Alabama’s Furnace Fest heavy rock and metal has returned to the Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham after an 18-year hiatus with an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system at FOH.
Entrance to see 90 bands including August Burns Red, ERRA, Fit for a King, Mayday Parade, Motionless in White and Underøath across the festival’s three stages required a vaccination card or proof of negative Covid-19 test to be shown at the gates.
A number of compact dLive C1500 surfaces and an SQ-5 were put to work over the course of the three-day event. Packed into the 19-inch wide C1500 footprint are 12 faders over six layers, built-in audio I/O, an audio networking port, a 12-inch capacitive touchscreen and the Harmony UI for a fast and flexible operation.
Supporting a fully assignable layout, 72 fader strips, 19 assignable SoftKeys and daylight visibility, the C1500 was at home at the large outdoor festival. Also modest in its FOH footprint was a 48-channel/36-bus A&H SQ-5 used by Mayday Parade.
‘I’ve been touring with dLive since 2017 and it’s been awesome watching the platform grow and sport more and more new features in that time,’ says FOH engineer, Chris Pollack (August Burns Red, ERRA). ‘Most recently with the v1.9 update, I’m taking advantage of a lot of new features. The RTA functionality is awesome for quickly pinpointing problem frequencies, and Source Expander has made a world of difference cleaning up my vocal mics. Most impressive of all, though, is the Bus compressor – it’s so gooey and punchy, I’m really excited about the energy it brings to my mixes.’
The dLive v1.9 update was the largest firmware release in the history of A&H’s flagship dLive mixing system, incorporating feedback from audio engineers across the live sound, recording, streaming and installation markets. Additions include new RTA and sonogram tools, new Deep expander and compressor models, a 12-band PEQ option for mixes, and Sennheiser wireless integration.
‘It was great to see dLive bring brought in with the festival headliners,’ says Kevin Duthu, Business Unit Lead/Pro User Group, HWPco. ‘All of the engineers had great things say about the platform and specifically the 1.9 firmware.
‘The ease of set-up that the C1500 brings to a festival atmosphere allows a quick in and out of FOH without having to rearrange the entire tent – not to mention not having to bring an entire extra server of plug-ins, because they’re right in the desk! The best mixes of the day were without a doubt on Allen and Heath. It sounded like a blanket was taken off the PA when both SQ and dLive fired up.’
More: www.allen-heath.com
