PARIS – Monitor engineer Laurent Midas has been mixing Christophe Maé's national arena tour Soundcraft platform, using a Vi6 and a Vi2 for drums and bass, two guitarists, a keyboard player and two backing vocals.
Potar Hurlant supplied the 96-channel Vi6 for the PMs, with sends to the floor monitors (plus additional mixes for guest performers) from a Vi2 supplied by Soundcraft's French distributors, SCV Audio.
Laurent Midas switched from a studio environment to live sound 15 years ago. "You could say I am specialized in IEM – around 95 percent of the time I am mixing in-ears … with or without wedges," he said.
Until recently he had been working in a different digital environment, but six months ago he met Pascal Briam at SCV Audio. Before long, Midas was beta-testing the latest Soundcraft Vi digital software for the Soundcraft Vi4, then visited Soundcraft's HQ in the U.K.
"Working in studios, I became familiar with the Vistonics interface from using the Studer Vista desks," Midas noted. "I encountered the Soundcraft Vi6 four years ago when the product was first released and was pleased to see that it used the same engine.
"When the software was adapted for the Vi4 it became like a brand new desk for me," Midas added. "I love the quality of the sound – just as I loved that Studer Vista sound."
When Christophe Maé started to experience problems with his previous monitor sound two years ago, Laurent was drafted in "to clean up the mix" – and he has remained with France's biggest album seller ever since. "This is probably the biggest tour I have worked on – other than Mylene Farmer in 2009," he said.
"Definitely the sound is my first goal – and I'm very happy with this desk," Midas said. "I also love the intuitive Vistonics touch screens and the MADI connection too – giving the ability to work in playback mode for virtual soundchecks."
Midas also spoke favorably of the "isolate" channels and parameters, the Aux VCA, the user-definable layers and the Fader-Glow color-coded desk design.
"I now look forward to being able to save sessions which can be used right across the Soundcraft Vi portfolio – on Vi1, Vi2 Vi4 and Vi6 without trouble," he said.
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