STIGTOMTA, Sweden – PA rental company Parashoot, based here, has been supporting Norwegian singer songwriter Ane Brun’s European tour with an Allen & Heath iLive and ME personal monitoring system for FOH and monitors, respectively. Parashoot, which has worked with Ane Brun since 2007, used an iLive-T112 system, mixing both FOH and monitors on the same console. xDR-16 I/O expander racks were positioned on stage, one left and one right, along with an iDR-16 MixRack. The ME setup includes five ME-1 personal mixers with a ME-U hub as the power and distribution system on stage.
More details from Allen & Heath (www.allen-heath.com):
“I took the ME-1s down to rehearsals and everyone was thrilled with them. The layout is easy, you can pan and it’s a sleek looking tool,” says Parashoot’s sound engineer and owner, Oscar Söderlund.
The band’s instrument setup includes two drum kits with open miking, an upright bass with FX pedals, various guitars, two keyboards, backing vocalists and Brun. All musicians bar one used in ear monitors, and Parashoot opted to use Allen & Heath’s ME personal monitoring system, comprising five ME-1 personal mixers with a ME-U hub as the power and distribution system on stage.
“I took the ME-1s down to rehearsals and everyone was thrilled with them. The layout is easy, you can pan and it’s a sleek looking tool,” says Parashoot’s sound engineer and owner, Oscar Söderlund.
As Söderlund was also managing monitors from FoH, the ME-1s helped take the stress out of soundcheck and the show so he could focus on the PA and Ane’s mix.
Söderlund discovered Allen & Heath in 2008 when a friend suggested he try iLive, which resulted in him investing in an iDR-48 MixRack and iLive-T112 system. The company now owns a flexible hire stock, including three iLive-T112 surfaces, two iLive-R72 surfaces and four MixRacks, which are interchangeable systems.
“When I first toured with iLive, the feeling was great. You pull up the fader and it sounds so different to what I had heard before with other consoles, it’s so natural – I fell in love! What struck me was the FX, they are the best emulations in the digital console business. I was dealing with 28” bass drums with no padding, and I found I could really extend the reverbs in my mix and create great landscapes,” explains Söderlund.
“It’s not often that you do something and think I couldn’t have done that any better. Would it have been better with another console? No, I’d always go back to A&H. It’s been the best 5 years of my life!” he concludes.
To see the full interview with Oscar Söderlund, visit Allen & Heath’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLKjAgHzxJY#t=12
