Simon Honywill has been involved with the DM2000 since its launch in the UK, and RG Jones has been considering purchasing one of the digital consoles for inventory. But the main reason for ordering the new desk from Marquee Audio was the Rea tour. "It's a one-truck tour," explains Honywill, "which meant that we were looking for equipment that was as compact and bijou as possible. The DM2000 makes a lot of sense, primarily because of its small size, and the opportunity it allows for us to cut down on a load of outboard."
He describes the new Chris Rea material on this tour as "stripped-down blues. It's a relatively simple show: I'm using 27 or 28 channels plus FX - I've got the whole band on the first layer of inputs. The music is very analogue, and I admit, I wasn't sure how the DM2000 was going to feel sonically, but I was easily persuaded by a Japanese meal with Mike Case of Yamaha! We've gone the whole hog and minimized all the analogue cable runs, and those that remain have been kept as short as possible, so it sounds clean."
(Ruth Rossington)
