Mix caught New Order in late April at Oakland, Calif.’s Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, where they co-headlined with the Chemical Brothers. Athough the band is on a short tour leg, their show was packed with an enthusiastic crowd, with many attendees dancing in the aisles.
“I have been mixing New Order since 1993, and they’re a great bunch of guys” says front-of-house mixer Dian Barton. “We’re not carrying production so I am at the mercy of the vendors, but I usually get what I need. I’m using a Midas XL4 tonight. Midas boards are the cleanest sonically and can handle more level before distorting than other consoles. I find them easy to use because they are well set out with acurate metering and have LEDs for most functions, which is very important at festivals.”
At the Oakland show, they used an L-Acoustics rig, with eight V-DOSC per side, six dV-DOSC under-hung, nine SB218 subs, four Power Physics 422 three-ways on bleacher fills and four ARC for front-fills. A look inside Barton’s rack reveals five Drawmer DS201 gates, four BSS 402s and 901, three Yamaha SPX-990s and a Summit DCL 200, a Lexicon 480XL and a TC Electronic D2. Bernard Sumner (vocal/guitars, above) is using a Shure Beta 58 mic and PSM700 in-ears with EC3 earphones.
