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iLive Rocks Until the Cows Come Home

Allen & Heath's digital iLive system was the mixer of choice for the recent 'Till the Cows Come Home' festival, a small grassroots event which began life as a friends' get together, and has evolved simply through word-of-mouth into one of the UK's fastest-growing small festivals, and a significant date on the UK festival calendar.

Held annually over two days in July on a remote farm near Bedford, more than thirty bands played on the festival's main stage. London-based sales company, Autograph Sales, provided the PA system, which comprised Allen & Heath's digital iDR10 stage rack with iLive-144 control surface managing FOH and monitors, Meyer Sound concert series MSL-4 long throw loudspeakers alongside EM Acoustics MSE118 concert series subwoofers, complemented by the EM Acoustics i12 Ultra Low Frequency subwoofers. On stage monitoring was the EM M-12 monitor system and Meyer Sound UM-1P monitors.

The system was powered by MC2 E series amplifiers and the speaker processing and routing was controlled by the Xilica DLP4080A-ETH system. On stage microphones were by Swedish manufacturer, Milab Microphones, and were employed for the drum kit, brass and acoustic instruments. The DC196 microphones were used as overhead mics – as well as for guitar and cello – and the VM44 mics were used on the snare and kick drum.

"A small festival doesn't have to have a small sound," explains festival co-organiser Ben Johnstone. "We were determined to employ top flight production standards for this year's Till the Cows Come Home, and the result was a sonic treat."

Freelance engineers, Mark Rochester and Ed Shackleton, covered mixing duties over the two days, and were both amazed at iLive's ease of use. Rochester commented: "I'm amazed that the system is so easy to learn, it took me no more than 20 minutes to find my way around set-up and routing. Coming into digital from an analogue background can be daunting but it really feels like iLive is written in English!"

The festival is characterised by its remoteness, a relaxed atmosphere and the eclectic nature of the acts, which this year ranged from the Latino rhythms of the WhiskyCats, upbeat Mancunian rockers Eskimo Smile, the extraordinarily-skilled beats combo Lazy Habits, with progressive pop band, Youth Movies, headlining.

"iLive performed well and the ease of use enabled all the engineers to get to grips with it within seconds. Many hadn't used a digital desk before, and some said they never would until they tried the A&H iLive," commented Autograph's technical specialist, Simeon Ludwell. "With small festivals of this type, it is often impossible to sound check the bands, and changeover set ups between bands is often very tight. iLive's analogue-style layout and easy recall system made every transition smooth and straightforward, enabling the engineers to mix instead of worrying about which menu they are in or button to push."

"Putting new equipment like the Allen and Heath iLive through a rigorous two-day event and finishing with such positive results was great," added Autograph's technical sales engineer, Pete Busby.

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iLive Rocks Until the Cows Come Home

23rd July 2007

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