Ellie Goulding - digico.biz Goulding SD7 LSI April... · It strikes you within minutes of Ellie...

It strikes you within minutes of Ellie Goulding hitting the stage

(and hit the stage she does): there are no airs and graces about

this girl. Unlike say, a Britney or a Katy Perry, there’s no element

of pretence about her. While the two formerly named stars

provide polished, well-manicured performances, you can see

immediately that Goulding is the genuine article; she is, in short,

natural and charming. That doesn’t mean she lacks polish (far

from it - her frequent jaunts cross stage to synchronise with her

backing-vocalists for a few steps verify that she’s rehearsed her

chops), it’s just that it all looks so free and spontaneous.

She also transmits an amazing level of energy, blasting from onesong to the next until a full 35 minutes into the performance shefinally draws breath, says a few words, picks up an acoustic guitarand welcomes us into her world. Charming in the real sense of theword, in that she casts a spell over her audience . . .

Lighting & VideoWe last saw designer Cate Carter in LSi with Elbow (see LSi June2011). I last saw her almost two years ago on a sort of encore gigat the Manchester Arena; not for LSi, I’d gone purely for enjoymentand while chatting with Carter before the show, she let on that Ellie

Goulding was in her sights. That was far enough in the past forGoulding’s star to be in the ascendant but not fully risen: howquickly these things change, and well done Carter for taking thechance to step off the Elbow arena treadmill and spend some timenurturing designs for a young star on the rise.

In full circle, by the time you read this, Carter will be once againengaged with Elbow and the doughty Robin Haddow will be at thecontrols of her grandMA2 as Goulding takes another cruisethrough the USA. I must say, there’s something of Goulding’scharm in Carter’s persona as well. As we explore the whys andwherefores of her design for this show, we soon learn that herconsideration for her art is deep and well crafted.

“I actually started with Ellie about three days after my last showwith Elbow; it feels like it’s been non-stop ever since,” says Carter.This five-show stint is equally breathless: no sooner does she passcontrol of the desk to Haddow than she’s straight into Elbow.“Back in December 2012 we took Ellie into a club and Academytour of the UK, ending with a show at the Brixton Academy. It wasour tour manager Rebecca Travis who put my name forward for thejob; we’d worked together in the past for the Editors. That first stintwas really just a floor pack from Lite Alternative, but the

Ellie GouldingSteve Moles reports fromNottingham’s Capital FM Arena . . .

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augmented system I used at Brixton set the template for thetheatre tour of the US that followed. When we came back toEurope we scaled up and down between club and theatre, untilabout October, when we changed the design to the show you seehere.”

At just a five-show run, this is a major investment by Goulding’smanagement and you have to tip your hat to tour managerRebecca Travis for pulling it off in some style. Carter’s rig is large:five trusses, with panels of varying types of LED screen all over theplace - not cheap to put together for this short run. “The diamondaspect of the square LED screens came from Ellie and form thefoundation of the design. She makes a lot of art references and thisis stylistically derived from her album Halcyon and the Greek myththat underpins it - hence the animated kingfisher graphic you’ll seein the video content.”

Wikipedia explains the myth, yet another tale of spiteful-god-turns-innocent-lover-into-animal - in this case a kingfisher. But it wouldbe fair to say Goulding’s album concept embraces the widermeaning of Halcyon, as in those becalmed, beatific, golden daysthat radiate throughout your life.

Does such a prescriptive musician present any difficulties forCarter in limiting what she might do? “Not at all, in fact Elbow aresimilar in that respect; how they visualise an album informs theirvision for the show. I quite like it if the artist has a clear idea of whatthey want. Ellie was quite direct, she sent me examples of artworkshe’d been presented by an interior designer - that’s not for literalinterpretation, but as a style guide it’s easy to exploit. The screensare the key here, suspended at different positions up and downstage they give real depth to the stage. XL Video provide theequipment, we stream content and cameras to the screens. Mybusiness partner Paul ‘Pablo’ Beckett created the content whichruns from Catalyst. Rather than anything recognisably IMAG inflavour, we incorporate images from the cameras to what’s goingon on the stage. That’s something Ellie and I both agree on.”

