USA - Six-piece multi-genre Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard recently brought their energetic stage show to the United States on this summer’s Phantom Island tour, which featured collaborations with local orchestras on eight nights of the 12-date run. For the first time, the band’s FOH engineer Sam Joseph and monitor engineer Joe Santarpia, both longtime DiGiCo console users, were behind new small-footprint Quantum 326 desks, a change that delivered several significant benefits.
The reduced footprint of the two Quantum 326, which were supplied by Nashville-based Worley Sound, offered critical space savings at the FOH and monitor positions. That is ideal for a band still playing the occasional smaller venue, not to mention the truck pack, Joseph reports. “Often, our production trucks are packed high and to the door.” With the smaller form factor, he says, “You can tip the console with two people. Plus, the layout is great, and the number of layers and macros make it all super accessible.”
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s Phantom Island is their 27th album release since 2010, with projects running the gamut from psychedelic and prog rock to metal and even folk. “Gizz are a very musically diverse band, and they like their live show to be dynamic and unexpected, so Joe and I must be super flexible and prepared for anything,” says Joseph. He has been with the band since 2016 and additionally works with “Gizz-related” bands like Babe Rainbow, The Murlocs, the Allah-Las, and, most recently, GUM/Ambrose Kenny-Smith.
To be ready for anything, he says, “We are working off a ‘master’ input list this year that includes inputs for a standard ‘rock’ show, a ‘rave’ show, the recent ‘orchestra’ shows, and even some ‘acoustic’ shows. We have access to all these inputs at any time on every show file, so we are ready no matter what they throw at us.”
For the Phantom Island tour, the Quantum 326 consoles were paired with two DiGiCo SD-Racks and an Orange Box on an Optocore loop transporting about 100 inputs, with Santarpia controlling the head amp gain. “Additionally, we were sending and receiving quite a few channels between FOH and monitors,” says Santarpia, who has been with Gizz for 10 years in various roles, also touring with Mac Demarco, Band of Horses, The Decemberists, Dom Dolla and Kurt Vile. “The loop makes it all seamless and easy without the extra analog hardware and without having to jump through hoops to split the MADI.” The Orange Box converts, and clocks, MADI inputs from an Ableton rig to HMA fibre for the band’s ‘rave’ sets.
At FOH, Joseph says: “I don’t use many snapshots as the band change setlists and songs on a whim every night. But I rely heavily on macros and have a bunch of them set up for different vibes. Having 40 macros available now on the Q326 is awesome; I used to run out quickly, but not anymore. And the colour-coding and labelling options are great.”
Santarpia uses Virtual Soundcheck regularly and generates a 64-track recording of every show via an MGB interface into the QRec app. “I have a macro that toggles the ‘Listen to Copied Audio’ on/off and can switch between VS and analog inputs quickly,” he says. Those multitrack recordings are used if the band wants to mix and release a live version of a song or album, which they frequently do.”
Joseph concludes: “I like DiGiCo consoles because they sound familiar to me; each iteration sounds better than the last but still has a recognisable sonic quality. There is a warmth to the tonality I like that lends itself to my mixing style and the band’s music. Same with the layout – familiar but improved. It’s not like learning a whole new desk each upgrade, it’s just a better version of what you were already comfortable on.”