New York, NY (November 9, 2021)—Mixing while also performing onstage is a relatively rare phenomenon once an act reaches a certain level of fame. Prince went through a brief stretch in the late Nineties where he mixed FOH from mid-stage, but the Purple One ultimately abandoned the idea. More recently, personal monitor mixers have caught on, particularly in HOWs and classical music, but that tends to be for artists mixing sound solely for themselves. Metalcore band Beartooth, however, has been tearing it up on tour recently with vocalist Cabel Shomo tackling monitor mixes for all five members while simultaneously commanding the crowd at center stage.
Shomo founded the group in 2012, singing but also acting as recording and mix engineer for the band’s four studio albums, including its latest, 2021’s Below. Touring the U.S. behind the new album, the band were joined by FOH engineer Danny Harvey for a six-week run. Carrying control with them, Shomo and Harvey opted for a dual Allen & Heath dLive system, supplied by Illinois-based V2 Productions. Harvey handled FOH duties on a 28-fader dLive S5000 Surface and DM48 MixRack, decked out with a Waves V3 card.
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“All the dLive systems sound great; before this tour, I was on the C1500 at FOH, but having the extra faders—and therefore control—feels particularly great,” said Harvey. “With the inbuilt processing, I can control it how I like and achieve the power and punch I’m looking for. Beartooth are a loud rock n roll band that needs to be mixed loud and heavy, and the dLive makes this easy.”
For the onstage monitor system, controlled by Shomo, a compact 12-fader dLive C1500 Surface and DM48 MixRack were chosen. In between delivering his vocal lines, Shomo controlled five stereo IEM mixes, side fills and two pairs of center monitors. He noted, “The dLive system has been a game-changer. The preamps are completely transparent and the built-in components give me all the analog feel I need without the hassle of outboard. I’ve never felt so confident creating mixes that make everyone on stage want to melt face night after night.”
