The Kaiser Chiefs recently completed a mammoth UK tour, accompanied by an Allen & Heath dLive system handling both FOH and monitor duties. The tour follows a new studio album, and but past releases and hits performed at a number of old theatres, concert halls, seaside towns and O2 Academy venues.

Supplied by Adlib, the band’s set-up includes two dLive S7000 surfaces on both FOH and monitors and two DM64 MixRacks. The system was also used to handle audio needs for the support band, Novacub.

‘For this tour I chose dLive in spite of having had no experience of it before, as a number of people I respect have rated it very highly,’ comments FOH engineer, Chris Leckie.

‘As with every Kaiser Chiefs outing since 2007, I’m using Liverpool’s Adlib as our audio vendor. As well as having something of a connection to the company, I’m always inclined to pick them simply because the crew are always great and the equipment is immaculate.

‘One of the most important factors for me in selecting any console is the simplicity of operation and dLive is so intuitive that I was able to work out how to do almost everything I needed within about ten minutes.’

Monitor engineer Ilias Andrianatos has been with the band since 2005, and also opted for dLive: ‘Like Chris, I also chose dLive as some of my respected colleagues suggested that I give it a go. I love how user-friendly and easily customisable the whole rig is. The surface makes perfect sense in terms of layout and there’s a very straight forward and logical way of setting the desk up, making it easy to patch I/O, assign PAFL, FX and set up softkeys.’

This is a feeling further supported by Leckie: ‘dLive has a certain familiarity in appearance and the operation of the effects and compressors was another factor in my choice. The S7000 hasn’t put a foot wrong in the four weeks I’ve been using it – it certainly gives other manufacturers some stiff competition! I’m going to be taking this desk around with me for the whole summer period.’

‘dLive has an amazing sound quality and natural, smooth sounding FX,’ Andrianatos adds. ‘I use the 16VU compressor on bass and acoustic guitar, the 16T compressor on keys and OHs and the Mighty compressor on kicks and snares. I also enjoy using the Dyn8’s Dynamic EQ and Multiband compression on guitars and vocals.’

The Kaiser Chiefs audio team comprises Leckie, FOH tech Kenny Perrin, Andrianatos and monitor tech Marc Peers.