LONDON — Adlib Audio continued their ongoing relationship with UK indie rockers the Kaisers Chiefs, supplying all sound equipment and crew for the band's latest arena leg of their "Off With Their Heads" world tour.
Adlib's systems tech Tony Szabo has worked with the band and FOH engineer Chris Leckie since Adlib first won the sound contract in 2007.
Leckie once again specified a JBL VerTec line array, known for its reliability and light weight, helping it adapt to some of the smaller venues on the tour. “We can get 11 cabinets on a 1 tonne point,” Szabo noted.
The tour includes a total of 60 VT4889 mid hi cabinets for the arena leg, together with 16 of the updated VerTec 4880A subs and 16 of the new L-Acoustics SB28 subs. The L-Acoustics SB28 formed a solid ground stack while the Vertec subs were flown.
A typical configuration was 16 deep VT4889s for the front hangs and 14 for the sides, with eight flown VerTec subs per side.
Both L-Acoustics ARCS and dVDOSC boxes were used for front fill along with Adlib's standard-issue Lake processing via wireless tablet remote, which did all the EQ and crossovers. The crew used a Meyer SIM 3 machine for additional EQ, time alignment and fine-tuning.
Adlib also had the opportunity to road test the new Lab.gruppen PLM14000 amplifiers, complete with onboard Lake processing, which were used to drive the VerTec subs. As a result, they are buying 12 of the two-channel versions they had on the tour. "Unlike most of the competition, they do exactly what it says on the tin," said Szabo — "deliver 7000 Watts into 2 Ohms per channel and make the subs sound simply amazing."
Leckie's preferred console is currently the Soundcraft Vi6, and he used most of the onboard processing and effects facilities, adding a personal collection of Alesis midi-verbs. He uses these to get the vintage rock sound that characterizes much of the Kaiser's music.
The key sonic aims are to produce a suitably loud and visceral experience for everyone in the room, and also for the quirky and intelligent lyrics to sit clearly and intelligibly on top of the mix.
Adlib supplied a Yamaha M7CL console for the support acts.
"It's all gone extremely smoothly," said Szabo, who worked alongside fellow Adlibbers Richy Nicholson, Declan Fyans and monitor babysitter Marc Peers.
A custom amp rack dolly, which housed 8 amp racks, helped speed the load-ins. It was simply forked out of the truck and deposited stage right every day.
Over in Monitor world, Kaisers engineer Ilias Adrianatos used 13 d&b M2 wedges, with keyboardist Nick “Peanut” Baines and drummer Nick Hodgson on a Sennheiser G2 IEM system.
Adrianatos mixed through a DigiDesign Profile — currently also Peers’ favorite desk — which worked well for some of the smaller venues in Europe where stage space was tight.
Adrianatos ran 12 mixes, including the band's IEMs, and made use of the Profile’s onboard effects and processing. Lead singer Ricky Wilson also had an IEM set-up at FOH for his customary appearance out there towards the end of their sets.
The Kaisers like it loud onstage, and to ensure there were no issues there, the side fills were made up from three flown ARCS boxes per side and two SB28 subs on the deck.
"It's always good working with Chris and Ilias,” said Peers. “They are working engineers, they know what they want and get involved in setting up and breaking down each day. They have our absolute respect.”
For more information, please visit www.adlibaudio.co.uk.
