Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós have recently completed their first world tour in nearly five years, delivering a whopping 70 shows across 28 countries.
The band’s monitor Engineer, Throstur Albertsson, deployed KLANG’s immersive in-ear monitor mixing solution, using a DMI-KLANG card-equipped DiGiCo SD12 96 digital mixing console, supplied by new UK pro-audio equipment rental and support provider, 22live.
Off to a good start, the band commenced with rehearsals in Iceland mid-March, with Albertsson using the time as an opportunity to understand their sound preferences and prepare the equipment for the tour.
“DiGiCo’s SD12 96 console was already in full use by the band, together with an SD-Rack fitted with 32-bit in/out cards,” Albertsson explains. “Additionally, the band was using an IEM system and wedges as part of their standard setup.”
Since Albertsson was already using a DiGiCo SD12, it was a ‘no brainer’ for him to use the DMI-KLANG. “I get 64 channels into my KLANG prosessor and I can do 16 mixes with a latency of no more than 0.25ms.
“It worked smoothly and I found that implementing it with my existing show file was not a big deal, and my Snapshots would hold the information about placements and level for KLANG, with the setup the only thing stored on the card itself, which would include Groups, labels, etc,” he explains.
Woodhead put a call in to Paul Timmins, 22live’s Hire Director, to see how feasible it would be to supply KLANG for the remainder of the tour. “I was very happy to add KLANG to the spec,” comment Timmins.
“For 22live, we were already fully immersed in the understanding that KLANG was likely to be in demand going forwards and we had fortunately already committed to the product ordering four DMI-KLANG for stock.”
Albertsson received his DMI-KLANG card-equipped DiGiCo SD12 96 digital mixing console at the Backstage Centre in London, just before the first show of the EU leg in September.
The integration of DMI-KLANG with DiGiCo console was another revelation for Albertsson, and gave him full confidence that he could always go back to the same setup as before by simply having a macro that would disable KLANG, with the show still running.
“I never actually did that, but it was comforting to know that I could do it without messing things up,” he adds.
Albertsson also notes that the KLANG:app was a breeze to understand. “The setup needed a little homework, but it’s not rocket science, especially when you’ve got experience of using DiGiCo,” Albertsson says.
Since starting to use KLANG, Albertsson says his workflow has not changed, but his mixes have improved and sound more natural.
“The thing I like most about KLANG is that it removes the clutter between the instruments, whilst sharing the same FQ range, which makes things sound a lot clearer.
“After the tour touched base in Iceland in November for the final show of 2022, I had already purchased a KLANG:vokal processor so I could explore the benefits of 3D in-ear mixes further.
“I guess what has been said before is true: “Once you try it, it will be hard to mix in-ears without it!”
Sigur Rós are known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi’s falsetto vocals sung in Icelandic and non-linguistic vocalisations, as well as their use of bowed guitar.