LOS ANGELES — Lucinda Williams puts her poetry to pavement, traversing via “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road” in her travels “West.” On her ninth studio album, “Little Honey,” Williams brings her critically lauded songs and show to fans across the states. The tour’s audio backbone comprises dual DiGiCo D1 live sound consoles at the hands of longtime monitor engineer Kevin Madigan and new-to-the-fold engineer James McCullagh (Joss Stone, Alanis Morissette, INXS, Journey) at FOH.
DiGiCo has been an integral part of Madigan’s live sound kit, be it at FOH or on the monitor sidelines, on tours from The Eels to Grateful Dead bassist-turned-bandleader Phil Lesh. When McCullagh signed on with Lucinda, he’d already logged miles on DiGiCo faders with Joss Stone back in 2005, so it was an easy transition.
“Kevin is a big DiGiCo guy, he has been using one since they came out, in fact I think he owns one himself,” said McCullagh. “I had used a D1 previously with Joss and it was my decision back then to take her off an analog console and put her on a digital one — with the DiGiCo being my first choice. The reason for this was, that at the same time we were changing from wedges to in-ear monitors, and as a monitor guy, it was immensely useful having a digital console while mixing ears.”
He continues, “The D1 offered me everything I needed. I toured with her for over a year and got plenty of experience on the DiGiCo, so when I got this gig and Kevin told me we were using D1s, I was completely fine with it. I really love the console and more than likely would have picked it anyway. I’ve used a bunch of different products, and I’m well versed in most of them, but I personally find the DiGiCo a lot quicker to get around, and as a result, more practical for me.”
On paper, the band is using about 32 inputs, but in reality it’s more like 56, says McCullagh. “Coming offstage there’s 32, but then we’ve got audience and record mics, and I send a FOH mix down to Kevin and that’s coming up on two channels so he can assign that to side stage speakers or anywhere he wants. I also double up a bunch of drum channels and route them through some processing and then back into the board on separate faders, for a different sound. All in all we’ve racked up quite a lot of inputs.”
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