Counting more than 100 million global streams and having been named one of Spotify’s inaugural Hot Country Artists to Watch, Wyoming native Ian Munsick has been compared to Chris LeDoux andPost Malone with self-penned songs of epic adventure and down-to-earth wisdom.

This year, his rapid rise in popularity has been mirrored by a tour itinerary that has taken him from a western honky-tonk bar to opening for Morgan Wallen in a stadium before headlining his own arena shows. Munsick’s sound team has been bolstered by the addition of a dedicated monitor engineer after moving to a pair of DiGiCo Quantum225 consoles, supplied by Clair Global.

Seth Hewson was Munsick’s initial front-of-house engineer when he was using what Hewson describes as a ‘Clair band-in-a-box’, with a 32-input mixer and Shure PSM 1000 in-ear monitors. ‘Ian and the band mixed their own ears using the app on their iPhones, with no monitor engineer,’ he recalls. ‘I worked with Clair Global on the Quantum225 spec and we introduced the consoles at rehearsals back in March of this year. I was there when Ian first transitioned to the DiGiCos, which was also the first time he hired a monitor engineer.’

That monitor engineer was Graig Clinton, who has moved to FOH with Greg Roberts coming onboard as new monitor engineer. ‘The difference in moving to DiGiCo was as stark as you’d imagine,’ says Hewson. ‘We loaded an SD-Rack with 32-bit input and output cards, which only emphasised the effect – the noise floor was ultra-low on the output cards and the dynamic range of the inputs felt sky high compared to the previous preamps.

‘I spec’d the Quantum225 desks because I didn’t want to lean on outboard or external plug-in servers. The Mustard processing and Spice Rack had so much functionality, as well as character, and they’ve helped take the show to a whole new level. We also went from 32 inputs on the previous rig to 56 preamps on the SD-Rack and 72 inputs on the consoles. We were able to split out track stems, add some triggers for drum noise gates, add some more utility instruments for Ian, and introduce some guest/MC channels in the RF count. It helped make us much more robust, especially on the two arena headline shows that Ian played earlier this year.’

Hewson adds that the Quantum225 was a great desk to introduce a monitor engineer on. ‘The SD-Rack preamps are already pretty transparent, but Mustard gave the monitor engineer the option to add flavour or use Nodal Processing as needed,’ he says. ‘The band is super-tight and musical, but it was a process getting them to build trust in that new member of the team. DiGiCo gave us the tools to make that change and give the band confidence in their ear mixes being properly handled.’

Current FOH engineer and production manager Graig Clinton is equally positive about the new console: ‘I’ve been a DiGiCo guy for ten years, but the Quantum processing really does take it up to another level,’ he says. ‘I was a Waves user for years and loved it, but with the Quantum, I’m using Mustard and Spice Rack pretty much exclusively now, and it’s been an amazing transition.’

Clinton also says the Quantum225’s much smaller footprint came with a huge increase in power: ‘As well as the flexibility to go from clubs to arenas and larger venues, which is a big help at this stage of Ian’s career. Processing, like the optical compressor and the multiband EQ and compression, have been fantastic. Also, I started on monitors and loved the 32-bit output cards I used there on the PSM-1000s, and have seen the transition to the 32-bit input cards at FOH. It’s just a seamless all-DiGiCo environment now, including for Greg on monitors, and it’s been phenomenal. It’s a great place to be.’

More: www.clairglobal.com