Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism tour has turned out to be one of the biggest of the year. However, as we’re sure its star would admit, its continued success is thanks to a big team effort.
That team, of course, includes some first-rate front-of-house engineers, and one of them - Will Nicholson - recently spoke to Neve about the gear he uses to shape the show’s sound.
To begin with, he has a Neve 5045 on every vocal channel to tame any potential feedback problems. “The band move across the stage and, at some points, they’re on the B stage - the whole band in front of the PA - so these 5045s are an absolute lifesaver for me,” Nicholson explains.
Lead singer Lipa also has a Shelford Channel inserted on her vocal: “Some classic EQ and compression,” says Nicholson. “I absolutely love the diode compressor. Also, a little bit of gain is being added at the preamp level as well.”
The Shelford is also where Nicholson gets some special sauce courtesy of the Red Silk feature. With this applied, the harmonic content generated by the highs and high-mids are enhanced, adding extra sparkle.
“The Red Silk, it just gives me that pop shine that I need, especially when I'm pushing into compression,” says Nicholson. “It allows me to maintain that precision, that fidelity on a vocal. It can be a very busy mix - we have a lot of inputs, we have a loud crowd. Dua sings everything. So it's important to maintain that precision and that accuracy in her vocal. Red Silk does that for me.”
Nicholson also reveals that all of the band’s busses are summed into a Neve MBT (Master Bus Transformer), after which they join the vocals at the master output. A bit of further EQ and saturation and some limiting and the signal chain goes “right back into the desk, exactly as I want it.”
The Radical Optimism tour is currently in Brazil, and will next move on to Peru and Colombia. The final dates of the year will be in Mexico in early December - ticket information is available on the Dua Lipa website.
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