"The Vi6 is the only desk that makes sense," he says. "A lot of the digital boards are fine at front of house but they fall down on access in a busy monitor environment. This is probably the best desk for monitors, because not only is the sound quality way better than other digital desks I have used but it has a better footprint. This is a big issue on small stages and also visiting festivals where having a slim profile desk is a big advantage."
The five-piece Maxïmo Park are partly on in-ears and partly floor monitors; as the band don't like side-fills, larger venues are supplemented with additional wedge mixes for coverage.
In terms of monitor sends, there are five sets of stereo in-ears (including lead vocalist Paul Smith) while the backline techs also share a mix - there are also four floor monitor mixes. At the same time Paul Keeble uses the desk's matrix to create a spare stereo in-ear mix.
The sound mix is entirely live, with no play-ins or clicks. "I'm operating the Vi6 pretty much like an analogue board," he says. "With the in-ears I set up a FOH mix on the left and right channels and run everything post fade - I can then fader mix to my own reference mix. It cuts back on a lot of requests from the band for different levels between tracks if you are listening to a reference mix and fader mixing as you go along."
After playing dates in Europe the band will work an extensive outdoor summer schedule before heading off to North America in early September.
(Jim Evans)
