He says: "Since 1999 I have done two years with the Pet Shop Boys, three years with Craig David and two-and-a-half years with Duran Duran, who exploded back on the live scene having reformed in their original line up. I have also worked, mixing FOH, on many TV Award shows including the MTV Europe awards, the MOBOs and the Brits, and have supervised the band mix at dozens of TV and radio performances around the world."
His latest tour saw him oversee the live sound for the Sugababes, during which time his Focusrite Liquid Channels came in to full effect. "I have spent the last eight months with the Sugababes having just finished a highly successful British tour," he explains. "I used the Liquid Channel for the first time on this tour. The effect and dynamics onboard my Yamaha desk are excellent but with the Sugababes there were times in the set when I felt the vocals weren't quite sitting correctly. I tried a Liquid Channel on Heidi's vocal, set on a combination that I was convinced would work from previous experience in the studio with them, and it worked a treat. The next day I deployed two more Liquids on Amelle and Kiesha. All three were now on the Liquid Transformer pre and 1176 emulation."
"Keisha has a very dynamic style: from a whisper to a phrase of swooping vocal gymnastics then back to a whisper in the space of a few bars. I settled on the mic pre modeled on the Tubetech MEC1A, which is a fine machine. I used the real thing on Craig David for years, so I was familiar with the sound and went for the Fairchild with a fastish time-constant for compression. This made the difference for me and the three girls sat in the mix in a much more controlled manner without sounding too squashed."
"The Liquid has such a variety of pres and compressors that it means that you only really need the one box. There is no need to try different hardware during production anymore because it's all there at your fingertips. It's so simple to just change the pre/comp and you haven't got to justify the extra cost of getting another piece of equipment delivered just to try it out."
"The Liquid Channel is so versatile and sonically astounding. It really is the flagship of the Focusrite range now and I can't wait for the Liquid Mix to arrive. Also I have to mention that Focusrite's support is second to none. When I started using the Liquid Channel you could only view and control one unit at a time via the Liquid remote. I mentioned this and within two weeks the next version of the software was released with the ability to view and control multiple units simultaneously. Thanks for that guys!"
(Lee Baldock)
