United Kingdom (December 11, 2018)—Finnish bluegrass act Steve ‘N’ Seagulls has had, perhaps appropriately, an Allen & Heath dLive Wings system in tow as its been touring the United Kingdom.
The band’s set-up comprises a dLive C1500 surface (fitted with a Waves V3 card, which is used for multitrack recording, virtual soundchecks and running plug-ins during live shows), an IP8 remote controller and a CDM32 MixRack.
FOH engineer, Antti Laitila, explained “Steve ‘n’ Seagulls tour around the world all the time, so I was looking for a compact and good sounding console for fly-dates. I’d heard a lot of great things about the dLive series from my colleagues, so I decided to give it a try.”
The single surface set-up is used to handle both FOH and the musicians IEM mixes. The IP8 is connected to the surface, providing an additional bank of 8 faders for further hands-on control, while the CDM32 is situated on stage for all-analog I/O.
dLive’s DEEP processing and Dyn8 engine were another factor in the overall decision to use the system, Laitila adds “Steve ‘n’ Seagulls have a large variety of different instruments and four vocals, so trying to fit everything together can be a bit challenging. The Dyn8 multiband dynamic processor is my favorite tool when controlling the dynamics of a blazing banjo or thunderous accordion. The variety and quality of different processors in dLive is amazing. Just being able to choose from the many different compressors gives you a powerful toolset.”
After six tour dates with a demo set-up, Laitila and the band decided to purchase the full system, commenting “After a few shows in different types of venues, I made the decision to purchase the system and I couldn’t be happier. The band members have also noticed a positive change in their IEM’s and describe the sound as being more open now compared to the old set-up.”
Allen & Heath • www.allen-heath.com
