Kravitz is touring with a seven-piece band and has a large monitor rig, so the SD7's high channel count on both in and outputs has proved very important. Monitor engineer Kevin Glendinning comments: "We have pretty much everything - lots of side fills, lots of wedges, lots of in-ears - so it's nice to have a large amount of inputs and outputs. I'm constantly making up new channels that are pertinent to just ears, just side fills or just wedges.
"I have four channels set aside just for Lenny's vocal - one has extreme compression measures that he insists on hearing in his ears; another very flat and unaltered that feeds effects; one that is sent to band's and tech's ears; and another for all wedges and fills."
FOH engineer Laurie Quigley has worked with Kravitz for around six years. "We started using D5s on the 2005 tour," he says. "I'd used them for years with Aerosmith, Kiss and other bands I'd worked for. I brought them over to Lenny Kravitz because of the simplicity, the sound of the board and the amount of channels we use. We're running up to 112 channels now.
"I see the SD7 as basically an upgrade of the D5, which was an incredible sounding board with a good stable format. But for me the SD7's banks of 12 are better, the screens are obviously bigger and better, the speed of the board is better, the dynamic EQ is really good."
(Jim Evans)
