Tom Stell, an Australian deep house/dance DJ and producer, has performed as Golden Features since 2014. The name Golden Features is a nod to the gold mask he wears while performing.
Now cemented as Australian electronic music royalty, Golden Features recently toured the country as an artist at the top of his game with his Sisyphus Tour.
Craig Gordon has been mixing front of house for Golden Features since he released his Sect album in 2018 saying that he is a great guy.
“To see how much work Tom has put into this album and live show, seeing the outcome is unbelievable,” said Craig. “I’m very thankful to be involved.”
When mixing his show, Craig receives Tom’s stems which he has controlled via two Novation Launch Control MIDI controllers.
“So Tom has kick, drums, bass and vocals stems which he controls with the Novation controllers on stage … delays, filters, beat repeaters all set up through Ableton,” explained Craig. “Then he’s got a SSL BiG SiX mixer on stage which he runs all of his synths and stuff through and has an Elektron Analog Heat which he has inserted over the console with extra effects. This comes to me on a stereo channel, so he’s running MIDI notes from Abelton to some of these synthesizers and works the filters and patches live on those.”
Craig comments that many acts are performing this way with stems on Ableton rather than touring with drummers and extra band, adding that it’s a shame but it’s getting too expensive to tour extra band members these days.
In-house PA systems were used throughout the tour with JPJ Audio supplying the monitor and FOH consoles plus Tom’s stage monitors consisting of 4 d&b E8s and a couple of d&b V-SUB. Audio Technik supplied the Perth show.
“We did bring in a d&b KSL PA at Margaret Court Arena and that was a great gig,” added Craig. “The Hordern show was also a good one although we would have liked to have brought some KS28 subs in but still the PA was really good. In Adelaide, we played the Hindley St Music Hall and I enjoyed how the PA sounds there. Brisbane’s a bit hard because Fortitude Music Hall has got some crappy noise restrictions and it’s almost unworkable. But you can get there in the end with a lot of work.”
Craig was mixing on an Avid S6L with his outboard gear comprising of a Midas XL42 channel preamp + EQ as well as a C2 compressor over the left/right buss.
“I’m using a little less outboard gear now due to travelling and trying to get the budget for it these days seems pretty hard,” added Craig. “So, I have all the stems and I use dynamic EQs to tighten the sound, just frequencies that stand out, and then I run them into a group and use a multiband and just some compression to finish off and tie it all together also helps with noise limits when needed.”
There are no microphones onstage just all electronics.
Matt “Boz” Boaro ran monitors on the tour using a DiGiCo SD11 and Toby Chew Lee was playback tech looking after the Ableton and all the synths.
The tour has now finished although there will be festival dates later in the year. Meanwhile, Craig will go on tour to the US with another of his clients Genesis Owusu.
Photos: Mitch Lowe www.mitchlowephoto.com
@livingloudproductions
