South Korea - Nothing But Thieves were very happy with their touring set-up, but a ‘fly-in’ gig in South Korea changed everything. The in-house desk was a DiGiCo Quantum 338 and Gary Curtis, front of house engineer, knew as soon as he heard it that there was no going back, and once the band had heard his multi-track recordings, they agreed.
The Quantum 338 is now their desk of choice at both the front of house and monitor positions. “We had been using another system for about seven years,” Curtis explains. “But when we heard the Quantum, we all knew it was really good. I was able to do a recording of the sound check, so we could A-B it. The other console was great, but the DiGiCo is completely different.”
David Ruffle, monitor engineer, was unable to attend the dates in South Korea and the last thing he expected was to come back to a completely different rig. He was not familiar with the Q338, but talking it through with Solotech, suppliers for the tour, confirmed it was the right choice.
“The guys at Solotech invited me up to their Solihull HQ to play with one of their consoles for a couple of days,” he says. “We ran through the desk with some multitrack recordings that I’d heard a thousand times before, it was incredible. The space and the separation the DiGiCo console gave the tracks was phenomenal, I was hearing things that I’d never really noticed before.”
The sound of the DiGiCo Quantum 338 is just one of the benefits of the console. Curtis has found the Snapshot and Scene features “incredibly useful”. During the show he has automated certain changes that always happen. By allowing the desk to do some of the heavy lifting, he can concentrate far more on the band and his mix.
“We have an integrated timecode system for our lights and playback, by converting the LTC to MTC via my Rosendahl mif4 I can link the desk to the timecode and Snapshots that happen exactly when I need them. All the little things that happen in the background that can take your concentration are now done by the desk, so I am free to really feel the mix.”
Curtis continues, “Sonically the Quantum 338 is in a different league, there is a space, greater depth and width to the sound that you don’t get with other consoles. I can pick out nuances that I haven’t heard before. Having all the processing elements is great too; the Mustard Processing and the compressor emulations are being used quite heavily across my groups. The majority of the processing is onboard, supported by a few outboard effects.”
Communication is also improved with Quantum 338 connected consoles. Monitor and front of house engineers can text silently with the Text Chat function, eliminating the need for additional private comms channels, which is perfect for concentrating on the stage. “The text function is really handy,” Ruffle notes. “Our consoles are in Loop, so I can chat to Gary at front of house and we can identify issues quickly, or just chat.”
