Exploiting the popularity that Riverdance has lent to Irish dance, one of the hardest working dance and music troupes is Ragús. Having now completed nine tours of Belgium and the Netherlands, the troupe are using a Yamaha CL1 mixing console to deliver the big sonic punch the performaces require.
Active for the past 13 years, Ragús presenta a style of Irish dance familiar to millions, and adds live music from a five-piece band and female vocalist. This ranges from airs from the sean nós traditions of Connemara and the Aran Islands, to the ballads and lively tunes commonly associated with traditional Irish music. Having performed in Australia, the US, China, Japan, South Africa and throughout Europe over the past three years, the recent tour was the first that Ragús audio engineer Jelle Hollebeke had used a Yamaha CL1 to mix front of house sound and monitors. The system for the tour included a Rio3224-D I/O unit and was supplied, along with the main stage lighting, by Belgian rental company Stage-Unit.
Hollebeke used around ten channels for the musicians and vocalist, with six wireless mic systems for the tap shoes of the principal dancers. Twelve wired directional microphones were also set at stage front, back and on top of the set to pick up the sounds of the full troupe’s shoes. With space and staff at a premium, the tour used house PA systems. The Yamaha system, microphones, musicians’ individual monitor amplifiers and wireless equipment were all built into one pre-wired rack, allowing Hollebeke to quickly and easily set up the system at each venue, without needing extra help.
‘The CL1 has a great, quick-to-use workflow and I really appreciate the amount of onboard effects and the ability to do virtual soundchecks with Dante Virtual Soundcard,’ he says. ‘I am using the CL1’s custom layers a lot and it works really well. It also sounds excellent.
‘Importantly for a tour like this, it has a small footprint and is easy to carry around. We are touring in one truck which has to accommodate the stage set, costumes, lights, backline and monitors, as well as the mixing system and microphones,’ he continues. ‘The rest of the crew find it very amusing that the mixing console is now a lot smaller than the lighting desk. Much more space in the truck is taken up by lights than sound…
‘Overall we are really happy with the system. I fully intend to use Yamaha CL and QL series mixers as much as possible in future.’
