Ref: Caroline Moss PR0627
Date: December 2007

XL8 AND DN9696 LOOK GOOD ON ARCTIC MONKEYS TOUR

SSE has supplied a Midas XL8 Live Performance System for the Arctic Monkeys’ tour of Europe and the UK. Front of house engineer John Ashton took to the road with the XL8 after a few hours’ training at SSE’s warehouse.

“When SSE suggested we took the XL8 out on this tour, I jumped at the chance,” he says. “I picked it up really quickly, although it looked a bit daunting at first. The onboard dynamics are brilliant, the EQ and preamp sound quality is fantastic, and I’m using one of the onboard Klark Teknik reverbs for vocals.

“I mix the band on the fly, and the POP (population) groups are one of the greatest innovations I’ve ever seen. The fact they allow you to call everything to your master section is amazing - I don’t have to move! There’s often beer flying around so sometimes we have to put a screen over the desk. Normally if something was kicking off and we had to cover the desk I’d have to get right underneath to carry on mixing, but the POP groups bring the channels to me, and allow me to stand and work in one contained area.”

The console’s inbuilt redundancy meant the XL8 survived a particularly virulent beer attack, with the bay that took the direct hit quickly isolated from the rest of the system whilst the show continued without any interruption to control or audio.

Ashton has been accompanied on the tour by SSE’s Kevin Sparkes, fresh from the three-day CMDSE-XL8 (Certified Midas Digital System Engineer - XL8). “It’s the first tour I’ve been out on with the XL8 and I’m loving it,” he says. “It sounds great, it’s easy to set up and it’s incredibly road worthy. We’ve also managed to switch all the engineers from the support bands – Reverend and the Makers, The Horrors and The Rascals - over to it as well.”

Ashton and Sparkes have also been beta testing the Klark Teknik DN9696 high resolution hard disk recorder designed for the live environment, using it to record each show. They’ve both been impressed with the simplicity of the unit.

“It’s a piece of cake to operate, completely idiot proof and much easier than anything I’d previously used to record with,” says Ashton. “You literally plug it in and it has three nice big buttons on the front, and that’s it. We’ve been using the KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) function to control it from the XL8. The two external mirror drives mean it’s backed up immediately, and you can take the drives away for mixing wherever you want; you don’t need to transfer the files after recording. It also gives you the ability to do a virtual soundcheck which is useful. It’s been rock solid throughout all the shows.”

Ashton has been recording all his effects returns from the XL8, together with ambient mics set up all around the venues, for archive purposes.

Arctic Monkeys’ FOH engineer John Ashton with the Midas XL8 at Alexandra Palace

L to R: Arctic Monkeys’ system tech Kevin Sparkes and FOH engineer John Ashton with the Midas XL8 at Alexandra Palace

ENDS

All brands and trademarks are recognised.

Editor’s information:
Midas live performance mixing consoles have been used by the world's most demanding sound engineers, performers and rental companies for three decades. The company strives to raise the standards of sonic quality through its programme of continual research and development, implementing new control functionality and user-friendly desk operation to anticipate and accommodate the ever-evolving needs of audio professionals who specify Midas consoles for their major tours, festivals, international events, broadcast projects and prestigious fixed installations.

Klark Teknik was founded in 1974 and in the years immediately following, their innovative approach to design and development allowed them to introduce some truly groundbreaking designs. Klark Teknik was responsible for the world’s first digital delay and digital reverb units, however it was their concepts for equalisation devices that really changed the world of professional audio resulting in the DN370 and the famous DN360. Today Klark Teknik continues to bring innovation in design and dedication to engineering and sonic quality in both the analogue and digital realm of signal processing, with the Square ONE and Show Command ranges updating the brand.

The Bosch Group is a leading global manufacturer of automotive and industrial technology, consumer goods, and building technology. In fiscal 2006, some 260,000 associates generated sales of 43.7 billion euros. Set up in Stuttgart in 1886 by Robert Bosch (1861-1942) as “Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering,” the Bosch Group today comprises a manufacturing, sales, and after-sales service network of some 300 subsidiaries and more than 13,000 Bosch service centers in over 140 countries.

The special ownership structure of the Bosch Group guarantees its financial independence and entrepreneurial freedom. It makes it possible for the company to undertake significant up-front investments in the safeguarding of its future, as well as to do justice to its social responsibility in a manner reflective of the spirit and will of its founder. A total of 92 % of the share capital of Robert Bosch GmbH is held by the charitable foundation Robert Bosch Stiftung. The entrepreneurial ownership functions are carried out by Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG.

Additional information can be accessed at www.bosch.com.