As this tour consisted mainly of smaller promotional gigs, the entire control system had to fit into a small trailer being towed between venues by the production's single tour bus.
The PRO6s packed away into 18U and 14U flight cases, sharing just one DL351 stage box, which provided 32 mic inputs and 32 record outputs. Additionally, two AES50 tie lines between the two consoles allowed 48 bi-directional audio channels to be transmitted between the two PRO6 systems. This was the first multiple PRO6 setup to feature a single stage box, demonstrating just how flexible and compact the system can be, while taking less than an hour to pack up and load out.
Hutch had previously used an XL4 on full production tours. "The whole idea was to stay with Midas because that's the sound I like," he says. "The PRO6 sounds great, and it took me five minutes to set up out front; it's amazing."
Howat, who did some XL8 training at Britannia Row earlier in the year, specified the PRO6s for the tour. "I've been using the A/B cue bus facility to split between in ears and wedges. I've also been experimenting with the POP groups; there are seven guys in the band, so I have a POP group for each band member, which brings me the principal channels each of them need in their monitor mix. I also have per-instrument groups - drum groups, guitar groups etc, which I use for line checking."
Coincidentally, the Panics' FOH engineer Kelvin Parker was the first to mix on a PRO6 in Australia at the Trackside Festival, Canberra, and was happy to be reunited with the system. For the other support bands appearing throughout the tour, a support patch was devised based on The Panics' setup.
"Working with three bands is a bit more hard work but you end up learning a lot more, and one of the reasons I spec'd PRO6s for this tour was to learn about them," says Howat.
The PRO6s will head out on Nutini's main tour later this year - this time with full production, and no trailer.
(Jim Evans)
