FOH engineer Dan Lewis had tried out a Midas PRO6 with some Oasis multitracks he'd recorded on the band's last tour. "I quickly got to grips with the PRO6, and noticed it had the same impressive sound quality that made us spec an XL4 for the Oasis tour," he says. "Things just sounded as they should sound, and needed very little in the way of processing."
As the TCT gigs drew closer and the band's line up emerged, it was obvious that a high channel count was needed to accommodate the band, string section and choir. This led Lewis in the direction of the larger XL8, and the fortnight's rehearsal period was an ideal opportunity to experiment with the new setup.
"In the past, when faced with amplifying a choir, we traditionally brought in a second desk and engineer, feeding stem mixes to FOH and monitors," says Lewis. "The flexibility of the larger 'area B' section on the XL8 and the limited space in the RAH meant it made more sense to upgrade the FOH desk to an XL8, with Pavel Zakrzewski from Britannia Row Productions using the area B section to mix the choir. I was keen to keep the footprint compact and use as much onboard processing as possible so as not to take unnecessary racks with us."
Lewis also used the Klark Teknik DN9696 for virtual sound checking. "I used the DN9696 to record the rehearsal each day, then ran through it in the evening when I had some quiet time to myself," he says. "Previous experience has showed me that mixing in noisy rehearsal rooms can be impossible, so this way of doing it really worked."
Over on monitors was Nahuel Gutierrez, who also used an XL8 during Oasis' last, 15-month world tour. "It was a pleasure to use the XL8 again - the more I use it the more I like it," he says.
(Jim Evans)
