The tour’s audio was provided by Showco of Dallas, with Jon Lemon at the front of house controls and John Shearman on monitors. A Showco Prism PA system, with a Clair Brothers IO wireless loudspeaker controller and Amcron amplification, delivered the wattage to audiences of up to 5,000. Jon also used a hard disk recording system, linked directly to the D5 Live, to record the show and perform pre-soundcheck system set-up. Showco’s Jim Ragus was FOH system technician, with Justin Hoffman as monitor tech.
Beck - supported by The Flaming Lips on the tour - comprises a five-piece band, plus Beck himself, with drums, keyboard/guitarist, a second keyboardist, synthesizers and bass, creating a 72-input mix for Jon Lemon. Monitoring came via Showco SRM wedges and was mixed on a Midas XL4 console.
Jon comments: "I first saw the D5 Live system on the Rod Stewart tour at Wembley in the summer. I was looking at all the leading digital consoles, to evaluate them with this tour in mind. I spent a couple of days putting the development console through its paces and at the end of day two I’d made my mind up to spec it for the Beck tour. Software-wise it’s been great, and I used the Pyramix hard disk recording system, linked directly to the D5 Live’s inputs at mic level, to record the shows." The Beck tour concluded in the US in Portland on December 2.
(Ruth Rossington)