The screens themselves are an interesting mix: XL Video’s moretypical PixLED 12mm takes the outer stage positions as defined bythe main rig above, then off-stage either side hangs a large panel(still diamond orientation) of Radiant MC7T, a 7mm hi-res’ product.But most striking is the 18mm Hybrid, as Phil Mercer from XLVideo explains: “We developed it in conjunction with Radiant.There are a number of DMX lighting-based products out therefighting for some space in what is traditionally video territory.

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The Hybrid is a regular low-res’ 18mm (64 LEDsper panel) with much larger, very high output(3W) spot type LEDs on a 4x4 spread (16 perpanel).”

Both elements within the Hybrid are full RGB,the output of the larger LEDs makes this acombination video-cum-lighting panel, capableof projecting light. An intriguing visual effect.

This is not an easy rig: each truss is hung, fittedwith lights and cables, then raised a couple ofmetres, a diamond panel is attached, raisedsome more, another panel, and so on. Andapart from the most downstage part of Carter’sdesign, every truss is like that. “A good deal ofchat went on between Ian Rendle, XL’s LEDman, and my crew chief Robin Haddow abouthow to approach this. They’ve done a great joband here we are just three shows in and the rigis up by noon,” said Carter.

Haddow was a little more circumspect: “It wasan interesting challenge. We got to try out thescreen rigs last tour before we scaled up to fullarena size, so we had the chance to iron out a lot of the assembly routine to arrive at what isnow quick and easy; but it wasn’t to begin with.Also, Cate has some trusses at 45 degrees tohorizontal, so it’s all a bit tricky.”

Fundamentally, it’s a very geometric stageviewed front-on and could have become a bit ofa maze: “We had to be very careful how muchwe layered it,” admitted Carter. “Too much andthe image becomes confused and you losedefinition. We have the new Hybrid product fromXL at centre; out from them is regular 12mm,then the outer-most diamonds are a moreconventional hi-res’ 7mm. By changing how wemap image to each type - and what we put onthem and when - we can avoid that confusedlook.”

The camera work is ‘arty’ for want of a betterterm. Close-ups from awkward angles andstrange compositions that are not necessarilyrecognisable as what’s happening onstage mix

with more conventional head-shots - all madestranger by how they play, somewhat truncatedby the diamond orientation of the panels.Visually, it’s rather satisfying and less distractingthan full-on IMAG. It’s a pull-and-pushapproach: sometimes it’s the camera imagesthat dominate, while content on other screens issubdued - a backdrop if you like? Or thecomplete reverse and the camera-work isunimportant because some potent contentdemands our attention.

“Besides Ellie’s input to the kingfisher Greekmythology aspect of presentation,” Cartercontinues, “a lot of the content is derivative ofher music videos. We looked at them all andthen redeveloped those ideas for a live show,taking perhaps a motif from a background andscaling it up to fill our stage screens.”

With the panels spread by depth and width, andwith the competing demands of camera image,the content stands up well. This was nevergoing to be an easy balance to find, and assuch the content is very much a backdrop, orperhaps a picture frame that Haddow is able to‘hang’ around the stage. Not literally - there areno frames on individual panels, but bybalancing colour and output levels, the contentcan lift or subdue the camera images. Lights,camera, content - it makes for a very ensemblepiece.

Haddow, a lighting man in origin, is the titularvideo director on this outing: “It’s a first for meand I’m really enjoying it. It’s good to be takenout of your comfort zone.”

Regular readers may recall Haddow’s presenceon the Snow Patrol tour of late 2012 (see LSiMarch 2012). He is one of those HeathRobinson technicians that likes to take unlikelycomponents - a bike and a kipper, say - andcreate a workable motor car. “I’ve got sixcameras to choose from: three robos on stage,three operated cameras, one out front, two inthe pit, though one of those operators doesroving work across the back of stage from time

Above, from top:

James Neale, monitors.

FOH sound engineer Joe Harling at the DiGiCo SD10.

Robin Haddow and Cate Carter.

System tech Tony Szabo.


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to time. The content on the Cat’s is all time-coded so that pretty much runs itself. All themapping is pre-programmed via the grandMA2.

“This is my first time using MA. Cate convertedme, primarily because I take over her desk forthe next US leg. But I’m glad she did, I find theMA a very versatile desk and there’s realstrength in the macro system. For example, it’simportant the performers on stage know a givencamera is live so they can play to it should theywant to. Getting the camera Tally system to workin this set-up saw me have a quick conversationwith XL about how it works, spend thirty quid oneBay for a USB relay box, and now, with a bit ofclever programming in the MA2, we have ‘Desk-to-Cat-to-Box’, and a fully functioning on/offcamera Tally system.” For the uninitiated,camera tally systems illuminate the red signallight on the camera that is live to feed.

