Skunk Anansie recently wrapped up a 25th anniversary with a string of European festival and headline shows following the release of a new live album, 25live@25 and finishing with a run of UK performances. The British rock icons took an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system for FOH.
FOH engineer, Ben Hammond is a long-time Allen & Heath user: ‘dLive is just the perfect console for me,’ he says. ‘I’m able to lay out each show file the same way so the shows are always consistent, whether it’s an outdoor amphitheatre or large indoor arena.’
The full set-up (owned by Hammond) features a dLive DM64 MixRack and dLive S5000 surface fitted with a Dante card for virtual soundcheck and multitrack recording, and an AES 10 output card, which feeds Hammond’s speaker management processor.
Rather than using external hardware, dLive’s onboard processing, FX and compressors, are more than enough for Hammond, who currently uses 13 of the 16 RackExtra FX available in order to build the band’s rock anthem style: ‘I use a lot of the built-in effects on dLive,’ he explains. ‘As an example, I start with the Hall 480 reverb on Skin’s vocal, which adds a nice bit of weight and then I add two EMT 250 reverbs on snare and toms. ADT is also on pretty much everything – the bass, the guitars, keyboards and all the vocals – and it adds a nice big stereo spread and just excites everything a little bit.’
‘One thing I adore about this console is that I can send groups to FX sends. I send the kick drum subgroup to Hypabass and also manually ride the tom group send when I need them to sound big and impactful,’ he adds.
Hammond also makes use of dLive’s Deep processing plug-ins, particularly the vintage Peak Limiter 76 emulation: ‘I have this over a drum “smash” subgroup, in “all buttons in” mode, with a big old 1980s-style reverb inserted over it. For ten seconds in one song, it gives me an absolutely mental smash where we need a huge, huge drum part to come in, it sounds amazing.’
dLive’s intuitive layout and flexible operation is another reason Allen & Heath is Hammond’s go-to: ‘I think muscle memory is really important. When you walk up to a console, you shouldn’t need to learn how to use it, you should be able to put your fingers on it and instantly recognise the controls and seamlessly create your mix.
‘I don’t use snapshots, scenes or anything, I simply watch the show and know all my cues and moves and dLive’s easy workflow allows you to do this, which is why it’s the best choice for this tour – and all my other shows. All-in-all, dLive is my go-to console of choice. It suits my mixing style down to the ground and it’s just the most enjoyable console to mix with.’
Additionally, the tour used a Shure PSM 1000 wireless IEM system supplied by tour and production management company, Patchwork London.
Patchwork MD, Steve White, contacted Steve Eaton, Sales Executive in AC-ET’s Audio sales division after he was getting an increasing number of client requests for the Shure in-ear-monitoring system. ‘We've had an increased number of enquiries for the PSM 1000, so when a three-month tour hire with Skunk Anansie came in, it seemed like a good time to expand our Shure stock. Prior to this, we had tried out wireless mic systems and Shure’s Axient system was the one which best suited our needs, so we decided to go with Shure across the board.’
It is a testament to the performance of the PSM 1000 IEM system that it met the technical requirements of Skunk Anansie, who some regard as one of the greatest live acts across the globe.
‘It’s very important that our clients have access to high quality equipment in our hire stock, and which can be packaged for ease of transporting,’ Eatin adds. ‘Investments like the PSM 1000 means we are at the forefront of technology on stage, and being small enough to be racked in our Peli case system makes it extremely portable for any scale of tour.’
