"I come from the analogue age and I'm still not convinced that digital sound is better than analogue," says Slevin. "But I'm happy to use digital consoles because digital brings so much to the table. The possibilities are extraordinary and I believe the opportunity has to be grabbed."
Audio equipment for the tour is supplied by Concert Sound and Niall is using a Digidesign Venue D-Show Profile console. He wanted an external EQ which would avoid him going through analogue/digital converters, meaning no degradation to the audio quality.
"It's important to me that I have an EQ which is digital console friendly," he says. "I needed something that was very reliable, that had a good EQ, a limiter that was fast and subtle enough for in ears, high quality compressions and which I could put on the output of a console that doesn't usually like inserts. For all those requirements, SiDD fits the bill perfectly."
The band is all on PSL in-ears, with Cocker using stage left/right side-fills for his band mix and a pair of wedges for his vocals. Because of this, perhaps the biggest advantage of SiDD for Slevin is its aux sends. He has connected them all to a switcher giving him a very simple and effective way of hearing exactly what Cocker and his eight-piece band are hearing at any time.
"I have instant access to all my outputs by flicking a switch," he says. "Because the output comes straight from the aux send of the SiDD, I have a true reference which is easily accessible. That's really important to me."
(Jim Evans)
