Europe - Popular Belgian singer Geike Arnaert spent the summer playing a number of European festival shows, her mixture of sparsely-arranged pop and haunting ballads providing a popular counterpoint to many of the other performers. Ensuring that the former Hooverphonic lead singer and her six-piece backing band had the appropriate monitor mixes was a DiGiCo SD11, manned by the band's regular engineer Gert Vreys.
Vreys asked Apex Audio to supply a suitable digital console for the festival shows. "I was happy to use the SD11," says Vreys. "I made up a custom 14U rack, which had the D-Rack and the wireless IEM and microphone units built in to it. I put the SD11 on top of it and so only needed one square metre of space, (which was ideal for festivals), as I could fit into any corner of the stage. It meant that I was out of the way, but the band could always see me.
"I also liked the fact that, even though it's so compact, the SD11 works the same as all the other SD desks. So once you know one of them, you know the others too.
"As a monitor engineer, I like to closely follow the dynamics of the band and change the mixes accordingly. Digital mixers can be more about button pushing and screen changing, which can distract me from looking at the musicians. But I set up macros to have quick access to all of the mixes and, after a little practise, I was operating the SD11 at a fast pace. It definitely exceeded my expectations regarding the speed of operation and it was very reliable.
"Geike and the band were very pleased with the DiGiCo SD11 on the festival tour. It is ideal for festivals and it will be nice to continue using DiGiCo on the theatre tour."