Both Front of House engineer Jonny Lucas and Dan Speed on monitors rely on the power of DiGiCo SD10s
UK - Having completed a successful tour at the end of last year, Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro are on their way to the US. Both Front of House engineer Jonny Lucas and Dan Speed on monitors rely on the power of DiGiCo SD10s for their mixing requirements. They deploy three separate rigs around the world, with two duplicate systems which includes, in some instances, the more compact SD10-24. For the 2016 UK tour, all audio requirements were supplied by Skan PA Hire.
Jonny has been working with Biffy Clyro for almost a decade. “I did my first show with them supporting The Who at Marlay Park in Dublin in June 2007,” he recalls. “There was no soundcheck and only a 20-minute changeover. It was a baptism of fire.”
This intense introduction has, no doubt, prepared him for the band’s continually hectic schedule. His use of DiGiCo consoles has given him the reliability he needs, helped him refine his workflow and allowed for a relaxed approach to his Front of House duties, a welcome adjunct given the scale of the shows he is working on - the band is well-known for packing out arena and stadium sized venues, including London’s The O2 at the end of the UK tour.
“DiGiCo is renowned for its support and the stability of its consoles,” he says. “I like the workflow and flexibility they give me, as well as the ease of integration for MADI with Waves servers and multitrack record/virtual soundcheck facilities. I used an SD9 as my first touring DiGiCo on a theatre run I did while the boys were recording their current album, Ellipsis. I had it triggering scenes from timecode and mixing nine sets of IEMs from FOH with minimal prep time and it was great. Ideally, I would have liked to have used an SD5 for the 2016 tour, but budgetary restrictions meant the SD10 was the best option, and it’s been great.
“Dan and I use the Gain Tracking facility with up to 72 inputs from stage. There are several output configurations which can involve L/R/Sub, either analogue or AES, and incorporate up to 14 sub-mixed stems for broadcast feeds in various scenarios.” Biffy Clyro’s US tour runs until the end of May 2017.
(Jim Evans)

Latest Issue. . .