With a summer of festival appearances already scheduled in her first large-scale arena tour starting later in 2025, German singer Nina Chuba has already sold-out most dates. Christopher ‘Toffie’ Plaschke has been Nina’s FOH engineer since the beginning of her live career and subsequently taking on the role of production manager, and has no plans to change his choice of mixing console from their earlier successful gigs.
‘Nina is an incredible artist, and I’m truly grateful to be part of her journey,’ Plaschke says. ‘I used the DiGiCo Quantum 338 for both tour and festival dates and the experience was fantastic – especially with the additional routing options. Whatever musical ideas I have, with a DiGiCo console, I never face limitations.’
Chuba’s 2024 Glas Tour was a huge hit, taking her to festivals and arenas, and 2025 will see her embarking on an arena tour of Central Europe. As the size and complexity of her shows grows, reliability and flexibility has become even more important. The Quantum 338, supplied by Audiorent Clair GmbH Berlin, has become key.
‘The show is very input-heavy, and I make extensive use of group-to-group routing in my mixing workflow,’ Plaschke says. ‘I just missed the Pulse upgrades last year, but I’m definitely excited to implement them in 2025. As the show continues to grow, the extra channels and buses are going to help me to elevate everything. I’m keen on Fourier, too, I’ve come up through my career using plug-ins and the option to integrate VSTs beyond Waves integration is definitely something I am eager to try.’
While when working with Chuba, Plaschke th is using the Quantum 338, but the new Quantum 326 has caught his eye for other projects – a slimmed down, compact console that has all the Quantum benefits in a smaller package.
‘DiGiCo is the only brand designed specifically for live engineers,’ he says. ‘The sound quality is exceptional, and the response is both incredible and fast. Using the Quantum 338, I was always thinking that a smaller version would be perfect for my other clients, such as German pop artist, 1986zig. But I’ve grown accustomed to the luxury of the Q338 for Nina Chuba, so there is no swapping now.
‘What I love most about mixing with a DiGiCo console is that I can fully concentrate on the creative side, while the rest of the workflow is intuitive and unrestricted,’ he concludes. ‘When I’m mixing, I take a purely musical approach, and the Quantum 338 enables not only my own ideas but also the artist’s and musical director’s vision to come to life. Ultimately, the most important thing is that the artist and MD trust me to realise their vision of a perfect-sounding show. With a Quantum console by my side, I feel extremely confident in delivering that.’
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