Winging its way form the US and heading across Europe, the Evanescence world tour finds engineer Eddie Mapp using a Midas Pro9 live audio system at FOH.
Mapp had previously relied on a Midas XL4, but switched to digital desks a few years ago: ‘Why did I make the change to Midas Digital?’ he muses. ‘Tone, feel and most importantly, audio quality. I’ve had some great shows on other digital desks but nothing sounds and feels like the Pro9 does.
‘It really blew me away,’ he says of the Pro9’s EQ, ‘reminding me of what it was like to mix on a great analogue desk. I just pushed up the guitars, did a little tonal shaping and they sounded massive.
‘Another thing I’ve noticed after bouncing from festivals to theatres on a variety of PA systems is how sonically huge the entire mix sounds. It reacts in a way that I haven’t felt since the XL4. Some desks seem to get a little choked up when they’re pushed too hard, but this keeps on going and going.
‘Having the option of four compressors on each channel that retain your settings as you scroll through is invaluable. The adaptive compressor is amazing on drums and percussion, and I’m using two multi-band compressors, a pitch and a delay for vocals, with two plate reverbs for drums. The ability to sidechain either the compressor or gate from any channel is now a must have for my mixing set-up.
‘Another great feature is the KVM switch which allows me to have my Mac Mini on the right hand screen. This runs the Meyer Galileo which I use for system tuning, my Smaart 7 set-up and iTunes for playback, which makes for an extremely streamlined setup; now I don’t have to worry about carrying a laptop out to front of house during show time.
‘Finally, between the VCA and POPulation groups and the multiple input screens I never have to leave my mixing position, regardless of whether I’m making mixing or system adjustments.’
Mapp finds the options offered by the Pro9 has challenged him to rethink his approach to mixing: ‘It’s always fun as well as educational,’ he says. ‘I’m still finding new ways of incorporating these features into my setup everyday. Right down to details like the linking function for each channel, the Pro9’s features have really been helpful in letting me set up each pair of inputs or outputs exactly as I’d like.’
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