The rig consisted of a groundstacked array of 4 D&B Q7′s on top of 2 QSubs on either side of the stage, with a centre cluster of Meyer HP600′s. FoH was mixed on a Yamaha M7CL. Wedges were a combination of D&B Max12′s and EV sxA250′s.

Click on an image below to enlarge!

The video below shows the terrible effects of a bored sound engineer:

I replaced the audio on this video, as I have not yet got permission from the bands to use it, but the video should give you a quick overview of the buzz at the festival this year.

Monitors were D&B Max 12′s and the console was the Yamaha M7CL.

Aladdin in Greystones Theatre

I had the amazing pleasure of doing the sound for St. Brigid’s School’s production of Mary Poppins and Aladdin! It ran for 2 nights in the Greystones Theatre. Usually these kids’ show are very samey, but this one blew me away!

The “Junior Choir” opened the night with their production of Mary Poppins, going through all the songs from Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! to A Spoonful of Sugar. They belted out the tunes and narrated the story before the interval when the “Senior Choir” got ready to perform Aladdin!

Not a normal Aladdin Script!

This was no normal Aladdin script though – this was a specially adapted version called Aladdin Jr. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life! It generally followed the same story, but the language was a lot easier and it was much funnier – although the lead characters still had a huge amount of lines to learn! Keep in mind that these kids are all under 12!

The cast of Aladdin performing in Greystones Theatre

The Genie was hilarious – and somehow was always the one who ended up having to ad-lib to cover up silences! Aladdin and Jasmine both blew the audience away with their singing on “A Whole New World”. The narrators remembered a very large chunk of the script and kept us informed of all the developments in Aladdin’s love affair!

I just have to commend all the kids and teaching staff that were involved in that production! I would have watched it a few more times if I could have!

Now the fun bit!

Mix position which got surprisingly busy at times!

The 4 main characters wore Sennheiser mics, and took care of them very well! I was slightly worried about giving packs to kids this small, but they were impeccably behaved!

The rest of the cast were picked up by4 AKG mics across the front of the stage, as well as 3 more hanging above the stage.

The narrators used one of 3 SM58′s across the front of the stage. These were also used for some solo songs by cast members who were not individually mic’d.

The band consisted of keys, 2 guitars, bass, drum machine and a flute.

I was mixing on a Yamaha M7CL digital desk, and ended up using 28 channels in total!

I am a very big fan of the Yamaha M7CL for its ease of use. In fact I have lots of experience on most of the Yamaha digital range – from the 01V to the LS9 to the M7 and all the way up to the PM5D. You can go back and forward on any of those desks and have a very small learning curve. I love them…

But then along comes the DiGiCo SD8, and a lot of my favoritism for Yamaha boards gets sucked away. I have never mixed on a DiGiCo board, but from talking to other engineers it seems that you can take to it like a duck to water. The desk seems very well laid out, and is very very cheap for what you get. Its only £31,539 excluding the VAT. Thats only €44,600 including the VAT!

Take a peek at its overview video, and let me know what you think!