XTA Delivers the Sounds of the Season
(XTA | Posted 2006-01-08)
You know it’s Christmas when The Blenders take the stage, as they do every year on their annual holiday season tour. This year, just as last year, The Blenders are accompanied by two XTA DP324 SiDD Dynamics Processors to assure them and their audiences the best vocal performances possible.
“The SiDDs are just fantastic,” proclaims Dave Farber, Owner of Farber Sound, the Minneapolis-area touring sound and installation contractor that provides the sound system for The Blenders’ performances. Farber also acts as the group’s FOH mix engineer, and he comments, “I insert them on each of the four vocal channels and use them for all of the processing. With the SiDD software, I can pull up each channel individually in my laptop and fine-tune it to each vocalist’s specific needs. For instance, when I identify very particular frequency points in a singer’s voice, such as 2.5 kHz or 3 kHz, that are accentuated when they hit certain levels, using the Dynamic EQ feature I can attenuate exactly those frequency points without deleting that frequency content when the level falls below threshold. That feature alone makes the SiDD a great investment for any artist or group that heavily emphasizes vocals, especially when the vocals are a cappella as they are with The Blenders.”
Another feature Farber likes is the ability to store presets on each of the two channels on the SiDD. As Farber explains, “The memory presets are also very valuable for the bass vocal artist, allowing settings for each bass vocal application as well as the artist switching to lead vocal on certain songs. I route the extra output from that particular channel on the SiDD to a separate channel on the mix console, which assists in the cue/listen function.” Farber adds, “The SiDD’s features make the entire mix seamless, and that contributes significantly to a great performance.”
Other XTA gear on tour with The Blenders, in addition to the DP324 SiDD processors, includes the acclaimed GQ600, DP226, DP224 and RT1 units.
