Top French sound engineers Laurent Midas and Stéphane Plisson have adopted Allen & Heath’s dLive digital mixing system as their mixer of choice – both opting for dLive S Class systems, comprising the flagship S7000 Surfaces and DM64 MixRacks, for the live tour of TV show, Dancing with the Stars.
‘The first word that comes to mind is modern,’ says monitor engineer Midas. ‘The menu and surface designs are really effective, and being able to simply drag-and-drop your own layout is a no-brainer. The system has amazing processing power – we PFL 300 or 400 times a show but switching is so quick and transparent, and if you want to save a show, it’s done in seconds. Latency is very important for in-ear monitors, and dLive is three or four times less than other consoles, so that the singer perceives no delay at all.’
The 28-date tour visited arenas across France, featuring famous actors, singers and sports personalities competing in front of a panel of expert judges. dLive managed all of the production’s audio requirements, comprising the live band, presenters and judges’ commentary.
‘I am amazed by the results. The ergonomics are deceptively simple and after only one day of rehearsals my layout was 100 per cent ready,’ adds FOH engineer Plisson. ‘The EQ is so good, I have to make very few changes, and there is a raft of onboard FX, including reverbs and compressors, and I am a huge fan of the Opto compressor. Also, the Waves card makes it easy to record 128 tracks in 96kHz on a single Cat5 cable.’
More: www.allen-heath.com
