Two-time ARIA and nine-time CMAA Golden Guitar winner Fanny Lumsden supported Paul Kelly as he performed his largest-ever headline shows in Australia to date.
Pat Withers has been mixing Fanny Lumsden and her band for the past 18 months. As they began to move into larger festivals and venues, they sought to elevate their live production.
Pat’s brief from Fanny was to feel big and powerful in the loud and fun moments, and dynamic and intimate in the softer storytelling moments.
Pat mixed the show on an A&H dLive CTi1500 with CDM48, Waves card, and DX168 stage boxes. He also carries an outboard SSL Fusion for a bit of FOH glue and describes mixing the act as a challenge in the best way possible.
“This project isn’t the type of music that I’m usually working with, which pushes me to not just mix them like a pop or rock band, but to create a big sound that doesn’t feel pushed or too in your face,” Pat remarked. “They are all great players and vocalists, which makes it a pleasure to mix.
“To make sure the vocal dynamic of the show doesn’t get out of hand, I need to constantly keep the harmonies in check, so they don’t get away from Fanny’s vocal. Some soft compression is applied to each vocal channel, with all of them being routed through a group that is compressed slightly harder. Then, the L/R mix bus is used to achieve the desired effect.”
Pat used his ‘go to’ mic setup of Audix D6 on kick out, (he doesn’t use a kick in), Shure B56 and B57 on snare top and bottom, DPA 4099s on the rest of the kit with Roland triggers keying the gates. Radial DIs for the guitars and keys.
“We are an amp-free stage at the moment, which is great for the amount of live vocals on stage,” added Pat. “When our keys player is able to travel his Lesle, he has some more DPAs kitted up.”
Shure ULXD radio mic kits with SE SV7 capsules were used for Fanny and Tom on BVs, cabled SE SV7s for everyone else.
Pat also mixes monitors from FOH, which he says works well. There are 40 inputs from the stage with double-patched monitor channels, which add up to just over 80 processed channels, including talk mics with radial hotshots for everyone on stage.
“With only twelve faders on the surface, I’m using every soft key available for DCA spills, mute groups, sends on fader, tap tempos, etc,” he said. “It really is an easy surface to handle shows with high channel counts. Everyone is on Shure PSM1000 IEMs, no wedges on stage.”
Pat toured his own console package, RF and Mic kit, XLR and CAT6A line package, with A&H DX168 stage boxes and Onestage Lynx IO boxes.
“I have a custom patch master system for the Onestage boxes that is mounted in the CDM48 mix rack,” Pat added. “All gear was supplied by my company, NPW Productions Pty Ltd We have multiple A&H dLive systems, RF and Mic packages available in fly kits for hire.”
As for the biggest challenge at this gig, Pat says that, like many artists in Australia, they are currently running lean on crew. During the recent support run for Paul Kelly, he was the only crew member on the road with Fanny, covering the TM/PM/FOH/MONS role, which is a significant responsibility for arenas.
“I have done this with multiple artists across Australian and international tours, so I have my workflows in place, which makes it achievable, he commented. “But it makes for a long day at the office.
“On this tour, we also squeezed in a set at The Gympie Muster between Paul Kelly shows, we added some additional horns and had a great show.”
A d&b KSL PA was used for all shows except Hobart, which was a d&b J series rig.
“Clancy Travers was working his magic on FOH Systems, so it was always just open it up and go,” said Pat.
Main Photo: Dara Munnis
