LIVERPOOL, UK — Liverpool-based ADLIB Audio is supplying audio production for the Scissor Sisters' current UK arena tour, with Dave Kay engineering at FOH and Ben Booker on monitors. Kay, Booker and the ADLIB team have worked with the Scissor Sisters since they were an eccentric poppy club band. Kay explained how the band's schedule since the launch of the new "Ta-Dah" album in Trafalgar Square, in September, meant they couldn't attend all of the production rehearsal period in Wakefield. However, in terms of sound, they were replaced by the 'virtual' version – a series of recordings produced during the US tour.
Kay is touring the new Soundcraft Vi6 mixing console in parallel to his Soundcraft Series 5. Running a Technical Earth Pink Pig multi-track system and Metacorder software, he records a 64-channel MADI stream each night via the Vi6. For the UK tour, Kay specified a JBL VerTec line array system – 48 4889s, 32 in the main hangs and 16 for the side hangs. The subs are ADLIB DF418s. The VerTecs are driven by Camco Vortec 6 amplifiers, with Crown VZ5002s on the subs.
Kay is using the Lake Contour DLP (Dolby Lake Processors) for system EQ, which he tunes using a wireless tablet. There are some dbx and BSS compressors, Drawmer gates and outboard effects from TC, Yamaha and Lexicon.
The Vi6 is also being used to accommodate guest and opening bands, including Lily Allen, The Guillemots and Gossip.
Onstage, Ben Booker has everyone, including the guitar and keyboard techs, on Sennheiser G2 IEM systems, with the exceptions of Jake Shears and the two brass players, who prefer wedges. So Booker has sorted them out with two pairs of ADLIB MP3s.
For side fills on the bigger stages, he's using 2 VerTec 4888s flat on the floor. There are also a couple of ADLIB double 18 subs.
Both singers use Sennheiser G2500 radio mics with an 845 capsule, and BabyDaddy's has a 935 capsule
Booker uses a Yamaha PM5D console for his mix. There's a dbx drive rack processing the ADLIB wedges and XTA DP428s on the side fills.
For more info. check www.adlibaudio.co.uk.
