DiGiCo in demand for Dua Lipa
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For a year and a half, FOH engineer Will Nicholson and monitor man Alex Cerutti have used their DiGiCo SD5 and SD12 consoles respectively.
Nicholson, who has a previous working relationship with the artist's production manager, Pete Abbott, says: “We worked together on Icona Pop, and a couple of smaller artists; also, [musical director] William Bowerman is a friend of mine, so when Pete gave me a shout to see if I was interested, I was keen to get involved.”
Nicholson has been a DiGiCo user for five years and says the scalability of the SD range is ideal for his FOH workflow.
“Modern pop touring is often characterised by two significant factors: time and budget,” he explains. “Whilst I haven’t had to make use of the smallest surfaces in the [DiGiCo] range, I have used an SD5, 10, and 7 on this campaign pretty seamlessly, when schedule or territory dictated. The SD5 is my console of choice, provided the I/O fits into its specification; it is such an enjoyable console to mix on. Visually, there is so much information available to you on an immediate level.
“The three screens are just tremendous; I normally leave my Waves plugins on the central display, and input control on the two side screens, which allows me to use the overview screen for buss and matrix metering, and my Snapshot sheet. Mixing on digital consoles is an empowering experience, and you can do so much on the SD5.”
Because Dua Lipa is now transitioning into production level touring, Nicholson says there are even more reasons to stick with DiGiCo on the road.
“When the PA and the environment shift everyday, the precision of the D-A conversion is what allows me to make quality judgements regarding the mix, and the DiGiCo preamps are great, too. As PAs themselves improve, you can hear greater detail, and there are less places to hide, particularly when mixing at 96kHz - the DiGiCo gives me the right tools to deliver my mix at the right quality.”
In addition to her BRITs performance, Dua Lipa will perform across the UK in April 2018, descending on arenas including Glasgow's SSE Hydro, Manchester's O2 Apollo, Birmingham's Genting Arena, and London's Alexandra Palace.
(Jim Evans)
