Chicago, IL (October 31, 2016)—F. Scott Fitzgerald said that there are no second acts in American lives, so it’s a good thing Glen Hansard is Irish. After getting his musical start as one of The Commitments in the early Nineties movie of the same name, he revived his fortunes a few years ago writing the music and starring in the film musical, Once, which was adapted into a Broadway smash. With his band, The Swell Season, having run its course, Hansard is now a solo artist, and recently completed a North American tour with audio provided by Chicago-based Ecto Productions.
Throughout the North American run, Ecto provided Hansard’s monitor engineer Leon O’Neill with Midas PRO2 digital mixing system with DL251. “For me it’s always been Midas,” said O’Neill. “In the pre-digital days, Midas were always the best sounding live boards and that definitely carried through to the digital era as far as I’m concerned.”
Talking about particular features, O’Neill noted, “The iPad control is fantastic, especially when you’re doing a tight turnaround on a festival stage. At times, we can only carry wedges for Glen, so the rest of the band use whatever’s available. The ability to run around a stage and EQ each wedge myself while standing in front of it is an amazing feature.”
“The POPulation groups are also a great feature that I’m making use of. There are a couple of songs in the set where multiple moves need to be made. I have a POP group set up for these songs so I can immediately call the relevant channels and make the moves,” he adds.
“Glen likes a pretty loud vocal wedge, and the Midas is effortless. I find the sound to be big and warm and I don’t have difficulty managing the brittle top end that I experience with all other digital boards.”
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