A world tour that includes not just the Gorillaz live band, but guest performers at each show, The Mountain World Tour will play festivals across Europe this summer before heading to North and South America in the autumn. Throughout, Entec Sound & Light are providing a comprehensive audio package and additional crew.
With different guest performers joining Damon Albarn and the live band, engineers Matt Butcher and Dave Guerin are ready for the challenge with DiGiCo Quantum 852 mixing desks at FOH monitors. At the monitor position, Guerin has just 12 spare input channels on his console, while Butcher front of house has a little more wriggle-room and says the reason behind his console choice is DiGiCo’s speed of workflow.
‘There are lots of reasons to use a DiGiCo, but we use the Quantum 852 for Gorillaz because no other manufacturer makes a console that can do what a DiGiCo does,’ Butcher says. ‘We can edit really quickly on the Q852; it has the redundancy we need, and we can cater for any type of record or broadcast feed request. Usually, it’s just a left/right feed because even just sharing the Groups requires 64 XLR tails.’
The minimum channel count to run the show currently stands at 165 inputs at FOH. and there is a further Quantum 326 for playback alongside the two Quantum 852s. Butcher is using a Fourier transform.engine and, with the exception of a faithful SPX 900 and a few other vocal effects, this has greatly reduced the outboard effects he travels with.
‘The Fourier works well,’ he says. ‘I do most things on the console, but there are some big reverb effects coming from the Fourier and it’s all nice and stable. We have a lot going on with multiple Optocore loops and huge channel counts, and it’s solid throughout.’
Guerin has created apps to keep up with his channel numbers at monitors, and provides the musicians and technicians with iPads control their own mixes. His own Faders app is capable of directly controlling channel, aux, group and matrix outputs, plus control group faders.
‘I’ve created multiple apps now – Faders, Doris, Changes and SetList. Each one has a different purpose so, because DiGiCo consoles only connect to a single external app, I designed Router, which enables all the apps to connect to the console via a single application. It’s very useful for the tour, not just for the DiGiCo consoles, but also for our RF Tech who can route any of my mixes to any of our four backup [Sennheiser] Spectera WMAS wireless systems at a touch of a button. I’m thinking of creating another app that tells you what happened in the last OSC command you fired, to help you keep track.’
With many regular and guest musicians plus a choir, the high channel count made the Quantum desks appealing to both engineers. For Butcher in particular, DiGiCo has meant stability, reliability and convenience that is not available with any other platform. ‘We have used other consoles that sounded great and were readily available, but then they would have really strange errors before the show,’ he says. ‘The DiGiCo ecosystem is rock solid and works very conveniently for rack sharing and multiple inputs and the audio network setup is pretty easy. We’ve been using DiGiCo consoles for a long time now, and the high input count works well. It serves our purposes and sounds great.’
Guerin agrees, and highlights the DiGiCo team’s customer service as another reason not to swap consoles. For him, knowing there is always someone on the end of the line is a key factor in his long-standing relationship with both DiGiCo and Entec Sound and Light. ‘There’s great backup from DiGiCo and Entec, with Dan Scantlebury, Tom Olorenshaw and Matt Smith back at base, plus Colin Woodward, Kev Gill, Alex Chapman, and Alex Goodby on the road with us. On the rare occasions I need help, there’s always someone to call,’ Guerin concludes. ‘I had an issue on a Sunday morning at the O2 in London and I rang the DiGiCo help line –John Stadius, DiGiCo’s Technical Manager called me back. Even though the company has grown, they still provide worldwide support along with the attention to detail that engineers rely on.’
The Gorillaz live experience draws on a quarter century of musical and technical innovation. Following a 13-date run of shows across the UK and Ireland to mark the release of The Mountain album, Gorillaz’ first stadium show will take place in London in June, with support from Sparks and Trueno. The band will play India for the first time early in 2027 with shows in Mumbai and Bengaluru in January.