Little Mix toured Australia last month with audio and crew supplied by JPJ Audio. In Sydney they used an L-Acoustics K1 PA, in Brisbane an L-Acoustics V-Dosc PA and in Melbourne a d&b J system. All venues had L-Acoustics Arcs side fills and control was two DiGiCo SD10 consoles.The band utilised a Sennheiser IEM system with Sennheiser SKM 5200 Radio Mic Systems.
Monitor engineer Craig Pryde has used DiGiCo consoles since 2008 and has worked with Little Mix since they won the X Factor three years later. “The SD10 sounds great. It’s extremely flexible in its set up and having so many output busses available makes it really easy to provide all the extra mixes required for this kind of show, including understage cues, integration with show radios, the video team, etc,” he said. “Rehearsal time was extremely tight for this tour and the fact that the offline editor is exactly the same as the console meant the vast majority of work could be done before arriving at rehearsals.”
The DiGiCo consoles were handling 43 MADI inputs and six Sennheiser SKM5200 handheld wireless microphones for Little Mix, plus further playback, piano, acoustic guitar and six wireless microphones for the opening acts. Both Craig and FOH engineer Mark Littlewood took advantage of the options offered by Waves Audio SoundGrid, which allows Waves integration into DiGiCo consoles.
“Using Waves delivers very polished results,” says Craig. “Using Waves Tracks Live multitrack recording software during rehearsals also allowed for making fine tweaks in the breaks. It meant Mark and I didn’t have to interrupt rehearsals from an audio point of view.”
