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Live Sound

Francis Takes On New Desk for Katy Perry

The FOH engineer behind GnR and Kanye West switched things up for his current jaunt supporting Katy Perry.

New York, NY (January 30, 2018)—Since it kicked off last fall, Katy Perry’s “Witness World Tour” has been making the rounds with audio provided by Clair Global. Riding herd on all that is engineer Toby Francis (Kiss, Guns n’ Roses, Kanye West), mixing FOH on a Yamaha Rivage PM10 console.

The tour marks his first time out with the desk: “The versatility is the first thing that stands out, with many inputs, many outputs, and many ways to use them. One stage rack can have 96 pre-amps and you still can make up to 16 returns via the card slots—which is perfect for front of house. Having AUX inputs on every channel, even when the channel is a stereo input, is good for spares and backups. The general layout is great and straightforward making it very easy to use, even if you have never used a Yamaha console.”

Recording Katy Perry, Patti Smith Live.

In recent times, Francis had been using a different brand of console for the last decade and looked at other desks before trying out the Yamaha PM10 at the suggestion of Clair Global’s Todd Hudson.

“Within two hours, I had a presentable mix going [despite] having never used the desk before,” he recalled. “I love mixing on the PM10 and loved it from the first moment I started hearing inputs through it. The onboard plug-ins all sound great, even the effects and reverbs sound great. You have plenty of options, and all the modeled hardware sounds very true to the originals.”

He’s also using both the Rupert Neve Designs SILK feature as well as Dante networking.

“The sound of the desk is its best feature, very noticeable from the beginning,” says Francis. “You EQ less, get more level before feedback when the artist is in front of the PA and with little, if any, extra effort.”

Clair Global • www.clairglobal.com

Yamaha Corporation of America • www.yamahaca.com

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