POTTERS BAR,
United Kingdom — Having become synonymous with The Noisettes in recent years as
their long-term FOH engineer and production manager, this summer Bryony October
took to the road with British singer songwriter (and Chase & Status
collaborator), Delilah. In so doing she became an early adopter of the new
HARMAN Soundcraft Si Performer digital console—which not only builds on the
successful Si platform but is the first desk to incorporate a DMX lighting
interface.
Bryony knew
she would need a minimum of 31 inputs and that she would also be mixing the 5-piece
band’s monitor in-ears from front of house. But her chosen console also needed
to be compacted into a small footprint in order to fit into a splitter van
(along with IEM rack and mics).
Knowing that this tour would not warrant full production
support October had earlier contacted Soundcraft to see if they had any new
consoles in prospect. “The timing couldn't have been better as the Si Performer
was just being released,” she said.
With
something of a history of mixing female vocal-led pop October quickly
discovered that having worked the Soundcraft magic so successfully with
Noisettes’ lead singer Shingai Shoniwa on a Vi1, the
Performer also ticked all the boxes on her wish list.
Offered the role by tour manager Tim Boardman she went
straight into production rehearsals and was soon mixing Delilah’s soulful voice
and 5-piece band with no induction necessary.
As for features, the Si Performer’s FaderGlow and colour
backlit name displays on every channel proved a godsend. “It has screens on
each channel, so you can see the compressors and
gates, and the FaderGlow changes colour so you
never make a mistake when moving from FOH to monitor mixes,” October said. “It
also turns the system EQ red so you can clearly see the graphic.”
“The touch screen is easy to
get around quickly, with the one-touch easy mix with buttons across the top of
the faders,” October added. “Finally I love the magnetic iPad notes pad which
is very handy.”
The entire show mix is placed on the desk’s top layer, with October
sub-mixing the drums to a group buss and also Delilah’s vocals and some of the
drums to the Lexicon effects.
As for Delilah’s personal monitor mix, she said, “It’s all
about the vocal level, reverbs [the desk contains four stereo Lexicon effects
engines] and a low mix of everything else. It’s about creating an open and
ambient sound so that the artist feels part of the show and can interact with
the audience.”
Sonically, she believes, the desk could scarcely be
improved—and although October has not had the opportunity to use the DMX
interface, the sound engineer notes that “every single venue I arrived at knew
that this was the desk with DMX.”
Summing up, October stated, “The Si Performer has been a
pleasure to work on. It is an easy desk to navigate and has enabled me to
deliver the five monitor mixes and house sound with ease.” She confirms that
she would have no hesitation specifying this as her go-to console on any
upcoming club venue splitter tour.
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