With a stage set of neon strip lights and art deco lines, and a sound that harks back to the 80s, electronic pop duo, La Roux, have just completed their successful Gold Tour, taking in academy-sized venues around Europe, finishing in the UK. Forming part of their substantial audio system was a Sennheiser G3 500-945 radio mic and a complete G3 EW 300 in-ear system.
Front of House engineer, Dave Swallow, has been with the band for just over a year and has a long history of working with Sennheiser products.
“Pretty much every tour I’ve ever been on has had Sennheiser product on it, so using it here was a natural choice,” explains Dave. “I opted for this particular system because I’ve always liked the e 935 and e 945 mics. Using the SKM 500-945 on this tour, I found there are some lovely frequencies in the low end and you can really warm vocals up with them. Lead singer Elly Jackson likes the tone of it as well. She had a Neumann KMS 104 before, which is a very good mic, but it just didn’t suit her vocal. Where she sings is in the high mid, which can be harsh and that mic pulls all those frequencies out, so it can be a bit bitey.
“When I changed her onto the 945, all of a sudden she had lots of presence in the low end and it sounded like a full vocal. I found it was a really good pairing of vocal and microphone and she enjoys it too, especially in her ears.”
Dave has known Mark Saunders, Sennheiser UK artist relations, for many years and that made the upgrade an easy transition, both with the radio mic and the in-ear system. He also chose to keep the bands backing vocals consistent by using wired e 945s and e 935s for the other stage microphones.
“I believe La Roux had a small Sennheiser system for their ears before I joined and we just upgraded the whole thing,” Dave continues. “It was something they were used to, so it was a natural progression. We’ve had the mic customised and it’s now glossy black finish – it looks pretty special.”
Dave has also found the 945 to be very robust. “You can throw it around and it doesn’t break. She doesn’t do it purposely, but things do get dropped from time to time,” he smiles. “And should anything happen, I know Mark’s always on the end of the phone if I need him.”
Leave a Reply