LONDON,
United Kingdom – More than 30 years since winning the world over with pop
classics like “Karma Chameleon” and “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”, Culture
Club is reuniting for a string of concerts throughout North America, to be
followed by a multi-arena tour in the United Kingdom. The band’s longtime front
of house engineer, Jimmy Sarikas, aka “Mixologist”, recently purchased a HARMAN
Soundcraft Vi3000 console, which he put to use for a private Culture Club
performance at the Heaven nightclub in London. The console was sold through SSE
Audio Group, Soundcraft Vi Select dealer.
Jimmy
purchased the Vi3000 for multiple purposes, including live mixing as well as
studio and mobile recording. “I’m a one-stop shop, so I needed a console that
could perform multiple functions,” he said. “I can roll up to a festival and do
live multi-track recording and broadcast, and I have multiple duplication
systems in my truck, so I can give you 200 CDs in a half-hour after the show.”
The first
task for Jimmy’s new desk - was a private performance from the group at the
Heaven nightclub in London.
Alex Penn,
Sales Director for SSE Audio Group commented, "As SSE Hire has been
working with Culture Club on various recent events, and SSE Audio Group has
been long term suppliers of Soundcraft Vi consoles for both Hire and Sales,
Jimmy got in touch with SSE Sales when he decided that the Vi3000 was his
console of choice. As Jimmy really wanted to use all of the available features
of the console we had to develop some customised packaging solutions, housing
two screens (record overview and Realtime Rack) in the case, as well as the
Realtime Rack itself and a UPS."
According to
Jimmy, the Vi3000 offers multiple benefits compared to other consoles on the
market. “For starters, the sound quality of the Vi3000 is just amazing,” he
said. “Vi Series consoles have always had an amazing sound and that’s the case
with the Vi3000. The second major factor is ease of use. I personally feel that
manufacturers are making boards that are too small. I want some faders! My arms
are more than capable to open as wide as 24 faders, so it’s Soundcraft all the
way for me.”
For the
Culture Club shows, Jimmy is running 53 channels to accommodate the multiple
vocals and diverse instrumentation on stage, which includes two piano players,
several guitars, a brass section and a variety of percussion. Jimmy is also
utilizing the Soundcraft Realtime Rack, a 1RU box that features a library of
Universal Audio plug-ins.
“I’m loving
the Dante connectivity because I record 64 channels in and 64 channels out for
virtual sound checks as well as my multi-track recordings,” Jimmy noted. “I’m
working with two machines for that [Mac Minis with SSD hard drives]. Both
computers fit in a 1RU rack located in the flight case of the Vi3000: one is my
recording device and the other is the Realtime Rack.” The computer with the “Realtime
Rack” software also records a redundant 64 channels of multi-track audio via
the secondary Dante output. The two screens also slide into compartments in the
case. Can you believe all this and the Vi3000 in one box on wheels?”
In addition,
Jimmy’s positive experience with Soundcraft boards in the past played a factor
in his decision to add the Vi3000 to his arsenal. “I’ve used Vi6 consoles at
festivals before and they always felt a bit daunting at first, but the truth is
that Vi consoles are probably the easiest control surfaces to use,” Jimmy said.
“There aren’t any hidden pages—what you need is right in front of you.”
For more
information on Jimmy Sarikas, please visit www.mixologist.co.uk
or www.payperviewconcerts.co.uk
For more
information on Culture Club, please visit www.culture-club.co.uk
For more
information on SSE Audio Group, please visit www.sseaudiogroup.com
Soundcraft
and Harman products are distributed in the UK and ROI by Sound Technology Ltd,
for more information, please visit www.soundtech.co.uk
HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and
markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and enterprise automation solutions
for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. With leading brands
including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson ® and
Revel®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment
venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today
are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce
of approximately 16,600 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and
reported sales of $5.6 billion for the 12 months ended September 30, 2014.
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