Icelandic rock icons Sigur Rós recently completed their first world tour in almost five years, playing 70 shows across 28 countries, with the band’s monitor engineer, Throstur Albertsson, deploying KLANG’s immersive in-ear monitor mixing solution, using a DMI-KLANG card-equipped DiGiCo SD12 96 digital mixing console, supplied by new UK pro-audio equipment rental and support provider, 22live.
Albertsson was recommended to Sigur Rós in 2021 while preparing for their 2022 tour.
“As the tour was going out for many months, I had a few meetings with the band to make sure the fit would be a good one, both for them and me,” siad Albertsson. “At the time, my mixing abilities were secondary. It was all about seeing if we had that perfect ‘vibe’ between us.”
The band started rehearsals in Iceland mid-March, with Albertsson using the time as an opportunity to understand their sound preferences and prepare the equipment for the tour.
“DiGiCo’s SD12 96 console was already in full use by the band, together with an SD-Rack fitted with 32-bit in/out cards,” Albertsson added. “Additionally, the band was using an IEM system and wedges as part of their standard setup.”
A few months later and midway through the tour, Albertsson explained how a dinner with the band’s tour manager gave him the idea to shake things up.
“Somewhere in Melbourne, Australia, I was having dinner with the band’s tour manager, Giles Woodhead, who has a background in sound engineering,” he said. “While discussing the up-coming dates for the EU leg, Giles mentioned the KLANG 3D in-ear monitoring system and how he thought we should try it out on the rest of the tour. My initial thoughts were more on the negative side, ‘why to try something new mid-tour when nothing was broken?’ I was sceptical to say the least.”
After investigating KLANG further,he spoke to Pasi Hara, a monitor engineer who was one of the first adopters of the KLANG:fabrik and had upgraded to a DMI-KLANG card, fully integrated into DiGiCo Quantum and SD-Range consoles.
“I spoke with Pasi. In short, he said, ‘once you try it, it will be hard to mix without it’. That proved to be true!” Albertsson said.