Issue 34 • November 2010 INTERNATIONAL

Can't fake the funkTony Andrews looks back on 40 years in the business

)- LIVE SOUND OPINION

I~love the newtechnology we- have, but

instinctualnature has nowbeen replaced

by thoughtprocesses.

Dave Swallow

You might, and probably will be thinking 'Who on earth isthis Cat Empire lot?' Well, it is probably the biggest unknownband ever. They hail from Melbourne, Australia and by theend of their month-long European tour will have played toabout 40,000 people. Quite impressive for a band no one hasheard of. I only joined the band for a small portion of theEuropean adventure as another pressing La Rouxment hadcome up in my schedule.

The list of gigs on the UK leg includes Birmingham,Bournemouth, Bristol and Brixton Academies. These kind ofvenues start to highlight a small problem being faced by liveengineers the world over, and that problem presents itself inthe form of consoles.

Don't worry, you aren't going to be hearing those hackneyedsayings about analog being better than digital, or that weshould embrace these new technologies. No, none of that, Ihave my very own thoughts on that of analog vs digital. Theway I see it is that analog is like 35mm film, and digital is likeHigh Definition film - both equally stunning in their ownright, but both have two completely different feels. It alldepends on the application; if you watch a nature program inHD, it looks stunning, but when watching a film in HD it canfeel too real. A nature programme shot on 35mm can look flatand boring, whereas a film can look rendered and warm.

I'm one of those people who grew up learning to mix onanalog consoles, which in itself doesn't cause any problemswith today's more technologically advanced mixing consoles,but it might give a slightly better understanding of putting amix together. In days gone by we used to have our entireaudio pallet in front of us, which enabled us to create a mix.Now with scene recall and channels being hidden way inlayers, the creative side seems to be slipping away because bythe time you want to tweet, the moment has past. Not onlythat, but if you aren't able to carry your own console - andhouse desks are the order of the day - you have to spend timere-learning the mixer because they are all different.

I love the new technology we have and the options that arenow at our fingertips are immense, but the instinctual naturethat once was has now been replaced by thought processesbecause of the vast amounts of different layouts. It's likechanging the pedals and indicators around on your car.Every time you approach a stop sign, you really need to thinkotherwise you'll end up in the front garden opposite with yourwindscreen wipers on full blast. And this happens a lot if youthink about the amount of different venue consoles weencounter from day to day.

We'll get there, but I just feel we aren't just yet.Dave Swallows book, Live Audio: The Art of Mixing a Showis an all-in-one guide to live sound mixing that describes theentire process of working a live show. Real world examplesare combined with essential details covering the technicaland practical aspects of the live sound mixing. It is availablefrom Focal Pro

Letter from the FrontRenowned FOH engineer Dave Swallow brings us his first monthly column ...

Hello and welcome to my brand new monthly columnfor Audio Pro International. Please allow me a momentto introduce myself, after all it would be rude and

presumptuous of me not to, seeings as you are taking the timeto read my words.

I'm an audio engineer in the live field, working with artistssuch as La Roux, Amy Winehouse, Seasick Steve and a fairfew others over the last 15 years. I'm also the author of a bookcalled Live Audio: The Art of Mixing a Show, which is more ofa point-you-in-the-right-direction kind of book rather than atext-book-style approach. The reason behind it is that thereader gains an understanding of how and why things work inorder to get into the frame of mind of an engineer. It runs in alinier order from load in and soundcheck to getting your mixtogether and load out, so that you get the information as youneed it rather than having to retain the information fromprevious chapters.

Over the next few months I'm going to be writing aboutwhat I'm doing and where I'm going, while giving you hints,tips, stories and situations from the road. So, the firstquestions is: where do we start now?

Luckily for me, I had a pretty busy year, so at the end ofAugust I started a nice long break. As October approached itwas about time to get back to work, so off! went for a quietsix-day holiday before meeting the Cat Empire in Amsterdam.

Dave Swallow is a is-year veteran FOH engineer who has worked wi