When Tapley walked into The Block, a large nightclub in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, he was presented with a new Allen & Heath iLive-144 digital mixing console from the venue's audio supplier, Brendon Grimes of TSC Productions. "Before the band arrived, I set up the surface according to Chris Young's input list with the routing set up to the main PA," says Grimes. "Brian (Tapley) had never used an iLive before. So I gave him a quick tutorial, showed him some features I thought he might like, and set him loose. Within about five minutes, he went straight to sound check."
"When I used the iLive-144 at The Block, I was really impressed," say Tapley. "I've used a lot of digital desks, and I would have to call it the most intuitive design I've seen. I learned it, liked it, and just wished I had a couple more shows so I could really get into everything it can do. I definitely would have loved to take it with us."
Based in the Nashville area, Brian Tapley has been mixing on stage and in studio for 17 years, and started mixing for country star Chris Young in 2009. Young's second album RCA album, The Man I Want to Be, has already produced two chart singles and a Top New Solo Vocalist nomination from the Academy of Country Music. As a result, Young, with Brian Tapley behind the console, will be touring heavily this year.
"It just wasn't that hard to figure out," notes Tapley. "The layout was a little intimidating at first, but after I got the rundown from Brendon, I was surprised at how easy it was to get a great sound. The channel strips being left-to-right instead of up/down actually looks a lot stranger than it actually is. I found the iLive to be very intuitive. In fact, we're talking about adding it to our rider."
(Jim Evans)
