixing workflow, and offering 64 input channels and 16 mixes, with latency of 0.25ms.
‘DMI-Klang is the first choice for our monitor mixes,’ Singh continues. ‘The whole band uses the immersive settings, and we have 13 mixes in total. The musicians appreciate the clarity of sound and the space Klang gives each element of the mix. This is the first tour that we have used it for, and they are really enjoying it to the fullest.’
The record breaking Dil-Luminati tour sold out three nights in London’s O2 in a matter of minutes, making it the fastest selling, highest grossing run of shows for a Punjabi artist in the venue’s history. The tour closes the year out in India, with shows across the country and the DiGiCo desks accompanying.
‘We chose DiGiCo for its robustness and the ability to share a rack,’ Singh says. ‘Both Ranjeet and I have extensive DiGiCo experience, so if there are ever any issues, we can usually fix them. The audio quality and workflow work extremely well for us.’
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