Kirkwood has been the soul sensation's FOH engineer since she shot to fame two years ago. A sound engineer for over three decades, Kirkwood has worked with many top artists including Deep Purple, the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and Motley Crue. Midas has been his console of choice since he first encountered them in the mid-seventies.
"Midas is always at the top of my list of specifications," he says. "The preamps in the Midas are so superior to anything else. Her band is a traditional r&b outfit of bass, guitars and drums with some keyboards and backing vocals, and with the Heritage I can get great separation between the different elements. I love the filters too. I don't use a lot of EQ but I'll bring in the filters and they'll clean up everything. There's also plenty of headroom, and even with the heavy metal bands I work with in the States, it just cruises - it's magnificent." Kirkwood is also using a rack of Klark Teknik 504 Quad Compressors.
(Chris Henry)
