American heavy rock band UnderOath is currently on a headliner tour across the United States, along with supporting acts Periphery and Loathe. Since 2019, the band has been mixed by engineer JJ Revell, who also acts as the group’s Production Manager.
Revell mixes UnderOath on a compact Allen & Heath dLive C1500 control surface, along with a small format DM0 MixRack to handle the 128 channels of processing and a GX4816 stagebox. The DM0 connects via Allen & Heath’s proprietary multichannel gigaACE protocol to a separate DM48 MixRack near the stage, which allows for a simple digital split with a second C1500 surface handling monitor mixes.
“I love the dLive series,” noted Revell, who downsized from a larger S5000 surface used on the band’s last tour. “I like how modular it is and the ability to use any size control surface with any MixRack. It’s just so easy.” The smaller C1500, which fits into a standard 19” rackmount case, comes in handy when UnderOath books fly dates in other continents. “We’ve done Australia, Europe, and soon South America – it’s great that I can bring my console on the plane with me and have that consistency wherever we go.”
Revell also points out that he appreciates the way dLive handles UnderOath’s style of music. “Obviously the band is pretty heavy, so it’s good to know that I can still get great sound even when I hit the console with a really powerful signal.”
Beyond the basic mixing functionality, Revell makes full use of the internal channel processing available on dLive. “Our drummer is one of the vocalists, which creates a lot of issues since you have to pick out the vocals you want without picking up all the surrounding drum sounds,” he explained. “The Source Expander is phenomenal for helping with that and not making the opening and closing of the drum gates audible. It’s great that I don’t have to bring along an external plugin server to get access to that functionality.”
For effects, Revell uses the full palette to emulate the band’s studio recordings. “When I was building the show file, I set up 16 FX buses,” he recalled. “I use chorus, reverb, and saturator for guitars. I also have reverb, chorus and two different delays for vocal channels. Sometimes I’ll add some saturation for the bass as well. Having all of these effects built-in allows me to be creative, and I can use the mixer as an instrument – because I’m performing, too!”
Despite the second monitor console, the band does not tour with a dedicated monitor engineer for their IEM mixes. “It’s basically set it and forget it,” explained Revell. “The band members are not picky and we usually get it dialed in before the show so we don’t need to make further adjustments. It makes it really easy for me.”
Following UnderOath’s US tour dates, they will fly to Europe for a festival at the end of May.