Formed in Brighton in 2004, The Kooks achieved near-instantaneous acclaim and, over the next 20 years, built a reputation for excellence with huge album sales and now, millions of streams every month. Their latest European tour begins in February 2026 and runs straight into the festival season. Accompanying the band are FOH engineer Russ Miller and monitor engineer Ralph Smart, both using DiGiCo Quantum 326 desks rented from Adlib.
Miller joined the crew in 2021 and Smart in May 2022. As Miller explains, the band were already very sure about their audio set-up: ‘We inherited the gig in 2021 from another pair of engineers who Ralph and I knew, they were entrenched in the DiGiCo ecosystem. The decision was made to not change anything just for the sake of it and keep that consistency.
‘We were very happy with the SD12 96s that were being used, but then the Quantum range came out and the SD12s were harder to get hold of, so we swapped. We started with the Quantum 225, then went up to the Quantum 326 to benefit from the larger console surface.’
No-one knows the music better than the people who composed it, so when making choices that impact the sonic quality of the music, Miller believes it is vital the artists are happy.
‘I’ve been mixing a for a while now, but when you first start off as an engineer, there can be a tendency to think, I’m the audio engineer, I have the technical knowledge,’ he says. ‘The fact is, there’s a reason, aside from brilliant songs, that those musicians are up there on stage and that is, they’ve got really good ears. They know exactly how they want their songs to sound and can hear the most subtle changes. So, we make sure that we’ve got consistency at both ends of the multicore, that’s really important.
‘Mixing is a dance, it’s a performance; you’re performing almost as much as the band,’ he continues. ‘Having the same console under your fingertips all the time means you can learn that dance. I would wager that no matter what console somebody uses, they will try and make everything the same on every console, not just sonically, but the actual physicality of it. People in studios do the same thing, maybe their kick drum always comes up on Fader 19, or the vocal is always on 20...’
At monitors, Smart says consistency is also a major factor in his use of DiGiCo consoles. ‘Having a setup we know we can replicate across all territories via local suppliers has been crucial for consistency. Last year, we made the leap to Quantum and I haven’t looked back,’ he says. ‘The additional matrices and macros on the Q326 have given me some really useful routing options with all my tech-mixes that were not possible when we were on the SD Range. I have been utilising the Mustard Source Expander, which has been great, especially in the bigger venues, it’s a really useful tool. I’ve also had great results experimenting with the tube emulations and the Mustard compressors on the console.’
The winning combination of performance and support is something that DiGiCo and its commercial partners are known for, and Adlib is no exception. Based in Liverpool, the company has traded for more than 40 years and supplies the full range of DiGiCo consoles and accessories. It also provides crew and engineers, several of whom have joined The Kooks on tour.
‘Adlib have a kindness that clearly comes from the top down. Everyone who works there has it, it’s like a house attitude. I love working with them for that reason, and the gear is always top notch, too,’ Miller finishes. ‘David Grimes was the systems tech on the tour, he’s amazing and Emma, who was our stage tech, is incredible, plus our PA techs Sam and Jamie, they’re all really knowledgeable and great engineers as well. It’s great to have extra sets of experienced ears on tour.’
‘Support has been great for this tour,’ Smart agrees. ‘Dave Jones and all the guys at Adlib have been amazing; the kit was prepped perfectly with excellent crew. DiGiCo support has always been second to none. We had a festival a couple of years ago that we would have had to cancel after our console took a bath during a stage evacuation in Europe. As we were discussing pulling the show, a DiGiCo rep appeared and gave us a brand new Q338 – gig saved. They always come through for us.’
More: www.adlib.co.uk