MIDAS XL8 AND PRO6 SHARE SUCCESS ON BENABAR 2009 FRENCH TOUR
With 1.3 million copies of his last album “Infrequentable” sold, Benabar is one the most successful French artists of the past decade. His sold out 2009 100 plus date tour, will conclude at the Paris Bercy 20,000 seat multi purpose hall in December, following numerous festivals throughout the summer.
EVI Audio France’s Eric Garnier, director of sales and marketing, and Jean Marandet, product manager, met sound engineers Philippe Bouic (FOH with a PRO6) and Patrick Chevry (monitors with an XL8) midway through the tour to discuss their impressions and experiences with both consoles.
Philippe Bouic comments about his choice of the PRO6; “I have always been fond of the typical Midas analogue sound hence I had doubts about how close the digital consoles would come to it. I should not have worried. I tried the PRO6 and found “my” sound straight away. Ergonomically it is very close to the analogue consoles I have been working with, so it is incredibly easy to use. We knew that with the amount of inputs required for the monitors on this tour we would be short on the H3000 44/4 we’ve had previously used, so switching to a PRO6 made perfect sense.”
Patrick Chevry, monitor engineer, adds; “We did start the tour with racks packed with analogue preamps and compressors. We rapidly noticed that these weren’t going to be useful and were literally a complete waste of space. The consoles did a much better job and provided that elusive audio quality we were both after.”
Philippe Bouic continues; “Every detail of both consoles, in their concept, architecture and build quality proves that they have been developed by experienced engineers who wanted to give them that analogue feel and features without compromising on the digital technology. I became familiar with the PRO6 during tutorial sessions hosted by EVI Audio France and then fine-tuned the console during rehearsals. I had to feel perfectly at ease with the console before going on tour, it all went remarkably smoothly which meant that on the road I have the upmost confidence in the PRO6.”
Photo: Patrick Chevry (Sound engineer for monitors) and Philippe Bouic (FOH) at the XL8
Photo: Philippe Bouic at the PRO6 / FOH