MIDAS PRO6 JOINS IN THE POGUES’ SEASONAL RAUCOUSNESS
The Pogues have embarked on their sixth annual Christmas tour with a bright and shiny new equipment package at front of house - a Midas PRO6 Live Audio System provided by HD Pro Audio.
The 12-date tour, which began in Belfast and continued through Scotland and England before its finale in Dublin, has become an annual fixture, providing a dose of alternative seasonal celebration and culminating in a magical live rendition of their Christmas ballad, Fairytale of New York.
This was the first Midas digital outing for Pogues engineer, and Midas analogue aficionado Paul Scully. “I was very keen to try out the PRO6 on this tour and somewhat jumped in at the deep end, and I’m really happy with it,” says Scully, who first got to try out the desk during production rehearsals. “I felt this console was so intuitive, especially the EQ. The sound quality is the main thing for me, and I really like the fact that it has the Midas preamps. At the end of the day you’ve got to use your ears. This band plays a large amount of acoustic instruments, which can sound rather unnatural when using digital technology. But with the PRO6, all the instruments sound natural straight away. I also like the onboard compressors; on a lot of digital desks you can see what the compression is doing technically, but you can’t actually hear it.”
The PRO6 has also reduced the tour’s FOH footprint as well as the amount of gear needed for the production, as the PRO6 has been programmed with the settings for the support band, Urban Voodoo Machine, as well as for the Pogues. “Normally we’d have had to bring in a stretch board for the support band, but we just flip between the two setups and it’s all been fine,” says Scully.
Working alongside the PRO6 is a Klark Teknik DN9331 Rapide graphics controller, which Scully describes as a vital part of the kit, giving him instant access to and control of the PRO6’s onboard graphics.
All PA for the tour was provided by Entec Sound and Light and in the capable hands of systems tech Jules Hicks, who underwent PRO6 training at Midas’ Kidderminster factory.
Photo caption: L to R: Entec systems tech Jules Hicks; Pogues FOH engineer Paul Scully, with the Midas PRO6
Photo caption: Pogues FOH engineer Paul Scully with the Midas PRO6
ENDS
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Editors' information:
Midas live performance mixing consoles have been used by the world's most demanding sound engineers, performers and rental companies for three decades. The company strives to raise the standards of sonic quality through its programme of continual research and development, implementing new control functionality and user-friendly desk operation to anticipate and accommodate the ever-evolving needs of audio professionals who specify Midas consoles for their major tours, festivals, international events, broadcast projects and prestigious fixed installations.
Klark Teknik was founded in 1974 and in the years immediately following, their innovative approach to design and development allowed them to introduce some truly groundbreaking designs. Klark Teknik was responsible for one of the world’s first digital delay and digital reverb units, however it was their concepts for equalisation devices that really changed the world of professional audio resulting in the DN370 and the famous DN360. Today Klark Teknik continues to bring innovation in design and dedication to engineering and sonic quality in both the analogue and digital realm of signal processing, with the Square ONE and Show Command ranges updating the brand.