When front-of-house engineer Huw Richards brought the master fadersup each night on Mis-Teeq’s recent UK tour, he had more than theband to consider: “This show is by no means quiet. There weretimes where we were measuring 115 to 118 dB [peak] just from the kidsscreaming!” Northampton, UK-based TourTech provided adaptableP.A. configurations for the varied range of venues played at.
“I was lucky enough to tour two P.A. systems: dV-DOSC andL’Acoustics ARCS, and at Hammersmith we used V-DOSC with dV-DOSCdownfills and ARC in and outfills,” Richards said.“TourTech were very generous and basically supplied anything wewanted with very little added expense. For this type of tour, it wasideal to be able to pick and choose what to apply to each venue withsuch flexibility.”
System control was XTA across the board, and the dynamics rack sawXTA’s Series 2 to the fore. “In particular, the D2 was veryuseful for Mis-Teeq,” Richards added, who worked with the Series2 range extensively at this summer’s Reading Festival. “Aswell as belting out up-tempo songs and three ballads, the girls arealso constantly vibing up the audience, which takes a lot of controlfrom the audio end of things. The D2 was perfect for controlling thedynamics of this type of vocal. And I was most impressed with theadditional master compression—all this from a one unitdevice.”
Richards also used XTA C2 and G2 for straightforward instrumentchannel inserts and SiDDs.
“I was very impressed with the package,” he concluded.“I didn’t find it necessary to have any other productonboard in the way of system and channel insert. For me, XTA is wayahead of competition with more facilities per unit and 100-percentreliability.”
Dick Rabel, TourTech managing director, added, “We have had aremarkably happy association with XTA from the start. They remain trueenthusiasts and constantly seek new avenues of development such as theastonishing ‘Series 2’ products. It is a tribute to XTA’s quality thatearlier products such as the DP Series of processing remain ‘current’and relevant; they are still the benchmark by which other processorsare judged. The demanding requirements of the Mis-Teeq system wereperfectly complemented by XTA components both at FOH andmonitors.”
For more, visit www.xta.co.uk. For more touring news, visit mixonline.com/live_sound_tour_profiles/index.htm.
