‘With the Foos, we needed so many different system configurations,’ says the band’s System Technician, Phil Reynolds. ‘One day, it would be a stadium with seven hangs of PA, the next an amphitheatre with a left/right. We also need to send ADA and press feeds from FOH or backstage. Delicate chose a Dante system, so we could have almost limitless possibilities.’
Reynolds has been with the band since their Wasting Light tour in 2011, and collaborated on the design of the tour’s L-Acoustics K1/K2 PA system fielded by Delicate Productions for the recent Sonic Highways world tour. Having served the band for the past six years, Delicate has added a new level of flexibility through the use of Focusrite RedNet Dante interfaces.
Focusrite’s RedNet D16R AES interface is used to bridge 16 channels of AES/EBU between the FOH DiGiCo SD5 digital console, Lake/Lab.gruppen LM44 processors and the speaker clusters, and a RedNet MP8R remote-controlled microphone preamplifier and A/D on the Dante audio-over-IP network uses Focusrite’s mic preamp for vocals.
‘The RedNet D16 takes AES feeds from the opening acts’ desk to the LM44s,’ Reynolds explains. ‘This allows for control of routing with just a few mouse clicks. The system is run on a fibre backbone to each side of the stage with two Cisco SG300 switches at each location. The amp racks are fed with two or four AES feeds so when we need to switch modes, the rig converts with a click of a few buttons.’
In terms of sonic performance, Jason Alt, President of Delicate Productions, says the D16R is totally transparent: ‘We’ve found from some units that impart their own sound to the audio, which is not desirable when it comes to audio distribution. But the D16R takes nothing away from the high quality of sound that we have across the rest of the system, which is of critical importance.’
The MP8R remote-controlled microphone preamp and A/D the latest addition for the Foos’ system. Reynolds says that it was on hand for some time before the tour’s pace settled down enough for he and FOH mixer Bryan Worthen to experiment on something as key as Dave Grohl’s vocal, but once they did.... ‘It was like night and day,’ he says.
That success prompted them to try it on drummer Taylor Hawkins’ vocal microphone as well. Now, four channels of MP8R are part of every show – Grohl’s and Hawkins’ vocals, a back-up channel for Grohl, and the mic Grohl uses at the end of the 20-ft stage thrust.
‘Everything I put through the Focusrite MP8R preamp sounds better,’ says Worthen, Foo Fighter’s front-of-house mixer for the past 13 years. ‘It is more akin to that great analogue sound we are all used to. Digital tends to sound sterile, the MP8R changes that.’
Apart from their sound quality and reliability, Jason Alt also like the ease-of-use of the RedNet devices: ‘Sometimes it can be very challenging when we start to implement new gear into our systems, because you need to put the techs through training so that they can learn how to use it,’ he says. ‘But with the D16R and RedNet in general, we’ve found that it’s really easy for our techs to jump on board and start using it. There’s no need for hours of training. The more we delve into RedNet, the more we like it.’
In addition to the D16R and MP8R, Reynolds uses a RedNet 4 Mic Preamp for system testing, the RedNet 1 eight-channel analogue I/O and RedNet 3 32-channel digital I/O box for his last several tours.
More: www.delicate.com
More: www.focusrite.com
