"The coverage in the venue was great," said Newton. "Pete came up with the plans and then once installed he covered the whole venue with his laptop, making fine tweaks to the angles of the cabs to ensure there were no deadspots. This Meyer Line Array gave us great sound throughout and thanks to Pete I have never felt so relaxed coming into the Royal Albert Hall."
Canegreen supplied their Yamaha PM1D digital mixing consoles, which Newton has been a fan of since first using one two years ago. He uses the features within PM1D for everything, carrying no outboard other than a BSS Soundweb to bring out the dynamics of David’s vocals and a Tubetech MEC1A as a pre-amp/pre-eq. Newton has programmed a lot of changes across 48 channels. He explained: "There are massive textural differences between the songs. The sound has all of the highs and lows of r’n’b, but with a whole live band with two keys, two guitars and three backing vocals. It would be virtually impossible to sit all of the intricate parts within the mix without recall technology."
Robin Fox was Canegreen’s stage technician, supporting monitor engineer John Orbisher. He worked with a second Yamaha PM1D distributing mixes to the bands Shure PSM 700 in-ear monitors and a pair of Canegreen’s proprietary floor wedges. The tour’s production manager Pete Bell was also in relaxed form. "The new load in the Royal Albert Hall makes this a much easier venue to work in. I’m always happy to work with Canegreen and all of the crews have pulled together well on these dates."
(Lee Baldock)
