Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds tour Asia with Midas Pro2
Published: ASIA
ASIA: FOH and monitors engineers Antony King and Nahuel Gutierrez have utilised a number of different Midas consoles during Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ year-long world tour. Recently the tour visited Asia, where a Pro2 was the console of choice.
The pair began the world tour with a Midas Pro6 and then took on an XL8 console for the arena leg, and then used a Pro2C for festivals.
‘The High Flying Birds tour has demanded several different engineering approaches to make it work,’ explained Mr Gutierrez. ‘We had a Pro6 in every territory for the first three months of the tour. Then we came back to the UK and into the arenas and we changed over to the XL8, primarily because we needed a lot more channels. In America we chose to use a Pro2. That was principally so that we could sync everything for the upcoming South American leg – we needed the smaller surface so it could be shipped out without too much cost,’ he added. ‘We then returned to the UK for the festival season. Because we had a really good time on the Pro2s we elected to use them all summer. Now we’re back to the XL8 for the final arena run with the choir.’
Discussing monitors, Mr Gutierrez continued: ‘I love the warmth of the Midas sound: its distinctive. All digital desks work the same way; they convert signals and do some calculations to put them all together. It’s how Midas does these calculations that makes all the difference. You can push the Midas mix that little bit more.’
Mr King noted that migrating between the different desks was not complicated: ‘It takes five minutes to adjust the patching, but it’s basically the same set up. In rehearsals I started on the Pro6, scaled it up to an XL8 and then back again to a Pro2 for the festivals and we have moved relatively seamlessly between each one.’
‘I don’t like consoles that rely on touch screens to navigate,’ furthered Mr Gutierrez. ‘I like knowing that one knob does one thing. I’m one of the last generations to have learned my craft on an analogue desk. Midas feels like an analogue desk but carries all the advantages of a digital platform, and that’s another reason why I like it.’