Whole lotta Midas as AC/DC tour hits UK

The runaway train that is AC/DC’s Black Ice world tour has crashed into the UK, accompanied by vintage and state-of-the-art Midas technology. Front of house engineer Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd is using a refurbished eighties PRO40 console to mix the band, with a PRO6 live audio system alongside to run the Klark Teknik DN9696 hard disc recorder and mix support band The Answer. A Midas Heritage 4000 is the monitor console for AC/DC, with a second PRO6 being used to monitor support bands.

“I’ve always enjoyed analogue consoles, and I’ll use whatever suits the job,” explains Pab. “A band like AC/DC warrants using a good old analogue desk because they’re a good old analogue band. It’s not like I have masses of processing, FX sends or over-EQing going on, just a little bit of compression. Nothing fancy as it doesn’t need to be, and I’m having a great time using it.”

The 25-year-old PRO40 was painstakingly cleaned up and restored by Pab together with Tim Boyle and Pete Cornell from Concert Sound, which owns the desk. “I have a lot of association with this console, and it’s got a great history,” Pab continues. “We had access to lots of spare parts and modules and spent many hours restoring it, wiping away the years of dirt with a Q Tip. Concert Sound and Midas would have worked closely on what was needed when it was made, listening to feedback and ideas. That’s a process that still goes on today and what’s always been good about Midas, they listen to and work with the people that use the gear.”

Again choosing the best tools for the job, Pab has a PRO6 as the front end for recording shows onto the KT DN9696 hard disc recorder. This PRO6 has also been programmed with a live mix for the band in case the PRO40 has a senior moment. However, as befits its rock and roll credentials, so far this hasn’t been necessary.

AC/DC’s world tour exemplifies the best of Midas analogue and digital past and present, and is one of the most creative examples to date of networking a complex Midas audio system. A mix of PRO6 and XL8 components create a modular digital system, with two DL431 XL8 mic splitters supplying high quality analogue and digital audio simultaneously to all four consoles.