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Allen & Heath Mixing in the Modern World with Jam Legends
For the first time in 25 years, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler from iconic band, The Jam, embarked on a tour of the UK. Joined by Russell Hastings on vocals and guitar, and Dave Moore on keyboards and guitars, 'Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler: From The Jam' performed 25 sell-out dates around the country during May. The mixer selected for the tour was Allen & Heath's iLive digital system, comprising an iLive-112 control surface linked via CAT5 cable to the iDR10 stagerack, configured for 48 inputs and 32 outputs.
"We decided to keep things simple for this initial tour and use house systems rather than take a PA rig on the road. However, I wanted to take a mixer with us to manage FOH and monitor mixes, so that the band's sound would be consistently good quality," explains the band's engineer, Ed Higdon.
"I've always been an analogue engineer but iLive has convinced me that digital is the way forward. I got to grips with the system really quickly, and I really like the layout as all the mic pre amps, EQ, limiting and compression are in front of you, not hidden in menus. The sound is as rich as the best analogue desks - the clarity is stunning!"
Higdon used 24 channel inputs, with DCA groups for the drum kit, backline, vocals and effects, all assigned and colour-coded how and where he wanted on the iLive surface. He also used 4 stereo sub-groups, run through iLive's 1/3 octave graphic EQs. Higdon employed two of iLive's internal effects - reverb and delay - on vocals and drums for certain songs. The band's monitor fold back, is set up on the mixer's auxes.
"On a day-to-day basis, working with iLive has been a breeze. I save the settings every night, then do a quick line check before the band arrive and use the previous night's settings as a starting point. The band love it because it means they aren't doing long soundchecks," says Higdon.
Higdon reports that the band was nervous about going digital at first as some of them have had bad experiences with digital desks that have crashed. He explains: "With iLive, audio is running through the stagerack not the control surface, so if there was a crash the audio would continue to run," he explains. "Another advantage is that there isn't the latency I've found in other digital desks because iLive's DSPs and pre-amps are in the stage rack so any changes I make are instantaneous, which is essential when you're mixing monitors."
'Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler: From The Jam' will be touring the UK at the end of the year with a full production rig.
In picture: iLive in action during From The Jam's opening night.
21st June 2007
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