Dido Rocks Out With Milo

nglish chanteuse Dido recently toured Australia in support by combining the Milo system with premium microphones, of her release Life For Rent – the much-anticipated follow- premium on-stage preamplifiers, a digital console, and an all- Eup to her multi-million selling No Angel debut album. New important precision word clock source keeping everything bang Zealand-based Oceania Audio supplied the audio production for on time. the tour including their latest acquisition – a Meyer Sound Milo Mark mixes Dido and her six-piece band on a Yamaha PM- PA system. 1D console. “I wanted a good, solid digital console because I Three Canadians look after Dido’s audio: Mark LeCorre the realised at rehearsals that there were lots of effect cues, delays front of house Engineer, Jamie Howieson the systems techni- on vocals… basically a lot going on! We knew that the only way cian and Paul McManus on monitors. They work as a close-knit we would be able to pull it off was to have recallable scenes team and have embraced the latest digital technology to ensure from song to song. During rehearsals we decided to beef it up a optimum results. bit with 48 channels of True Systems Precision 8 preamps into The concert delivered an extraordinarily crystal-clear the line inputs on the PM-1D [True Systems is an Arizona-based sound which, according to Mark LeCorre, has been created audio design company]. We’re also clocking with the Apogee Big Ben. “The Big Ben really brought the sound of the console together. Suddenly it sounded like a nice, warm analogue console. We’re recording everything in ProTools so we decided to use ProTools plug-ins as well for processing. A lot of dynamic processing is going on in ProTools and then inserting back in each channel.” The only outboard effects used by LeCorre, besides the ProTools and what’s already in the console, is the TC Electronic System 6000 which he uses for reverb on Dido’s vocal. “It’s the best sounding reverb I’ve ever heard and it has a great, touch-sensitive control surface,” he added. “Dido’s records are very well arranged but then they’ve taken it another step live; there’s more percussion, interesting effects and dynamics. It’s a lot more bombastic in the bottom end – a kind of trip hop, dub sound. For Dido’s vocal I use an ISA 110 mic pre-amp on stage, which runs line level into a Focusrite ISA 220 compresser and EQ. I then insert a Waves C4 multiband compressor, a Waves de-esser and a Bombfactory LA-2A plug-in in ProTools. This combination of analogue and digital processing keeps her vocal clear and present, without it ever being harsh or sibilant.” Dido has a Sennheiser endorsement and uses a 500 Series wireless microphone with an e865 capsule. “It delivers a good combination of fidelity and rejection,” explained LeCorre. “We started out using a Neumann KMS105, which is a great sounding mic, but it was picking up too much of the percussion and drums for her.” LeCorre used a Meyer M3D system for the last Dido tour which he loved but found a little on the heavy side and not very flexible for the variety of venues they had to play. Enter the Meyer Milo system: this high-power curvilinear array is the ‘light-heavyweight’ entry in Meyer Sound’s M Series of self-powered line arrays. Milo is compact and lightweight for a self-contained, four-way system – particularly considering that it delivers 140dB SPL peak output with an impressively flat phase and frequency response. Milo contains three dedicated very- high frequency transducers that extend its operating range to 18kHz, increase available high frequency headroom, and result in extra resolution of delicate transients, even in very long throw applications.

28 “The Milo is the perfect box, I love it!” he said. “The coverage to venue. Two Electro-Voice X-Line double 18-inch subs per side is great, and the top-end clarity is amazing – I don’t think there’s are also used. Another Apogee Big Ben clock synchronises all of another box on the market that has that kind of high fidelity. The the digital devices. Like LeCorre, McManus also uses a Focusrite bottom two boxes are 120º [horizontal dispersion] and they are ISA220 on Dido’s vocal and a Manley leveling amplifier for actually what they say they’re supposed to be – 120º x 20º. You both bass channels. A dbx 160SL stereo compressor/limiter is can walk from the FOH position right up to the front and the used – one side for the acoustic DI and the other side for Dido’s sound is seamless.” acoustic. The system is comprised of 26 Milo 90, four Milo 120 along “I build a ‘mixing plateau’ for Mark so he can mix comfort- with six Meyer M3D sub-woofers in the air. Also in the air was a ably, like in a studio, knowing that the audio sounds the same total of 16 Meyer M2Ds for side hang. On the ground there were 12 Electro-Voice subwoofers, four Turbosound subwoofers, four “You can walk from the FOH position Meyer UPA 1B and four Oceania T12 boxes. Howieson describes the Milo system as “very predictable with right up to the front and the sound is a good sounding speaker”. “When I put seamless.” a bunch of them together, the everywhere in the room,” describes Howieson when asked how rig acts like it’s he works with LeCorre. “That way he can concentrate on the supposed to,” he mixing and not the room EQ.” said. “I find Milo After the rigging is in place first thing in a morning, Howieson easier to work starts MAPP online, Meyer Sound’s acoustical prediction with than any program to assess the venue. Once that’s done, he can direct the other line array. crew where to hang the PA and at what angle. Next Howieson It sounds good conducts a complete loudspeaker box check using Meyer’s RMS and is easy to (Remote Monitoring System), a digital network that links all the equalise.” speaker boxes and reports on their status to a central computer. Monitor Once the PA is in its correct place and has been checked, Engineer Paul Howieson can then time-align the system, adjusting the signal McManus uses a delays feeding the PA so that all of the sound leaves the stage at second Yamaha the same time. Then he can start to EQ the system. PM-1D console to From his position at FOH, Howieson can control the EQ and mix monitors. The time-alignment for every zone in the venue. He has a central entire band is on computer that runs the entire control and measurement system. in-ear monitors Running off the central computer is a wireless tablet which he – Sennheiser can carry around the venue whilst EQing various zones as well Evolution Series as monitoring that zone. – keeping the “That way I can ensure even tonality throughout the venue,” stage volume he said. comparatively quiet and consis- tent from venue Meyer Sound: (07) 3252 4433 or www.meyersound.com.au