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Soundcraft Vi6 Passes Doof's Bullet Test

$Soundcraft Vi6 Passes Doof\'s Bullet Test$

Alan ‘Doof' McCann has been piloting Lostprophets' FOH mix since soon after Welshmen, Ian Watkins and Mike Lewis, formed the band back in 1997.

Eight years on, and Doof's biggest change has been his conversion from analogue mixing to the digital world of the Soundcraft Vi6^TM, using the Studer-developed Vistonics^TM II technology (and the SCore Live DSP core). "After so long, it was a highly significant decision to switch from analogue to digital," he admits.

The sound engineer, who has made a career mixing Welsh hard rock/metal bands, was a confirmed analogue man until coming across the Soundcraft Vi6 as system tech and support engineer for Skindred Still Remains on the Bullet tour earlier this year, working alongside FOH engineer, Dave Nutbrown. But it was SSE's Pete Russell (FOH engineer for Thunder) who initially talked him into trying the desk.

"It was my experience mixing Still Remains on the Bullet tour that really sold the Vi6 to me - as that tour was near perfect for me."

And so the Vi6 passed the ‘Bullet' test with flying colours. "As the tour progressed between myself and Dave we were able to start stripping back the outboard rack and rely on more internal software for the shows. Gates, comps and FX, which obviously made the FOH footprint smaller, meant fewer boxes coming in every day - and this ultimately reduced the load-in and set-up time."

Wearing his FOH hat Doof says he had always favoured analogue consoles because he likes to drive the desk hard and knows exactly what to expect from them.

"Every time I had tried to do the same using a digital console I found them too smooth - I could never make them bite back at me. But the Vi6 gave me exactly what I wanted ... an analogue sound with all the advantages of digital. I was able to push it constantly and drive it as hard as I liked."

With the SSE Group again supplying the Vi6 for the current Lostprophets tour, including the headline spot at the Download Festival this month, he acknowledges that "it now seems pointless bringing racks - it makes for a happy local crew when there are just two cases to take to FOH."

He sees a number of advantages in using the Vi6. "For instance the compressor threshold and channel gains can be attenuated at the same time rather than stretching to an external rack; this is very useful for me as I mix a lot on my gains. Being able to ride them simultaneously I can fix things a lot quicker as the band keep me on my toes during their set."

But it's the Vi6's access speed that did more than anything to convert him to Soundcraft's digital world.

"What I didn't like about digital consoles initially was that sometimes it would take six or seven clicks to scroll through pages to get to what you wanted - in an emergency that's the last thing you want. But on the Vi6 you can get straight to what you want very quickly."

This is one of the advantages of piloting a ‘third generation' digital control surface. "With analogue desks I have generally been more comfortable because I have been on auto pilot - whereas on digital boards I have been worried about hitting the wrong buttons, and have been so preoccupied with this that I haven't been able to concentrate on the mix.

"But once again, this is not the case with the Vi6. It is highly intuitive and I think this is what all engineers are looking for - there are not many buttons you can hit [in error] that will mess things up."

On top of that, he says, Vistonics is an easy interface to navigate. "The colour coding is good and there is nothing abrasive about it at all. In fact the only desk I will be taking out from now on will be the Vi6."

In picture: Alan ‘Doof' McCann on the mix platform at Donington Park.

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Soundcraft Vi6 Passes Doof's Bullet Test

23rd June 2008

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