AUSTIN, TX – Neon Trees was a featured act at SXSW this year and has been appearing on tour with My Chemical Romance and also a number of one-off fly dates. To meet the band's mixing needs, stage manager/monitor engineer Mike Bangs and FOH engineer Neal Duffy are using a pair of Allen & Heath iLive T112 consoles.
"We are using 24 inputs," noted Bangs, of the setup for the band, which has two guitars, bass, keyboard and drums along with four vocals. "We are sharing preamps between monitors and FOH and doing a digital split from the Monitor console's iDR-32, so our FOH snake is just one CAT5 cable.
"The second iDR-32 MixRack is currently being used for the FOH console's DSP," Bangs continued. "That will change when we start headlining on our next tour. We will go with more stereo instruments for Neon Trees, and we will use the second iDR-32 to handle support band inputs without having to unpatch anything."
Bangs, whose recent touring gigs include Kid Rock, Tom Petty, Aerosmith and Katy Perry, knew the iLives would be a good fit. "We had limited trailer space and some fly dates, so I was looking for a compact mixing system with lots of power," he said. "I needed something I could get into a case at under 50 pounds and put in the belly of a plane as checked baggage. The iDR-32 MixRack, racked in a Pelican case, comes in at 48.9 pounds. That was something that no one else could offer.
"Since the iDR-32 is basically the brains of the console, it's all I need for a fly date," Bangs continued. "Everything else goes in my carry-on bag. I did the first couple shows with just the laptop and iPad, using the Allen & Heath iPad App. Then I added the PL-6 so I could have some physical faders. That gives me hands-on control of the channels I'm constantly massaging – the crowd mics and vocal. The PL-6 is the perfect solution." The Allen & Heath PL-6 fader panel puts eight faders and 16 programmable function switches in a compact panel measuring less than 7 by 9 inches.
For remote control of the iDR-32, Bangs uses a Belkin dual-band wireless router to provide Wi-Fi access for both his laptop and iPad. "I use the iPad app on every show, not just fly dates," he noted. "It lets me stand on stage with the artist and hear what they're hearing. I was amazed with the lack of latency on the iPad App. When I touch the screen and push the fader, I hear the change in real time. A great tool."
On a tour that relies on house PA systems while carrying consoles, both the sonic performance and its operations are important considerations. Bangs and Duffy gave the console high marks for layout, ease of operation and sound quality. "I'm very happy with the preamps," Bangs said. "They have really nice warmth and plenty of headroom, so I can run them as hot as I like."
He also gave the thumbs-up to the sound and operation of the channel DSP and the EQ, and features including the onboard Real Time Analyzer (RTA), the sub-harmonic synthesizer, and subwoofer output control integrated into the channel strips on the iLive surface. "One of the coolest things on the iLive is having the sub knobs on the surface. You just hold down a button and the pan knob becomes a Sub Send. It's really convenient."
For their next tour, Neon Trees will be headlining the House of Blues circuit, and Bangs said he would be bringing his iLive-T112 consoles along. "What sold me on the iLive originally was the modular design, but as I've used it every day, I have to say that it's more than that," he concluded. "It's really intelligently laid out and user friendly, and has a nice, warm sound."
For more information, please visit www.allen-heath.com
