New band, new console as Robbie McGrath heads out with Midas PRO6 and Kasabian
Front of house engineer Robbie McGrath used a Midas PRO6 live audio system for Kasabian’s Royal Albert Hall performance in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. The concert, plus three warm up shows, was recorded onto a Klark Teknik DN9696 hard disk recorder. Support band The Hours was also mixed on a PRO6, with a third on stage for monitors. All equipment was provided by Entec Sound and Light.
This was the first time McGrath has used Midas digital, and to reassure himself it could provide all the familiar characteristics of the company’s analogue boards, he carried out some A/B testing prior to spec’ing the PRO6.
“I wanted to find out how much of the Midas analogue sound had been captured and transferred into their digital domain, and I was extremely happy to discover that the PRO6 sounds very like the XL4,” he says. “The EQ reacts like EQ should - as you choose your frequency/cut and boost you can hear the sweet spot coming into focus and it’s so easy to land right where you want it. With other digital desks it annoyed me that the sweet spot was always close but no cigar. The analogue head end also helps to find the necessary distortion needed for any self-respecting rock’n’roll mix. The clarity is definitely there and it comes with heaps of dynamic range, allowing you to indulge in some good old Midas-type dimensional mixing. Your drums can be loud and powerful but placed back in the mix where they should be and not sitting in your face like most digital desks I know. I love the choice of compressors - they are so well thought out and have proven to be very sharp tools indeed.
“Doing the A/B with the analogue was priceless and I can safely say that Midas digital has finally managed to bring the world of live sound forward into a place where mixing has become musical and fun again.”
McGrath has found that the PRO6 has been particularly good for recreating Kasabian’s multilayered sound. “I’ve been using the automation to create scenes where trumpets are played, gongs get hammered, cymbals are abused, guitars spew out lavish amounts of weirdness and there are various reverbs and echoes,” he says. “For example, I have the trumpet in a POP group as it only appears a couple of times in the show, so everything that needs to be mixed with that trumpet comes up in the POP group scene. If you want to move the snare back, the trumpet up and wrap two guitars around the whole mix, the channels in question appear right beside your VCAs. So all you have to do is press a button and everything in that scene comes over to you. You don’t even have to stretch across the desk, which is making me even lazier than I usually am!
“If I was to put my finger on what makes this desk different, it’s that it sounds great, it’s musical, and it’s great fun to mix on.”
Not only was this McGrath’s first time on a PRO6, it was also his first time out with Kasabian, who are heading out on more UK dates and planning a world tour, and McGrath will be taking a PRO6 with him. “I’m looking forward to being able to fly everywhere with this desk, or just my USB key for further flung dates,” he says.
Photo: Kasabian FOH engineer Robbie McGrath and the Midas PRO6 at the Royal Albert Hall