Overlaid upon all this is the lighting. “I’ve takenadvantage of the geometry of the screens andextend that with the lighting,” continued Carter.

The rig is filled with seven types of moving light,mainly drawn from the Martin catalogue, alongwith the now almost indispensable Sharpysfrom Clay Paky. Static lighting is a realcompendium: X-5 strobes from SGM rubshoulders with Martin Atomics; Elidy-Big panelsfrom Chromlech mimic the brightness aspect ofthe Hybrid LED screens, and iPix find a spot inthere too somewhere. Carter even has a LowelOmni tucked in beneath Goulding’s mic standfor a little up-light warmth.

“My key instruments are MAC Vipers, MACAuras and Sharpys,” says Carter. “The Viper is a fantastic spot, I’ve been using them for about18 months now and find that for their size theyare really punchy with great beam effects andgobos. The Sharpys stand out for their sheerbrightness and are perfect for enhancing andextending that geometric look. The Auras I’vefound are a good multi-purpose wash: insmaller gigs they’re ideal because of theircompact size; when we get up to this size ofshow they still compete quite well with the largerwash lights to give fill in small areas, or to workas eye candy - and for an LED they have a good CTO.

“As for control, since I first began using the MA2it instantly became my desk of choice. With thistour and the way we’ve constantly scaled upand down we’ve been able to evolve the show

file easily. I also love the way you can have a Command line get so many things going on.You may already have built something quitecomplex, then you think of something clever buttricky to impose upon it and I find the MAalways has a way of doing it.”

Haddow joined the conversation: “Compared toother desks I’ve used, it is complex, but it’s wellworth the effort. We have both our desksrunning off the same show file, which means aswe scale up and down, venue-to-venue, we canchange and edit faster and more easilytogether. I also love the time-line: it makes somuch more sense than inputting time-codevalues.”

I asked Carter if she listens to the music andthen chooses colours based on her emotionalresponse? “I start with the gathering of ideas,references to how she is presented in video, orthe concept behind the album, and build thatphysically. When I listen to the music it’s not somuch an emotional response, but I find that as I listen I often form a strong sense of colour thatI can’t really explain.”

It’s possibly synesthesia - in layman’s terms a cross-wiring of the senses that mostcommonly has those susceptible seeingnumbers and/or letters as colours, although a powerful association between music andcolour is not uncommon. I dare say many an LD has the same susceptibility: Carter just happened to be the first to ever voice it tome. (Synesthesia: http://plasa.me/vwc8s).

“When I listen to the music it’s

not so much an emotional

response, but I find that as

I listen I often form a strong

sense of colour that I can’t

really explain.”

Cate Carter, LD


Carter continues: “From there my focus is to keepthings balanced, so lights and video aren’t competing for our attention.” In the contextof a performance, it’s easy to be passive andassume it’s just all going on, but I gave thisstatement consideration during the Gouldingperformance, and it is the case that Carter runs‘progressions’ through any given song, much asan artist applies paint to a canvas, building layersas they go, layers concealing others beneath. “It’sall about what works visually; we’re using pyro forthe first time since I started with her. I just wanteda few effects for punctuation so I visitedPyrojunkies and explained what I wanted.”

Fizz and confetti cannons bring a little of the pop-show patina to the night, but it’s just a nod to theconvention. Carter’s artifice enhances Goulding’scharm as she neatly bridges the divide betweenpop star confection (a 12-year-old’s favourite) andindie credibility (to carry fans from those awkwardteenage years into adulthood).

“It’s a well-paced show in three parts: a powerful,sustained beginning, a soft mid-section evocatingEllie’s references to the quieter complexion ofHalcyon, and then an even more potent reprise.That is steered by her MD, Joe Clegg, and he hasbeen very helpful to me in shaping theproduction.”

That’s a number of influences in there - the star,the MD, the mythological references, the videolibrary. Carter makes a good job of resolving allthem all into a coherent whole.

