Hewitt employed some relatively complex automation on the L550 Plus console for Harrison’s recent shows including multiple scene changes to open and close gates or change the threshold and release times, for example. “Then there were some scenes that opened and closed complete duplicated channels with mutes for different vocal effects or very different EQs. I love the scene snapshot recall. It’s solid, very well laid out and easy to understand when working fast, be it simple or complex.”
Hewitt’s workflow in a live setting is similar to the workflow he employs in the studio. “I approach live sound the same as I do when mixing a record, in that I do loads of technical prep first. When I'm able to get the technical stuff out of the way then I can use my creative brain and be in kind of a flow state.” In theatres and on tour, he says, “I typically take a holistic approach to everything audio and oversee the whole department. I work directly with the needs of the artist and the music, from system and audio package design spreadsheets to the most minute details. I think mixing music is all about thousands of micro decisions and, for me, it usually starts with design and planning so that the creative side can be unobstructed and I can focus on doing what I do — being a mixer.”
For all the sophistication that the Live console offers through its rich feature set, he comments, “The layout is intuitive, responsive and comfortable, especially in high-pressure environments.” Further, he adds, the Live console provides easy-to-read visual feedback in the heat of the moment, from the individual LCD displays above each fader to color-coded channels. “You don't have to decode any of the information that the console is giving you. I know that my drums are always blue, and my bass is always red, for example. As minor as this sounds, larger text and clearer visuals than other live consoles means you can have your eyes on the stage then glance down very quickly and it's all right there. I haven’t got time to stare at small details on screens in the heat of a show.”
On a typical tour Hewitt would have relied on a rack of outboard gear to add saturation, compression and reverb, including SSL's Fusion and THE BUS+. SSL Live’s on-board Effects Rack changed that: “I found myself using very little outboard with Dhani. Having so much familiar processing in the console is brilliant. I feel like all the processors in the console are very powerful — all the onboard tools, dynamics, reverbs, dynamic EQs, the new Sourcerer plug-in and some of the plug-ins that SSL are now implementing from the studio world are all so usable.” That said, Hewitt was running an outboard plug-in server. “But most of the things on there were actually more SSL channel strips!” he laughs.
