PROJECT
FILE
Dua Lipa ’ s Future Nostalgia Tour has been traveling North America , Europe , Latin America , and Oceania throughout 2022 . Both the FOH sound and onstage mixes are being created on DiGiCo Quantum digital mixing systems by Will Nicholson and Alex Cerutti , respectively . Nicholson is in his seventh year with Dua Lipa and specified a Quantum7 console for this tour . “ The Q7 offers so much . It ’ s the only desk currently on the market with a dual brain , which negates the need for us to carry a spare board but gives us redundancy . That is very comforting ,” he says .
Nicholson is currently running around 60 music / band inputs at FOH , so with returns and audience mics the total input count is close to 100 . Outputs are just L / R but , he reveals , he is a heavy user of bussing . “ I have some plug-ins and outboard , distributed through an SD-Rack , a DD2FR and some local I / O ,” he says . “ I make use of the onboard FX for quite a few things , and I absolutely love the Spice Rack and Mustard Processing . I also record from the MADI splits as the virtual soundcheck capabilities are fundamental to my workflow .”
When The Killers performed for U . K . and Ireland fans on their Imploding the Mirage stadium tour , they were playing through a GSL PA system from d & b audiotechnik ’ s SL-Series . The GSL system is provided and supported on tour by Capital Sound , now part of Solotech UK Group . As long-standing clients of Capital , the band ’ s sound team was able to draw on the company ’ s continuing investment in d & b systems to specify an extensive GSL / KSL setup for this major tour .
Planning ahead , the pair worked with Solotech to finalize the system design for stadium trek . That design has main hangs of 16 GSL8 and four GSL12 cabinets , left and right , plus 10 flown SL-SUBs per side and 14 GSL8 and two GSL12 for left and right arrays . On the ground are SL- GSUBs , stacked six-wide and two-high , with the arrangement of 21-in . speakers extending the system ’ s characteristic cardioid pattern control down to 30Hz . “ Low end is always an issue in stadiums ,” says The Killers ’ FOH sound engineer , Kenny Kaiser , “ but the control here with the flown subs and the G-SUBs , it ’ s just great .”
La Casamurada studio in Penedès , Spain , has expanded its monitoring capabilities with a pair of The Ones 8361 three-way coaxial monitors by Genelec . The residential studio has built its reputation on delivering a unique experience for artists that draws on all the acoustic benefits of its historic location , while also offering a thoroughly modern technical environment .
The studio itself is in a former wine cellar at the base of a defensive tower in a 12 th -century fortified farmhouse . In 2007 , Jesús Rovira , bassist and composer for Catalan rock band Lax ‘ n ’ Busto , decided that the acoustics made the cellar perfect for recording , and set about creating a space that would give musicians everything they need from a residential studio , while also respecting the original fabric of the building .
“ We use the new 8361s for recording – their primary use – and mixing ,” explains Rovira . “ We ’ re very satisfied with their performance ; in fact , all the engineers who have been in the studio since the 61s were purchased have been very pleased and have told me so in no uncertain terms !”
62 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
The Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia played host to the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup event in July 2022 . Encompassing downhill , cross country , and short track racing , the series of races was broadcast over Apple + and Red Bull streaming networks , among other outlets . But getting the audio for this sprawling event , which includes announcers threading the racecourses and music stages at the start and finish lines , everywhere it needs to go is a Herculean task . While a massive fibre network took care of most of that , there were several critical areas that required coverage where the fibre could not reach . Those were addressed with wireless audio systems using antenna solutions from RF Venue .
The PA system was designed with carefully positioned delay speakers to provide audio synched with the various large-screen video walls that allowed onlookers in most places to view and hear the action from other parts of the mountain . But there were areas where the fibre just wasn ’ t the right solution . One of those was for the announcers at the starting line for the cross-country race , where running a cable would have been restrictive . Instead , Midway Production Services deployed an RF Venue Diversity Fin Antenna with a Shure ULX-D wireless microphone system .