Dolly Parton is touring with a pair of digital consoles from the Midas PRO range: a PRO6 at front of house, operated by Mike Fechner, and a PRO9 on monitors, both supplied by Thunder Audio of Detroit. The world tour, in support of her Better Day album, kicked off in the US before travelling to Europe for a string of sell-out arena concerts.
Using Midas digital for the first time, Dolly’s monitor engineer Jason Glass is finding his PRO9 invaluable for the complex show, which changes from bluegrass to full string pop to gospel and back again, performed by seven multi-instrumental musicians and three backing vocalists. “I’m using scenes extensively as I have a lot of changes happening on layers that are out of sight and out of mind while I’m paying attention to Dolly,” he says. “It really simplifies the show for me; it’s also reliable and consistent. If I have a cue in the show, it’s exactly when I recall the scene, instead of dialling it in on the fly.
“I also love the POPulation Groups. Everything I need is always right in front of me, just where I want it to be. I work so that the console’s Area B on my right is always Dolly, with my left hand for the band’s channels. I’ve set up a VCA group for each player, with one for the backing singers, and then I use POP groups for things like audience mics and reverbs. So aside from having the POP buttons in front of me to call it up, I also have the faders for each musician. If a player changes their instrument and I don’t like where it’s sitting in the mix, I have their VCA right in front of me, no matter what they’re playing.
“The scene editor is brilliant and I use it all the time. If a player asks me for a change, I can go to the scene editor and propagate that change through all the scenes and know with confidence that the next time I call up a scene, it’s not going to reverse my change. I also really like how specific it is; you can dial it in right on any parameter on any input or output.”
Glass is touring with no outboard effects, relying solely on the PRO9’s onboard selection. “I love the reverbs. In the past I haven’t used a plate reverb on drums as I never liked the way it worked out, but the plate in this console is perfect for drums,” he says. “It’s the reverb that isn’t there; it puts a space around the kit without sounding like a brash, horrible snare drum reflection. The DL431s mic splitters are as perfect as a preamp can be. In the smaller venues it’s a bonus not having an extra rack of effects, and it also means I don’t have to chase hums and buzzes in analogue cabling like I used to. Also having the different compressor models in the desk means I don’t need to bring out a classic piece of gear when I want a vintage sound on compression, it’s already in there.”
At FOH, Mike Fechner is equally appreciative of his Midas PRO6 system. “As a Nashville based FOH mixer for nearly two decades now, from carrying full production to guest mixing on the console du jour, I’ve laid hands on just about every digital desk there has been,” he says. “Quite simply put, the Midas PRO6 does not sound like a digital console – period.”
And ultimately, it does all comes down to sound on a show that is incredibly polished and features many world class musicians.
“The desk sounds massive when appropriate, but also delicate and warm,” says Glass. “The bluegrass set is a good example. We have two banjos, two acoustic guitars and a mandolin at the same time, and with all those similarly-voiced instruments stacked in a mix, you can always differentiate where each one is coming from in the sound field, even if they have equal character. To me that’s transparency. And the band has noticed too. Our band leader, who’s also Dolly’s record producer, said it was the best sounding monitor mix they’d ever heard, and some of those guys have been playing for more than 40 years. That’s a real compliment. Midas makes me look good!”
The Better Day tour returns to the US in late September before heading down under for dates in Australia, the first time Dolly’s played there in almost 30 years.
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