SWANSEA, UK — The Storys, a band from South Wales that recently released its first album on its own label, has now completed a second UK tour supporting none other than Sir Elton John. Playing to crowds of up to 30,000 at prominent arenas and sports grounds throughout the UK and Europe, the band and its Sound Engineer Dale Hanson have been traveling with their own front-of-house desk, a Soundcraft Vi6 digital live mixing console.
According to FOH Engineer Hanson, “The first time I got my hands on a Vi6 was at the O2 Arena’s club, Indigo2. That immediately made my mind up — we had to use one on tour.”
The Storys were opening the show, having been invited personally by Sir Elton John to return to some of the country’s biggest outdoor stages on another UK tour, following success in 2006. “The band went down so well over the course of the shows last summer, I wanted more people to hear about them, and so I asked them to play a few more dates with me,” Elton John said.
On the road for six weeks, the six-piece band played ten venues. “And the Vi6 has performed perfectly throughout. No matter what conditions we performed in, including the Sor Arena in Norway where all the crews experienced problems with the continuous rain, the Vi6 never hesitated and gave us a perfect show every time,” says Hanson. “As the support band, we often have to wait our place in the queue for sound checks, and that can mean limited time to get it all done. The Vi6’s simple, fast-to-operate and easy-to-learn surface was perfectly suited. In fact, I only had a short training session at the Soundcraft factory just before we left on tour and never once did I have to look at the manual — everything is laid out logically, meaning minimal searching for functions.”
“I particularly like the mic preamps, which meant I spent less time EQing; I mainly used hi- and lo-pass filters. The auto-gain on the compressors particularly helped me as The Storys are a real vocal harmony band and the desk kept the vocals clear at a controllable level. And the Vistonics II control of the Lexicon effects was perfect; laid out like an analog unit, great sound and very easy to use. No complicated pages to flick through and I really loved the tap delay.”
Since Hanson and The Storys toured with the Soundcraft Vi6, Version 2.0 software for both the Vi6 and Vi4 was previewed at the AES Convention in New York City and has now been made available to Vi Series console users. The new functionality includes comprehensive Copy/Paste, Libraries and Master Linking.
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For information, please visit www.soundcraft.com.