Sound“Last year he was mixing Lana Del Ray, this yearEllie Goulding.” Joe Harling at front-of-house is a new name to me, but one I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more of. I’m able to say that almostimmediately for one simple reason: anyone withears will acknowledge that Goulding doesn’t havethe easiest of vocal characters to manage. Light,airy, breathy - call it what you will - self-evidentlyit’s not a powerful voice, but it is distinctly hersand defines a large part of her persona. To realiseit in the live arena is the priority and Harling doesan admirable job. “I’ve also been doing a lot ofwork for Michael Kiwanuka; he’s absolutely

awesome, a great voice and some greatmusicians, really jazzy.” We’re always happy totake a recommendation . . .

The PA system is L-Acoustics K1. “I’ve been quitespoilt since I took this on,” says Harling. “Adlibgave me a Kudo system and George Puttock as a system tech for the earlier European run, andnow for this I have Tony Szabo and K1. I have tosay I prefer the K1: the Kudo is technically perfect,but just doesn’t excite me the same way the K1does. Kudo seems to reveal all the system EQ, it’snot so natural.” Maybe that’s an aspect of hearingit in the more intimate surroundings of smallervenues - but then, who wouldn’t prefer a K1?

Is there a strong demand to keep Goulding’s livevocal prominently on top of the mix, in the fashionof, say, a TV performance? “Achieving a naturalvocal sound is the focus. I’ve been given no strictinstruction on that issue, but have been helpedgreatly by her MD. There is a lot of the studiorepertoire in there and he has been willing to cutthat back, to thin stuff out. There’s always a temptation [to over-cook] when you’re given allthe stems from the album. For example, thekeyboard contribution to a song may contain asmany as four distinct layered parts, but you don’tneed all that live. And what comes from the studiois a mix almost limited to destruction; you justcan’t do that live. So to answer your question,there are even times when I place the vocal quitelow.”

The PA system is comprehensive, K1 mains leftand right, two further hangs of K1 off to the sides,and Szabo has ARCS IIs rigged in a line of fouron their sides as back stage-fill (she plays 270°).“The ARCS IIs each cover 22 degrees verticallyon their sides like this; at short range to theaudience in that backstage area that’s almost 90degrees vertical. I’d need nine Kara cabinets todo the same.” Good call. He also has a flowncentre line array cluster of four Kara, as well asfour single Kara laid flat across the stage front.“That’s to help me in the capture of her voice,”explained Harling. “Her voice level is so low that I have the input gain very high; anything frominward-facing cross-stage front-fill would makethat impossible to manage. The flown cluster is

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LSi - April 2014

Asides• LD Cate Carter has lots oftwin-cell PAR 36s in her rig.

“I really like them, and always finda use for them somewhere,” she

said. That somewhere is often theinevitable ‘squeeze them in

somewhere to light the audience’,but she also has a bunch tucked

down behind the singular riserthat straddles the stage. “They

don’t need to be seen, I just likethem for putting up that big warm

light glow behind the band.”

• Carter says: “I wanted to try theSGM X-5 and they are very good,

but there are some thingsAtomics do better. The X-5 is notgreat for intensity when fast, and

the soft dimmer curve of theAtomic is better for back-drop

lighting.”

• Screens: The screens wereramped up pretty high, so that

they outputted as lights tobalance against the 18 low res’ atthe centre. Not often you see LED

so unrestrained indoors. Therewas some marked content that

travelled outward from pointsasymmetric, rather than fromcentre-stage. Curiously, this is

visually more potent than contentthat merely scans from left to

right across stage. The fact thatthe image emerges, say, 15% in

from stage left, makes itsomehow stronger.

• Sound: For all the production onthe sound side (I saw three Macsrunning tracks), the mix could bequite sparse - just an organ, the

crackling sound effect ofsomething like raindrops, and

some very spare percussionproviding a backdrop to her voice.


a great solution for addressing that front centralpart of the audience.”

That said, I note she also has some floor Tomsbeside her mic stand: if the gain is that high, dothey not also present problems? “I’m using aDPA d:facto 2 capsule on a Sennheiser wirelessmic for her - that was already in use when I tookthis tour on, but it would have been my choiceas well. It’s simply the best option for a livecondenser mic. Thankfully, when she plays theToms she barely sings, so I run a side chainfrom the Toms to trigger a ducker on her vocalmic. Yes, I lose her voice occasionally, but onlythe barest note. The BVs are on Sennheiser5235 caps. The instruments are mostly direct-inXLR; all the guitars have loudspeakersimulators, if they didn’t they’d have to be in iso’cabinets off-stage.

