Having completed a hugely successful tour at the end of last year, Scottish rock
band Biffy Clyro are on their way to the US. Both Front of House engineer Jonny
Lucas and Dan Speed on monitors rely on the power of DiGiCo SD10s for their
mixing requirements. They deploy three separate rigs around the world, with two
duplicate systems which includes, in some instances, the more compact SD10-24.
For the 2016 UK tour, all audio requirements were supplied by Skan PA Hire.

Lucas has been working with Biffy Clyro for almost a decade. “I did my first show
with them supporting The Who at Marlay Park in Dublin in June 2007,’ he recalls.
“There was no soundcheck and only a 20-minute changeover. It was a baptism of
fire!’

This intense introduction has, no doubt, prepared him for the band’s continually
hectic schedule. His use of DiGiCo consoles has given him the reliability he needs,
helped him refine his workflow and allowed for a relaxed approach to his Front of
House duties, a welcome adjunct given the scale of the shows he is working on –
the band is well-known for packing out arena and stadium sized venues, including
London’s The O2 at the end of the UK tour.

Lucas finds Macros a particularly useful feature and has them programmed to
switch Gain Tracking on or off, switch groups of input channels to ALT input, change
the view, save or switch fader positions on extra vocals, etc.

Lucas’ SD10 is running on DiGiCo’s Stealth Core 2 software upgrade.

“I hadn’t quite maxed out the previous version, but now I don’t need to think about
how much processing is left with Dynamic EQ, multi-band comps, etc. it is available
everywhere,’ he smiles. “I also prefer the flattened appearance of the GUI. I
haven’t tried it yet but, in theory, it means I could mix our show on an SD11,
although I like having the number of faders there are available on the SD10.’

Lucas also appreciates the support he gets from both DiGiCo and Skan.

“From the demo room in at HQ in Chessington to telephone support on the road,
DiGiCo’s support is always good. And we know there’s always someone available on
the phone at Skan, so between Skan and DiGiCo, any issues are always dealt with
swiftly. We’re all very happy with our console choice and haven’t looked back since
we changed to using them.’

Biffy Clyro’s US tour runs from the end of March to the end of May 2017.