American Music & Sound | An Exertis JAM Business

A mainstay at pop and reggae festivals around the world, The Green recently performed at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre, supported by a duo of Allen & Heath dLive S Class consoles. The Green, a Roots reggae and indigenous Hawaiian band, has frequently topped the Billboard Reggae Charts and earned a number of ‘Best Reggae Album’ awards since their formation in 2009.

Denver-based IPG Tech provided two dLive S5000 Control Surfaces and two DM48 MixRacks outfitted with fibreACE and Dante audio networking cards to cover FOH and monitor mixing and multitrack recording duties at the large outdoor venue with seating for over 9,000 fans.

FOH engineer Matt Lawrence specified dLive, noting its reliability and internal dynamics and effects processing power. “I’ve mixed on dLive all around the world and never had issues,” says Lawrence. While internal dLive effects like snare plates, a transient controller, an automatic double tracker, stereo chorus and stereo tap delay were all used for the performance, Lawrence says the OptTronik compressor was a standout. “With the new DEEP OptTronik [‘2A-style compression] through a huge PA with five-part harmonies on vocals—you can’t beat the sound and feel. The DEEP 16T was also a go-to compressor and found its way onto a number of channels in a reggae setting like this.” Speaking to what it’s like mixing at such an iconic venue, Lawrence adds, “The reverberation off of the rocks and the crazy night sky and the vibe of the show certainly took things to another level for sure.”

“The desk is super intuitive and it was exactly how you’d want a show to go,” notes System Audio Technician Lee Putnam. “Being able to use dLive Director software before the show to get the design and layout of the desks set in advance is such a time saver. I also love the peace of mind of having redundant links and power supplies with dLive S Class, especially in a complex outdoor environment like Red Rocks.”

Monitor engineer Ross Chergosky adds, “I dug in on drums and vocals with quite a number of effects. It was so nice not having to worry about running out of processing and spaces for in-ear mixes all with compression and gates across the board. From the monitor mixing perspective, things can get wacky really quickly with layers of processing in other consoles and systems.” Chergosky concludes, “dLive is nice with a fixed latency and not having to worry about the computer load and not having to do math.”

Ohio-based hardcore act Beartooth, are currently travelling around the world, taking on festival season, with two dLive Wings set-ups.

dLive Wings is becoming the go-to mixing system for many touring engineers due to its flexibility and compact format. Danny Harvey (FOH engineer) explains, “The size of the C1500 is ideal for travelling, being able to fly with it is amazing and having that much power in two fly cases is perfect for international acts, making their sound consistent all over the world.”

“I love the way dLive sounds and how easy it is to customise everything. At the bigger festivals I always manage to get positioned front middle on the FOH tent due to the C1500’s small footprint.”

Supplied by V2 Productions for their US dates and Captured Live for shows in Europe, the band’s set up consists of two dLive C1500 surfaces, paired with two DM48 MixRacks, covering both FOH and monitors. Additionally, the FOH console is equipped with a Waves card, used for multi-track recording and virtual soundcheck.

Harvey also makes full use of the consoles internal features, including the onboard DEEP plug-ins, commenting “I use the 16T on my drums and groups, 16VU compressor on my vocals and the Dyn8’s multiband compressor on various groups and my main LR – they sound great and help keep the size of our set up down to a minimum as there’s less need for outboard rack FX. I can put all these processors on every channel without needed any extra gear.”

The band themselves have also noticed a consistency in sound across each show and the difference dLive has made, Harvey explains, “When we changed to dLive the band noticed such a change in their IEMs, everything was a lot clearer and having the DEEP plugins and the multi-bands on their LR mixes was game changing.”

“All in all, dLive is small, powerful, consistent, user friendly and it sounds great!”