“Nothing unusual on the drums - Sennheiser201s for just about everything, a 901 and a D6in the kick, all pretty standard. I like the 201 fortheir rejection, the off-axis spill they do captureis just much smoother than, say, a 57; a goodall-rounder.”

But no perspex drum-screen? “No, I thinkthey’re a bit naff, and you always end up withsome awkward reflections off them. Theloudspeaker simulators are effective: the outputfrom the guitar amp runs into a load box withspeaker modelling whichever cabinet characteryou want.”

Listening to the way Harling spoke I was struckby a thought: ‘Do you do a lot of studio work?’“Not much, but I would love to do more. In fact,I will be doing a Pro Tools course shortly.” Givehim a call.

He uses a DiGiCo SD10 out front: “Love them.This model is a compromise of size and powerand has been a real help in the smaller venueswe’ve played. I’ve got the Waves Server anduse the C6 dynamic EQ for vocals with the V-Comp. I also use C6 on the snare with a sidechain from the hi-hat to add some extracompression to the snare mic to avoid spill. Myfavourite is the Roland Space Echo (sat neatlyon the bridge of the desk); it’s nice to havesomething tactile to use on the vocals. In the

rack I have a Sansamp over the synth’ bass,just to give it a better harmonic content. Eachday I use a virtual sound-check from last night’sshow to look for problems. Tony and I also ringout the main vocal in all zones of the PA one-by-one. That really makes a difference - you don’tend up over-EQ’ing the main system just toaddress a problem that only exists with the sidehangs.”

Attention to detail is obviously Harling’s MO andhe doesn’t fail to deliver. This is not an acutelyloud show and doesn’t need to be: thatprobably helps Harling a little in the context of a boomy room like Notts arena, but then he’staken a lot of measures to help himself. While I might not go out and buy a Goulding album,there was much to like from what I heard in thelive environment, and much of that was her.

MonitorsJames Neale is tucked into stage left at stageheight. His desk, like so much of the stage, isover-shadowed by large sections of LEDscreen: they seem to fill every available spaceabove the stage deck. Any RF problems? I ventured . . . “I was expecting more, butpractically none. The system is all Sennheiser,SR2050 IEM, with EM2050 receivers and

SKM2000 hand-helds. All I find is a problem isthe strip from upstage to downstage left, abouta metre in front of the desk, but that onlymaterialises when the transmitters aren’trunning. There are also maybe one or twopoints on stage, and although Ellie moves allover the stage, the points are tiny and the drop-out so transient as to be inaudible to any butsomeone like me who’s listening for them.”

Neale revealed that prior to going freelance hewas on the sound crew at Adlib for 13 years.“I’ve been working for Ellie for 16 months now,” not a bad start to a freelance career.“Ellie’s vocal obviously receives most attention. I use some tricks: parallel compression - two channels, one compressed, oneuncompressed, straight to an Aux. There are 12stereo in-ear mixes in all”, (all easily managedon Neale’s DiGiCo SD7,) “three BVs, three techmixes, and six, including Ellie, for the band. Allare completely different in composition, exceptthe BVs. I have to be quite sensitive to what’sneeded for the guitarist.”

So it’s not just all about her voice? “No. I movedonto the SD7 because I needed more outputs.I’d been using a Profile quite happily for years.As soon as I moved, the sonic difference wasinstantly apparent. I was lucky to get the SD7,it’s what they had available at the time. I probably should have had an SD5, but the 5doesn’t have the dual redundancy and I do findthat having the three screens on the SD7 reallymakes things a lot easier for my generalworkflow. All that said, I still encounter Profileson festival appearances and continue to havemore than reasonable shows, it’s just the sonicquality that’s not as good.” No doubt the agedifference in digital desk terms just points to a need for a re-vamp?

ConclusionThis was just a short, five-arena run forGoulding, who has had a pretty meteoric yearreally. According to Carter she’s gone fromlarge clubs through theatres to arenas andsometimes back again; traveling east, west andsouth to embrace Australia, Asia, Europe andthe Americas. She shows no sign of stoppingand will probably visit a festival near you thissummer. Go and be charmed.

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