"We are picking up PA systems locally," Blake explained, "which will be interesting for Greg Dean who’s mixing house. Fortunately for me, we will carry the whole monitor system, Robert has had his own system flown in from the States, and I’ve elected to take a Yamaha PM1D with me for control which is coming from Dick Hayes at Entec."
"There are several reasons for choosing the board, not least the savings in weight and truck space, plus I’m using the on-board graphics, so apart from the desk’s ‘brain’ I’m carrying no outboard racks at all. If nothing else that will save me having to patch everything up every day, plus in those club gigs, where you can end up mixing from behind the bar, or the corridor to the dressing rooms, I wont have to climb over tons of gear to get to work."
Although an experienced PM1D user, this is the first time Blake has made use of the Yamaha’s graphic facility. "But I’m more than confident of using it. I had a PM1D out for the recent S Club 7 tour, where I used all the on-board compressors, gates and reverbs. So long as you have the time to set it up, and we have two days rehearsal in Norway, then it’s great."
With a band like Crimson, it’s no surprise to discover that Blake is required to provide quite a complex tapestry of mixes. "There are five in the band, and they all want stereo mixes, plus one or two want a mono feed as well. Add in things like subs for the drummer and I end up providing 12 separate mixes. But then with a desk like this, once you¹ve got it programmed, you just plug it in everyday and you’ve already got a show right there. I’m a big fan of the desk, and what I like best is the complete absence of background noise, and you do get that off any analogue desk, I don’t care how good it is. I know Robert will notice the difference, and like it."
(Lee Baldock)29 May 2003
