The Miss Nebraska 2013 pageant gave Soundcraft a ‘beauty shot’ photo opportunity when live sound contractor CL1 Productions brought in an Si Expression 3 digital mising console for the event.
For the pageant, company owner Clyde Reimers used his new 32-channel desk to handle more than 50 tracks of audio playback, and a further 30 tracks with audio and video. ‘Each contestant either performed live or provided their own track for accompaniment, and each track needed different EQ, compression, level matching and other tweaking,’ he explains.
Previously, Reimers would have spent time before the pageant remixing and re-recording the tracks to get them sonically consistent – or even more daunting, make adjustments on the fly at the time of the show. He took an entirely different approach using the Si Expression 3, however: ‘In the two weeks of rehearsals I made the adjustments to each track on the Si Expression 3 and saved each one as a separate scene that I could instantly recall during the show.’
Reimers assigned each contestant a number, and found that what was previously stressful and time-consuming became as easy as pushing a button to move from track to trackduring the course of the three-hour show. He did the same thing for the live performances, accommodating everything from 16 channels of wireless and an onstage grand piano to in-ear and wedge monitor mixes. ‘Previously I’d have to have a very big cheat sheet,’ he says.
Coming from a live theatre sound background, Reimers reckons that he’ll ‘never look at an analogue desk again’. In addition to the Miss Nebraska 2013 event, CL1 Productions has used the console for theatre productions like Nunsense, air shows, corporate functions, music festivals and other events – in every case he’s welcomes the sound quality, lack of noise and immunity to ground loops provided by the desk.
At first, Reimers thought the console looked ‘almost stripped down’, but them discovered its configurability. He’s used it on shows where the Si Expression 3 provided a main mix and six monitor mixes and still had six subgroups in hand. In another situation he configured the console with three subgroups rather than eight in order to provide the mixing flexibility he needed.
‘You have to re-think the way you normally mix audio,’ he notes. ‘The Si Expression 3 feels more like a VCA console where you can assign anything to do anything you want.’
The ability to globally look at functions like panning, EQ, and other aspects is invaluable when he needs to troubleshoot, instead of having to cue every channel to see if one is misbehaving.
Although all the automation and functionality is extremely useful, Reimers notes that the Si Expression 3 is equally adept when he has to mix manually. During one production of ‘Nunsense,’ he neglected to save any settings, and realised it while people were entering the theatre. He was able to do the show ‘blind’ with no problem, finding the console’s FaderGlow feature particularly useful in the low-light environment.
In fact, CL1 Productions is planning on purchasing another Si Expression 3. ‘When you go to the CL1 Productions website in the near future you’re probably going to see an ad that says, ‘Much analogue equipment for sale – cheap.’
More: www.cl1productions.com
More: www.soundcraft.com
