FT. WALTON BEACH, FL – For live sound engineers, touring without carrying a mixing console is like working without a net. But for touring artists like country music's Chris Young, it helps get their music in front of their fans.
"Every night is different, and that's not always a good thing," said Brian Tapley, who handles both house and monitor mixes for Young. "You're at the mercy of the venue, so it's always nice to find something that's easy to work with."
When Tapley walked into The Block nightclub here, he was presented with an Allen & Heath iLive-144 digital mixing console from the venue's audio supplier, Brendon Grimes of TSC Productions.
"Before the band arrived, I set up the surface according to Chris Young's input list with the routing set up to the main PA," Grimes said. "Brian had never used an iLive before. So I gave him a quick tutorial, showed him some features I thought he might like, and set him loose. Within about five minutes, he went straight to sound check."
"When I used the iLive-144 at The Block, I was really impressed," said Tapley. "I've used a lot of digital desks, and I would have to call it the most intuitive design I've seen. I learned it, liked it, and just wished I had a couple more shows so I could really get into everything it can do. I definitely would have loved to take it with us."
Based out the Nashville area, Tapley has been mixing on stage and in studio for 17 years, and started mixing for country star Chris Young in 2009. Young's second album RCA album, The Man I Want to Be, has already produced two chart singles, including his first #1 country single, "Getting' You Home (The Black Dress Song)," and a Top New Solo Vocalist nomination from the Academy of Country Music. As a result, Young, with Brian Tapley behind the console, will be touring heavily this year.
"It just wasn't that hard to figure out," said Tapley. "The layout was a little intimidating at first, but after I got the rundown from Brendon, I was surprised at how easy it was to get a great sound. The channel strips being left-to-right instead of up/down actually looks a lot stranger than it actually is. I found the iLive to be very intuitive. In fact, we're talking about adding it to our rider."
One of the iLive's features that Tapley enjoyed most is the "EQ Fader Flip," which lets the engineer convert the faders on the control surface into a huge graphic equalizer. "Have the graphic EQ for the house on the main faders is just brilliant," he said. "Having all the faders on the 144 all lined up, all the way across, with one button-push – I absolutely loved that. Very fast, very convenient."
Tapley also noted that the iLive's frequency indicator lights could serve as a useful tool to engineers for setting up room EQ without resorting to use of an RTA spectrum analyzer. "The frequency indicator lights can be useful in identifying feedback frequencies when ringing out a room," he pointed out. "It would definitely speed up the process without leaving your EQ curve unnecessarily chopped up."
According to Brendon Grimes of TSC Productions, Tapley's reaction is fairly typical. "When a recording artist comes through the Florida panhandle and plays The Block Club, it's a great opportunity to show off the iLive," he said. "And once they've actually used the desk, seen the compact size and everything it can do, it opens their eyes. This is a very rider-friendly board, and the touring engineers see that right away."
Brian Tapley agrees. "2010 will be a busy year for us," he says. "We have a couple major tours coming up and a lot of headline dates for Chris Young as well," agreed Tapley. "At last count, we were at over 100 full-band shows the rest of the year, and that really only takes us into October. So we're talking about carrying our own stuff, and that one night at The Block Club has made the iLive part of that conversation."
For more information, please visit www.ilive-digital.com
