Grammy-nominated American metallers, August Burns Red, have recently completed their US headline tour accompanied by an Allen & Heath dLive Wings mixing system, handling FOH and monitor duties.
In early 2018, sound engineer Chris Pollock, introduced August Burns Red (ABR) to the world of dLive, which instantly led to the band purchasing their very own Wings system, comprising a dLive C1500 surface, DM32 MixRack and two Waves V3 cards – used for virtual soundcheck and playback.
Pollock commented, “I actually heard about dLive for the first time in early 2017, after reading an article in FOH magazine about Jared Daly and his dLive setup for Northlane and it really peaked my interest. Later that year I did a club tour with a hip-hop artist and Clair Global was gracious enough to purchase a C1500 for me to try out. I immediately fell in love and ended up taking the system on ABR’s 2018 Phantom Anthem tour.”
The ability to split dLive’s 128 input channels, allowing discrete processing on both FOH and monitor inputs, played a significant part in the decision to choose dLive for the tour. “A huge selling point of dLive for August Burns Red was the scalability of the system and how we’re able to handle all of our monitoring and FOH needs on one 7U 32in/16out MixRack and a 12-fader surface,” added Pollock. “They were so impressed with the consistency of the mixes and the convenience of virtual soundcheck that we ordered our own dLive system before that tour was even finished! Personally, I love that we have this amazing 96kHz system that we can drop into a couple of cases, check onto any flight and go anywhere in the world with.”
Monitor duties are tackled using the same mixing system, with the band and stage techs each using the dLive MixPad app to adjust their own IEM mixes, while multiple PAFLs allow the stage techs to run separate cue mixes.
Aside from the scalability and flexibility of dLive, other features such as DEEP processing were a factor in the purchase. Pollock adds, “One of the most appealing aspects of dLive to me as a FOH engineer is all of the different DEEP processors. There are so many flavours to reach for within the desk that I haven’t even considered using any third-party processing. From the Tube Stage Preamp modelling and all of the different classic compressors right on the channel, to the great sounding time-based effects and additional dynamic processors like the Transient Controller and Dyn8, I have everything I need at my fingertips.”
Mike Bangs, Live Sound and Touring Manager for Allen & Heath USA, commented: “dLive Wings systems are rapidly becoming a favourite amongst engineers, as well as the compact touring rig of choice for countless international artists. They’re able to pick any MixRack as their core and then mix and match I/O and control as they need it. It’s such a flexible system and the power per square inch is hard to beat.”
Pollock agreed, “I can’t think of another system with such a massive input channel and bus count that we could literally drop into a case and check on to any flight, domestic or international. It’s taken all the stress out of international touring for me. I know that no matter what, we’ll have our dLive and we’ll be able to put on the best sounding show we possibly can.”