The Kaiser Chiefs reckon to have ‘reinvented’ their rehearsals in the process of establishing their own rehearsal space. Central to the operation of the facility in the band’s hometown of Leeds is a 32-channel Mackie DL32R digital mixer. It’s definitely helped us with writing our new record,’ says bassist Simon Rix.
The band discovered the DL32R in the process of creating a permanent rehearsal facility. Top of the list of requirements was the ability not just to improve the quality of the rehearsals themselves, but to record them: ‘Sometimes we would rehearse in London and sometimes in Leeds,’ explains Rix. ‘We decided that if we had a room that was always set up then it would be a lot easier, and the DL32R means we can record when we’re writing.’
As a result, nothing is lost: ‘Whitey, our guitarist, is prone to doing something brilliant on the spur of the moment,’ Rix observes. ‘As so often happens, the first idea is brilliant but gets forgotten in the heat of the moment. Being able to solo the recording and play it back to him is great.’
The DL32R also proves useful when singer Ricky Wilson is busy, as Rix puts it, ‘being a TV superstar’. As one of the hosts on the British TV show The Voice, Wilson can’t always make it to rehearsals. ‘Because we had already done some recording we were able to play along to him singing thanks to the DL32R, so he didn’t need to always be there,’ Rix explains. ‘We couldn’t have done that before and it helps to keep things moving along even when we can’t all be together.’
Having now had some time to work with the DL32R, Rix and his band mates are starting to experiment with some of the mixer’s features, including its broad array of onboard processing and effects: ‘Having a compressor on every channel is great, and Ricky likes a slap-back reverb on the vocal as well.’
His favourite feature on the DL32R, however, is how simple it was to use, right out of the box: ‘We switched the DL32R on and opened the Master Fader app, and it all just ran straight away – it never glitches, it never crashes, it just works perfectly. How easy is that?’
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