Ben Howard creates art with DiGiCo
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“It's very much art: Seventy minutes of non-stop music, which is never the same twice,” Magee explains. “We're all on our toes, watching each other do something a bit different every day.”
He and Antonietti work hard to recreate Howard's album with as much authenticity as possible, night after night.
“We have over 85 guitar pedals on stage, which means so many inputs, as numerous players have pedal boards; in one song, a musician might play violin, then switch to keyboards, then something else - so I might have two or three instruments down the same channel during the same song,” Magee says. “The band is a nine-piece now, and three of them are multi-instrumentalists. Safe to say, there is a lot going on and, although I've been mixing this show since April last year, there are still bits that I am not 100 percent certain where they are coming from.”
There are 88 channels being utilised on both consoles, and Magee is hands-on throughout.
“I have four fingers on four faders at the same time, as there are just so many parts to the songs, and squeezing that into a left-right PA is very tough: my hands are constantly moving,” he reveals. “I use Snapshots for every song to get Ben to the top of the song; and then everything is mixed live throughout that song.”
Magee used his first DiGiCO console in 2006: a D5, which he worked on for years; then he moved to the SD7, before settling on the SD5.
Monitor engineer, Niccolo Antonietti adds: “The usability of the SD5 makes a huge difference to me. There is a lot of programming involved, but I am very happy with what I can achieve on the SD5; the channel routing is amazing, especially with the requirement for shout mics when doing monitors these days. It allows me to do anything I want to.”
The Ben Howard tour wrapped up at the end of January, with four sell-out shows at London's Brixton Academy, and one at Birmingham Symphony Hall.
(Jim Evans)
