London, UK (December 17, 2014)—London’s famed Earl’s Court will soon be torn down, and indie rock act Bombay Bicycle Club’s concert there earlier this month was in fact the last show to be held at the venerated venue. Rock legend David Gilmour of Pink Floyd sat in, playing steel lap guitar on the band’s song “Rinse Me Down” before rolling through Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” backed by his hosts. All of the performances that night–and during the group’s current world tour–were captured with DPA microphones.
Tour manager Steven Down noted, “Jon Burton, the previous FOH engineer, brought the DPA d:facto Vocal Microphone to our attention while he was reviewing equipment for one of the pro audio magazines. Jack Steadman (lead vocals) gave it a go during the warm up tour we did at the start of this campaign and he was very impressed with the clarity compared to the dynamic mics we had been using previously. Shortly afterwards we obtained a capsule to use on our Sennhesier wireless system for Liz Lawrence who does a lot of backing vocals in the show. More recently we have started using d:dicate 2011C Twin Diaphragm Cardioid units on the kick and snare and some d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones on the toms with great results.”
Simon Lutkin, freelance sound engineer and production manager who first took over monitors for the band during its Different Kind Of Fix tour in 2012, noted that up to nine people can wind up on stage at any one time, keeping things busy: ”With that many on stage, any help I can get through technology is great,” Lutkin says. “I use scenes for each song to make small changes automatically through the show so I can keep my eye on the band. The d:facto Vocal Microphone really helps control the ambiance for the main singers. Compared to other mics, as well as having a pretty tight pickup pattern, the overall tone of the spill is much nicer to listen to. In a live scenario you are always up against bleed from other sources, but with this set of mics the spill is much more pleasant sounding and therefore can be a help rather than a hindrance.”
To maintain consistency the group carries all mics and IEMs with them internationally, hiring in consoles locally (a DiGiCo SD7 for FOH and Midas Pro2c for monitors), thus ensuring that the signal path from source to output is the same each day.
DPA Microphones
www.dpamicrophones.com
