IT WAS 2009 when London-born Paloma Faith first brokeinto the UK music scene. Threehit singles and a platinum debutalbum is never a bad start to apop star’s career; and at the endof last year, Fall to Gracefollowed suit, also goingplatinum, peaking at numbertwo in the UK Album Charts,and catapulting her to super-stardom in the process.

For her latest tour, everythingaudio was supplied by SSEAudio Group. FOH engineerHuw Richards is using an L-Acoustics KARA system forthe first time, and it’s provingparticularly versatile, he reveals. “We needed a flexible system

that still packed a punch, as thevenues on the tour are all sodifferent,” he says. “I’mimpressed by KARA – it’s a very

compact and lightweight system,and although we’re pushing it toits limits here, because of theway we are able to configure it,it actually covers the roombetter than an [L-Acoustics] V-DOSC or K1 system would.”

Praise, indeed. Two hangs of 18 KARA along with three hung L-Acoustics SB18 subs per side were deployed,and power was via severalracks of L-Acoustics LA8 amplifiers.

“The system has exceeded allmy expectations,” Richardsinsists. “I haven’t had toground-stack it once as thehung sub is powerful enough;and in terms of rigging, theboxes are usually down before

Paloma Faith played to a capacitycrowd in Hammersmith

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livereport

Faithful to the causeUNITED KINGDOM

Quirky UK actress-turned-songstress PalomaFaith descended on London’s HammersmithApollo last month. The three-time BRIT Awardnominee is currently in the midst of an extensivetour promoting her second album, Fall to Grace,reports Paul Watson

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the drum kit after the show,which is amazing, really.”System tech, SSE Audio’s own

Perttu Korteniemi, says twolocal crew is enough to hang anyKARA system, because oncepropagated, it goes up (andcomes down) very quickly. He also uses L-Acoustics’SoundVision software to makehis room predictions. “It’s the only 3D prediction

software out there, and it’sexcellent – though there’s nowizard element to it, it’s still a lotof maths,” he smiles. “It’s all IP-based now, so the role of atech is a full-time job; if you havethe dimensions of the room andseriously good drawings, you cando a lot of prep work; I alreadyhad a room file for the Apollo,which gave me an advantage.”Console of choice at FOH

was a DiGiCo SD10. A long-time fan of the manufacturer,Richards feels DiGiCo offersgreat value for money andexcellent sound quality.“Whatever the [DiGiCo] desk

you’re using, you still get pretty

much what you’d get in theflagship SD7: great EQ, greatpreamps; it all stays the samequality, no matter the price,” hesays. “I’m running 54 channelshere on my SD10, and I lovethat I have 12 faders in each bayrather than eight, because it’sfantastic for drums, as I canpack the whole kit into one bay,which is ideal.”Richards is also impressed by

the SD10’s internal effects: heuses several reverbs for the drumsand various delays for the vocals. “There’s a lot happening on

stage so it’s good to have all thatprocessing available to sendanywhere as and when you wish.Miles [Hillyard, SSE Audio’ssenior project manager] alsogave us some cool hardware tohave a play around with,including the Waves PuigChild,which works beautifully onPaloma’s vocal, as she has quitea peaky mid range,” Richardsexplains. “We have it on asetting that seems to work well

for her; it just catches the peaksand holds them back and itfattens the vocal up nicely. I thenuse a TC Electronic 6000 forPaloma’s reverbs, which is also abrilliant bit of kit.”Audio travels via a digital

path from the SD10 into twoLake processors (LM 44 andLM 260), which are located atFOH; then it goes into a Ciscoswitch, and then it’s all fibre tostage left. From there, it breaksdown to Cat5 to the stage Lakes

(two additional LM 44s), then itgoes AES to the LA8 amplifiers. “This means when the

microphone hits the [DiGiCo]SD rack on stage, it doesn’t goback to analogue until thespeaker cables,” Korteniemiexplains. “This method keepseverything simple: there’s nosetting up of gains and no hiss;it’s all nice and clean, so whenyou open up the PA, there is nointerference whatsoever.” At monitor position, Saul

Skoutarides worked from aMidas PRO2, packed out at 53channels. He provided individualin-ear monitor mixes to threededicated backing vocalists andall band members; and Paloma’s‘blinged out’ gold SennheiserSKM 5200 mk II was linked toSennheiser’s top-of-the-line 3732receiver. The results, Skoutaridessays, are phenomenal. “The SKM 5200 sounds

excellent, and because we’re alsousing the dynamic [5235] head, itdoesn’t use too much band,

therefore it’s far more stable thana condenser for this application,”he explains. “As it’s the onlyradio mic we’re using, I’ve

brought in the 3732, which is alsoexcellent. It has an AES output,so it sounds great if you want tokeep it digital all the way, and it’s

in the NGB frequency range,which goes all the way from 606-790, so I can also use it as ascanner to scan my entire bandevery morning, because all my[11 Sennheiser G3] in-ear systemsfall into that band. It’s just agreat setup to work with.”Although Paloma Faith may

only stand at 5 feet 3 inches, herstage presence transforms her intoa fizzy, cheeky giant. A capacitycrowd went home very satisfiedthat night, after witnessing a showthat sounded as good as it looked,which is not surprising when youconsider the quality of the teamaround her.nwww.digico.bizwww.l-acoustics.comwww.sennheiser.co.uk

All audio kit was supplied by SSE Audio Group

Paloma Faith’s goldSennheiser SKM 5200 mk II

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