Peter Gabriel Supports New i/o Album with European and North American Tour Dates, Using Three Solid State Logic Live Consoles

Richard Sharratt, who has been Gabriel’s front-of-house engineer since 2010’s New Blood Tour, used a variety of consoles before SSL Live was introduced, including with other artists and clients for whom he has worked. “You're conscious of the differences when you use a different desk and you come back to SSL,” he comments. “The SSL Live has just got that lovely warmth, that analogue thing. It sounds open and clear and just generally better, and we have more room for everything in the mix.”

Sharratt continues, “I love the layout of the L550 Plus. You can reach everything easily.” He used four Bricasti and the internal revebs on i/o - The Tour. The internal effects are really good on the SSL,” he says. “Peter’s vocals are a challenge because they are just so dynamic and because of his style of singing. I use the de-esser and multiband comp, a fair amount of inserted 10- band EQ and also more EQ to just tweak his mic to get more gain before feedback. But none of the compressors are working too hard.”

The tour’s production setup included 128 of MADI recording, Sharratt reports: “Peter insists on recording soundcheck at shows whenever he’s on stage.” Those recordings are a core part of Gabriel’s longtime creative workflow, both on the road and in the studio, where he records every musical idea, however fleeting, for potential future compositions, sometimes pulling them from the archives many years later. For his FOH mixing purposes, Sharratt adds, “The band inputs are within the first 96.”

Gabriel’s song presentations range from a solo vocal accompanied by a piano to a full-on band performance with the musicians firing on all cylinders. To handle the transition from one song to the next, Sharratt typically uses a single automation scene snapshot to set his mix up for the next number. “I don’t have scenes within a song but it's a good starting point. The scene fires MIDI to the Bricastis and changes all the internal effects, EQs and the VCA layout, so I can have different things in front of me for different songs.”

Miller, too, makes extensive use of the Live’s scene recall capabilities, he says. “It’s all automated — mutes, groups, sends, EQs; the lot. Peter is quite particular and there's a lot going on in his music, so the only way you could do it is by using scene snapshots.”

Unlike the FOH engineer, the monitor engineer tailors the mix for each musician based on their personal preferences, notes Miller. “They tell you what they need,” he says. It’s important to him that he can deliver what they need with the utmost clarity. “All I have to care about is how the desk sounds. The SSL Live is so clean. There's room for everything in the mix,” he says. “This desk, to me, is the benchmark.”

This latest tour was somewhat bittersweet for Miller after four decades on the road, half of them travelling the world with Peter Gabriel. “I’m back with Robert Plant for a couple of weeks in the U.K., doing very small shows, then I'm going to do some stuff locally in London, but I've run my course,” he reveals. “This was my last big tour — and a lovely way to go out.”

The SSL Live console used on i/o – The Tour were supplied by Britanita Row Productions.  

Peter Gabriel’s new album i/o is available now on Real World.

Solid State Logic would like to thank York Tillyer for the use of the images.