Neon Trees is a straightforward rock band, with two guitars, bass, keyboard and drums along with four vocals. "We are using 24 inputs," Bangs notes. "We are sharing preamps between monitors and FOH and doing a digital split from the monitor console's iDR-32, so our FOH snake is just one Cat 5 cable.
"The second iDR-32 MixRack is currently being used for the FOH console's DSP. That will change when we start headlining on our next tour. We will go with more stereo instruments for Neon Trees, and we will use the second iDR-32 to handle support band inputs without having to unpatch anything."
Bangs, whose recent touring gigs include Kid Rock, Tom Petty, Aerosmith and Katy Perry, knew what he was looking for in choosing his mixing desks. "We had limited trailer space and some fly dates, so I was looking for a compact mixing system with lots of power," he notes. "I needed something I could get into a case at under 50 pounds and put in the belly of a plane as checked baggage. The iDR-32 MixRack, racked in a Pelican case, comes in at 48.9 pounds. That was something that no one else could offer."
(Jim Evans)
