| March 2007 | |
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DIGICO CONSOLES GIVE JET PROPULSION |
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Australian rockers Jet are currently on tour with their album Shine On and they like things loud - very loud. This necessitates a system that copes with both the sheer volume and the rawness of the Jet’s style and DiGiCo D5 digital mixing consoles at both the front of house and monitor positions supply it in spades. Leading rental company Entec Sound & Light supplied Jet’s audio requirements for the UK leg of the tour, which comprised the aforementioned DiGiCo’s and a d&b J-Series loudspeaker system. The DiGiCo’s are a new acquisition for Entec and the purchase was determined in large part by customer demand. “A company of our size is very much customer driven,” explains Entec’s sound manager, Dick Hayes. “We’d rented D5s in for a good couple of months last year for The Who and classical events such as Ennio Morricone and Pink Martini. So with them going out again for The Who this year, as well as Johnny Haskett wanting one for Front of House and Mark Crawley for monitors on the Jet tour, it was deemed a bit daft to carry on renting.” As well as the financial reasons, Entec also wanted to move the company forward by keeping up with current trends. “We’ve noticed over the last year to18 months that most engineers are accepting digital desks,” continues Hayes. “The majority have worked on one of the three/four main ones and, as long as there’s a good babysitter there, there are not a lot of people who will turn down a digital console in a festival situation, even if they haven’t used one before. And with some of our main engineers being DiGiCo lovers, the final choice was obvious.” Jet’s Front of House engineer Johnny Haskett has been working with the band since their first ever UK show at the beginning of 2003 and was, he says, finally thrust into the full on world of digital by long time colleague Paul Ramsay, The Who’s FoH engineer. “I had used various digital boards at festivals and one offs and never been happy with them, both sonically and ergonomically,” he says. “It wasn't until I got my hands on a D5 on the support to Avril Lavigne in early 2005 that I realised I'd finally found a digi board that suited the way I mix.” Haskett’s D5 feeds d&b's newest line array, the J-Series (which in his opinion has so far surpassed any previous line array he has used), running in full range, with cardioid subs in infra mode and d&b Q-Series for infills if required. “The beauty of this system is virtually nothing comes off the back of the boxes, thus allowing me to be super loud (as asked for by the band) and not affecting on stage at all,” adds Haskett. “All this is run from the d&b Rope C control software, which allows remote operation of the system amplifier’s parameters, and we’re running AES all the way to the amps, which has made an incredible gain increase in the system.” Haskett is using 35 inputs from the stage to the D5, with various returns for some old school effects ‘too gnarly’ for the board to produce, and uses two SPX 990s to mix reverb and early reflection for drums and vocals, which he can't do with the onboard effects. “For anything nice I have no problems with the onboard effects, especially for ballads and acoustic guitars,” he says. “And if I had the right band for snapshots, I would use them. But even with relative snapshots, Jet is so dynamic and different everyday that I find myself still running things like an analogue board and that suits my style. “I can honestly say that backup from DiGiCo has been second to none since getting involved. Tim Shaxson and Roger Wood have always found time to help me out with what are minor problems to them, but potential show stoppers for me. This is the only console that has truly helped me cross over from analogue.”
Press Contacts: Sarah James at Gasoline Media |
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