Sound engineer Cam Trewin has been working with Rüfüs Du Sol for almost nine years now saying they are incredibly focused on the sonic picture of their live set.
“The band and I work very closely to match it texturally to the album whilst creating big dynamic moments in the show,” he added.
The band has just finished playing a handful of outdoor shows in Australia including two nights at The Domain in Sydney. For these Sydney shows Cam used an Eighth Day Sound d&b system consisting of 16 x GSL8 with 2 x GSL12 per side on the main hangs. Side fills were 8 x GSL8 with 4 x GSL12 per side. Subs consisted of 20 SL subs with 4 x additional Infra subs. For the delays, there were 4 x towers each containing 12 J8 boxes on each tower all Array Processed along with the main and side fill.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to have had the same control system front and back from 8DS for the last year and a half,” remarked Cam. “I use an Avid S6L 32d with an additional redundant Avid 24c, to my right-hand side I have a double wide rack which consists of UAD live racks, MADI splitter system, Record main and redundant record computers, S6L engine and dual Wave’s servers. On the right-hand side of the rack a Shout system, reference mics interface, Lake Tablet, 2 x LM44 Lake Processors, SMAART computer & UPS.”
Cam has been using the Avid S6L console coming up to six years. The show is heavily programmed all to timecode with multiple snapshots and events within each song.
“For me, the programmability, streamlined recording, Pro Tools integration and sonic characteristic all are factors why I’ve chosen to stay and use the Avid S6L,” he said. “There are many things to consider when mixing a band like RÜFÜS, the main consideration is the broad range frequency response of the show. This concert will have all frequency elements in it, that’s why I require a PA that will help replicate these sounds. There are big dance floor sub-drops and gentle acoustic vocal moments through to rock out drum heavy jams. Lots of pre-production, rehearsals and programming help deliver the consistency in the mix every night.”
A combination of mics is used, mainly Earthworks on the drums and Shure KSM9 HS for the lead vocal.
James Gueness is the band’s long-standing monitor engineer and he too is using an Avid S6L with some outboard, 3 x SSL Fusions and Bricasti Reverbs. The band and crew all use IEMs on JH in ears with Shure PSM 1000 packs.
Cam reports that The Domain shows were fairly straightforward with no big challenges.
“The main consideration when predicting our PA response was trying to steer away from our one sensitive receiver, which was the boundary across the road from the gig,” he added. “The PA People had a measurement system setup there and we managed to stay compliant and not exceed level once during the show, all whilst maintaining a much higher SPL level for the crowd. Big win!
The shows were great with 50,000 happy and loud fans across two nights, and perfect weather to boot, got to be happy with that!
Photos: Pat Stevenson
