No Moments Silence for Adlib with Hozier

No Moments Silence for Adlib with Hozier posted: 09/02/2019

Hozier live

UK rental and production specialist Adlib continued its excellent working relationship with the highly acclaimed, hugely popular and multi-talented Irish singer-songwriter and musician Hozier, and the equally skilled and accomplished production team led by Duchess' (Sue Iredale).

The Liverpool based company supplied sound and lighting equipment plus crew for the band's recent UK and European tour, with a CODA sound system specified by FOH sound engineer Steve Patto Pattison, and the realization of an eye-catching and inventive lighting design created by Steven Douglas.

Patto joined the Hozier team mid-way through 2018 shortly after completing the Freedom Child world tour with Irish trio The Script. Hozier's Nina Cried Power EP dropped almost immediately and with a new (second) studio album anticipated in the spring, the touring schedule started apace and continues worldwide throughout 2019.

Patto chose a CODA AiRAY system for the UK and Europe sections, after having an amazing experience with it on The Script tour.

Some of Hozier Touring Crew - L- R are James Betts-Gray

It is an incredibly powerful and highly versatile speaker system for its compact size, that can be flown or ground stacked in different configurations sounding equally good and bringing a continuity to the wide range of venues on the itinerary.

It sounds great in a 1200-seat theatre and a 15000-capacity arena - one box covers all applications enthused Patto. The flexibility of going with CODA meant they could use the same box and have the same rich sound with all its luscious detail dealing with the daily variations by using different quantities and rigging set ups.

In the largest format they used 16 boxes a-side.

For Patto, the devil is in the detail' of the fill coverage, and to this end, he used one of his signature techniques: a small centre hang of between three and six CODA TiRAYs hung from the front lighting truss to cover the area around three rows back from the front. Those standing in that area, the little D' shaped section just back from the front, always get a raw deal. In most venues any PA system will struggle to hit them depending on rigging points, sightlines, etc., while the lip fills will only ever hit the front row! Their ticket cost the same so we should give them the same experience as everyone else.

Adlib System Tech Alan Harrison

He comments that the TiRAY speaker, a favourite for corporate and commercial applications, is so tiny and light that it was completely unobtrusive on the truss but had a huge impact in terms of enhancing the audience experience.

For standard stage fills Patto used CODA APS (arrayable point source) speakers sat above the subs to fill out the corners, and HOPS (high output point source) as the lip fills along the front of the stage.

They toured both SC2-Fs (dual 15 inch) and SCP-F subs, with two or three of each per side in the standard set up and several variations according to the shape and size of the room. The SC2-Fs were often used when the AiRAY was ground stacked as they provided a solid and secure platform on which to rig the AiRAY cabinets at the correct height as well as reinforcing the low end.

Hozier Live at Manchester Apollo

These were not always needed in some rooms simply because the low-end response of the AiRAY is so good!

Patto is clearly loving mixing the band and with 54 channels of real' input - 8 people onstage who all sing and play instruments and not even a whiff of a backing track coming into his A&H dLive S7000 console! Because it's all totally live, it's a sound that he can make really big and spacious yet unique every day.

In the set, the song To Be Alone starts with a guitar riff and Hozier (Andrew Hozier-Byrne) engaging in a call-and-response routine with the audience. When the drums finally kick in, Patto sneaks in the console's onboard sub harmonic synth, which has a shock reaction as the audience reel back by the sheer physical impact of it through the CODA hitting them in the chest!

Directly after that, they went into the acoustic section of the set, which Patto quips was handy for keeping within the noise restrictions of some venues where the measurements are averaged out over time! It gave me a chance to really see what I could get out of such a small box stretching its legs whilst being nowhere near to pushing its limits!

Patto has been using the dLive S7000 for the last couple of years, since it was launched, and also mixed The Script with one. (audio for that tour was also supplied by Adlib). He likes it for its adaptability and because he doesn't need any add-ons.

He utilises plenty of vocal FX at strategic points and reverb treatments, plus more radical effects such as Leslie cabinets and distortion - all of which are onboard the S7000 - so all his nuances and subtleties are right there at his fingertips on the console. It sounds great and I'm completely self-contained, you wouldn't believe the number of engineers who come up to me after the show asking what outboard and plugins I'm using and then there's the look on their face when I tell them none, it's all onboard!

FOH Engineer Steve Pattison

Working alongside him on this leg of the tour were a fantastic Adlib crew of Alan Harrison, a veteran of many arena tours who fine-tuned the system each day, and Max Taylor, who took care of all things onstage.

Hozier's monitor engineer is Darren Dunphy, who used a PM7D console also free of external plugins, and another desk that sounds very good, is highly flexible and offers excellent reverbs.

The band were all on IEMs. Adlib supplied a Shure PSM system, with a thumper seat for the drummer, so it was a nice clean stage.

Hozier switched from a wired to

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