Take That, Britain’s biggest pop band since the 90s, commands multi-generational fans in their tens of thousands per night whilst performing in Europe. Here in Australia, the audiences may be smaller, but they still deliver a cracking show for thousands, as witnessed at Bimbadgen Estate in the Hunter Valley.
FOH Engineer Gary Bradshaw, who has been with the band since their inception in 1993, recently hung up his cables and handed the job to Luigi Buccarello. Luigi grew up in Rome Italy, moving to London 18 years ago to further his career as a musician and mixing engineer.
They were big shoes for Luigi to fill, but it was already a very well-oiled machine, which he respected.
“Once I got more familiar with the setup, I began to input more of myself, and gradually, it became my own show,” he remarked. “It felt pretty natural.”
There was no need for Luigi to start swapping out gear; fortunately, he uses the same as Gary, particularly the DiGiCo Quantum 7 console. Luigi had to have Avid consoles for many years, but a couple of years ago, he switched to DiGiCo, saying it felt like an inevitable transition.
“DiGiCo is pretty much the industry standard these days. It’s widely available, extremely versatile and support has been incredible,” he said. “Of the Quantum 7, I enjoy the workflow, the redundancy, the extra bank of faders. Everything is right in front of your eyes at any given time. Monitors is also on Quantum7, so we share racks which has also obviously brought great advantages.”
Luigi’s only outboard gear was a couple of Rupert Neve Designs 5045 Primary Source Enhancers on vocals; everything else was on the console or Waves.
“I use a fair amount of Waves,” he added. “I have used them for years and they feel very familiar. It’s such an extensive package, there is a tool in the box for anything you might need to do.”
When mixing such an iconic band, Luigi’s main challenge is delivering something as close to the album.
“People have been listening to their music for decades, I guess the greatest challenge is not to get in the way of that experience, just do the best you can to enhance it,” he mused.
When it comes to microphones, Luigi likes to keep them simple, saying if they work, why fix them? He tends to use gear that is industry-standard, reliable and honestly tried and tested.
On drums Luigi uses a Shure Beta 91/52 for Kick In and Out, Shure Beta 57/SM57 for snare Top and Bottom, Neuman KM184 on High Hats and Ride, Sennheiser e904 on Toms and AKG C414 for Over Heads. He says he has used this set for years adding that he loves the comfort of knowing them inside out. To Luigi, that is such a reference point when everything around you changes.
Luigi favours either an L-Acoustics K1 PA or, marginally ahead, a d&b audiotechnik GSL system. In Australia, JPJ Audio supplied an L-Acoustics rig with the Perth gig utilizing a d&B audiotechnik PA.
Luigi’s control package was supplied by SKAN in the UK. In Australia, JPJ supplied two L-Acoustics K1 Systems, with one being a duplicate PA for Sirromet and Qudos Bank Arena.
A DiGiCo Quantum 7 console was used for monitors run by James Neale as Take That’s regular monitor engineer, Becky Pell, could not make this leg of the tour. The band used Sennheiser IEMs.
JPJ Touring Crew: Tim Jones FOH SE, Tristan Farrow Monitor SE, Nicholas Elliott PA Rigger, Darby Higginson PA Rigger. Regan Downes FOH SE Duplicate PA, Matthew O’Keeffe PA Rigger Duplicate PA.
