dLive supports Lewis Capaldi shows
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Capaldi made history by becoming the first ever artist to both announce and sell out an arena tour before the release of his album, which went on to become one of the UK’s best-selling record in the past five years and gained him global mainstream success throughout 2019.
"In early 2019 we were looking for an audio package that was powerful, flexible and compact enough for us to use on every show, be it a Lewis headline as part of a tour, or a run of overseas festivals where space, weight and set-up time were at a premium” explains FOH engineer, Andrew Bush.
Supplied by Glasgow-based audio hire company, FE-Live, Capaldi’s full arena set-up includes two dLive S5000’s on both FOH and Monitors, paired with a DM64 MixRack (monitors) and DM0 MixRack (FOH). Additionally, Bush utilises two DX32 expanders for further I/O.
Prior to upscaling the surface, Bush originally opted for a smaller dLive Wings rig, which is now used for fly-in dates and comprises a multi-surface set-up with two C1500’s and a DM48 MixRack.
“The combination of two C1500s and a shared DM48 easily satisfied the initial criteria and we have since moved our show files to two S5000s for our current US/EU/UK touring schedule,” explains Bush. “The transition between surfaces was easy: the dLive software is identical regardless of the stage box or surface, so moving from C1500 to S5000 was simply a case of reorganising the fader layouts.” Bush uses a Dante card (fitted to the surface) for virtual sound-check and recording each show.
2020 will see Capaldi perform to over a quarter of a million people during his UK and European headline shows. Bush adds, “In terms of the shows, they’ve added so much since the start of the year and they’ve increased in scale and capacity as we’ve had to try and keep up with Lewis’s trajectory. It’s really shown us that dLive can definitely handle the demanding needs of this tour, while providing class-leading tools and studio-quality sound.”
(Jim Evans)
