Sia tours Australia with DiGiCo and L-Acoustics
- Details
Lemon has known Sia for most of her life and has been doing gigs for her on and off since 2002, mixing at small venues and large stadiums alike.
“It’s a very organised show,” he says of the recent tour. “The biggest challenge was putting it all together in the first place as it’s mostly playback in terms of the music. The brief I had was to make it feel like it was live but also sound like the record with SIA then singing live on top of it.
“I see it a lot with hip hop and rap where it’s just the artist and a DJ with minimum amount of stems and the engineer has just got nowhere to go and nuance it like the record. The environment changes the audio all the time, it might be a gig sucking out all the percussive stuff or over emphasizing the bass and you need control over all of those things.”
Jon was using an SD5 with a couple of Waves Servers on it plus a little bit of outboard; Waves MaxxBass, a few Maag EQ4’s and Smart C2 compressors to keep it all in control and even the sound out.
“SIA has a big voice, so I use Waves Renaissance compressors as well as their 1176 limiters on her vocals as she is so dynamic,” says Jon. “It’s pretty dialled in and quite simple because we did a lot of the work beforehand, in this modern way of doing things.”
“A lot of people may think it’s complicated but I don’t because I have been so close to the music and the process of it,” he adds. “I know how she sings and I know how to ride it around to keep it level. As everything is so consistent we have a pretty good result most of the time.
“A lot of modern music is about the system engineer and how the company sets up the system. When I first started out, I was doing it all but realised a few years back that the complexities of these big venues, with networking, delays, and timing, is best left to someone else so I can concentrate on the art part of it. Of course, I oversee it all and will walk the room, but on this tour I have one of the best L-Acoustics system engineer and designers in the business which makes my life easier.”
That system tech is Vic Wagner who, alongside JPJ Audio’s Mats Frankle, ensured the L-Acoustics K1 / K2 PA was tuned, timed and ready for action. Multiple delay towers and rings were required to cover the stadium as much as possible, delivering maximum SPL possible without upsetting the EPA people.
Jon will be touring Australia with Roger Waters early next year and again he will reunite with JPJ Audio.
(Jim Evans)
