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The Stranglers Sound Golden with iLive
The Stranglers embarked on their recent autumn tour of Ireland and the UK with an Allen & Heath iLive digital system to manage monitor mixing. Comprising an iDR10 Mixrack and iLive-144 Control Surface, the system was specified by the band's monitor engineer, Kev Allen.
"When the band comes on stage they know what they are going to get. iLive not only gives them the same great results every night but it saves them from lengthy sound checks at each venue because of the system's memory recall," explains Allen. "I also worked out that I save a third of a ton by carrying iLive and a pair of CAT-5 cables rather than a copper multicore, heavy analogue desk and racks, so it makes load in really simple and there's more room on the tour bus."
Allen has been The Stranglers' monitor engineer for 3 ½ years and also runs a PA company called Fearless Audio in the south west of England. He decided to invest in an iLive system last year having road tested the system at various festivals and events.
"Tighter margins in the touring sector have forced consoles to get smaller. Allen & Heath has figured out a way to make a compact board with all the features you need to punch and push. I always go back to iLive because it has everything I need, I can set it up how I want, and I it will deliver the same results every time. It is a dream to use!"
iLive's DSP is housed in the Mix Rack, providing minimum latency and giving the user the chance to custom configure the desk. Each of the board's input channels features a gate, parametric EQ, compressor, limiter/de-esser and delay, and all mix outputs have a one-third-octave graphic EQ parametric EQ, compressor, limiter and delay.
"iLive's main asset is that someone has put thought and time into it. A&H has thought about how users want to see a channel strip and put everything at your fingertips with knobs and switches like an analogue console. Quirky little features make you fall in love with it, such as the chorus box, which is designed to look like something you would find in a second-hand shop circa 1985! Other boards don't have that type of character but A&H really understand what engineers want."
The Stranglers will be touring Europe in early 2009.
In picture: Kev Allen at the iLive-112 control surface in monitor position.
9th December 2008
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