The Analogues is an extraordinary band with an ambitious mission. The aim is to
recreate, live, the last six studio albums of The Beatles using the same instruments,
and amplifiers – and the same arrangements, complete with live strings and horns.
The band has tracked down and restored period instruments from all over the world,
such as a rare Lowrey Heritage Deluxe Organ, as used on the introduction to Lucy In
The Sky With Diamonds. To date, the band has conquered Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, and will start touring The White Album from
January 2018.

Remko Luijten, the front of house engineer for The Analogues, has been working with
the band for two years, and Ger Arts, the monitor engineer, has recently joined the
tour. Because of the extreme demands of this project both engineers have selected
SSL Live L500 consoles as their tools of choice, supplied to the tour by the Dutch
rental company Peak Audio.

Solid State Logic managed to talk to both Luijten and Arts shortly after a tour
highlight – the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper with a
sold-out show at the 17,000-seat Amsterdam Ziggo Dome. The event comprised
complete performances of both Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour, plus a third
section of additional material with an array of special guests. The show was an
exposition of The Beatles’ creative innovation, with a constant stream of vintage
instruments moving on and off stage, and exceptional musicianship – from the five
versatile core band members to the many guests and ensemble musicians. To
accommodate the range of extra guests, a second monitor console was deployed –
another SSL L500 – operated by Sydney van Gastel.

While the instruments, amplifiers, and several of the vocal microphones are authentic
originals, allowances had to be made for the demands of the project and the
practicalities of bringing such complex arrangements to the stage. “The Beatles never
had to play these songs live, and so had far fewer problems with crosstalk or feedback
to deal with,” explains Luijten. “For example, we didn’t want any screens on stage, so
the drum kit is not isolated. And the strings are right behind it.”
Even this was not an insurmountable problem for the team. They settled on a
piezoelectric contact element and microphone combination, using the piezo for the
bulk of the sound with the microphone signal blended in. Luijten: “Even only two
meters behind a drum kit, it works, which is nice.”

The Analogue’s attention to detail, extensive instrument collection, and additional
ensemble members mean that the input count for any show is high. ‘Normal’ shows
use four 32-input SSL SuperAnalogueTM Stageracks, while the Ziggodome special
added another rack to accommodate guests and additional ensemble. ‘Normally we
have around 100 to 110 inputs,” says Luijten. “…There are a lot of vocal positions for
each musician, a lot of instruments that are only used for one song, and of course, we
have an orchestra and the percussionist.”

To manage such an undertaking with a ‘vintage’ console, would be unthinkable:
Luijten: “If you wanted to stay true to the original you’d obviously need an analogue
desk, but you’d need a desk at least five meters wide for the inputs we’d need to
accommodate. Also, every song is so different from the previous one that you have to
do some automation on effects and on EQ. There’s no way it could be done on an
analogue console. Though, sound-wise, this desk comes as close as you can get.”

Luijten has all the instruments available on the first two fader tiles. He uses the
L500’s third tile as the target for the its Super-Query function, which spills the source
and destination paths of any selected Channel, Stem Group, Aux, Master, or VCA
across the console in a way that can be defined by the user for each path type.

Part of his mix strategy is to make a Stem group for each person on stage. “They all
play so many instruments that the easiest way is to name the person,” he explains.
“And then whatever they’re playing in that song is on that fader.”

Luijten uses very little outboard – just an analogue tube EQ and compressor in one of
the master inserts. He uses a Waves server for a few specific effects, but everything
else relies on the SSL standard path processing and internal FX rack. “For every vocal,
I have a four-band dynamic EQ. Those old mics are really sensitive to the proximity
effect, so the SSL dynamic EQ kicks in when needed and does a great job.

“One of the main effects I use is the SSL Tape Delay of course. I have it set up on a
macro key, so I can bring it up on screen with one button press and easily edit it.”

According to Luijten, a prime factor in deciding to use SSL Live on tour was ‘feel’: “I
ask, what feeling to do get when you’re behind the console? Does it do what you
expect? Can you find stuff easily? The learning curve on this console is not steep.”

He explains that the original console choice for the show was made by auditioning
several manufacturers’ consoles – spending a day with each one. “The first move was
to sit behind the consoles and try to set up a show and start mixing without a manual.
With the SSL it was easy.

“Though what immediately caught my attention was the EQ. We put up a multitrack
from our show via MADI and started mixing straight away. As soon as you turn a
control on an EQ, you realise ‘this is what I want to hear’… That was quite special.

“The main thing about this console is obviously the sound. They were all good, but
this one really stood out – and that’s the most important thing for us.”

For Ger Arts at monitors, the sheer power and flexibility of SSL Live is a boon. For a
regular show, he creates 24 separate stereo in-ear mixes. The five main band
members have completely independent mixes created from the original discrete
inputs, while the ensemble members’ mixes are derived from Stem groups, plus each
player’s own channel.

Possibly the biggest compliment came at the end of the Ziggodome event when
Engineer Geoff Emmerick – who famously worked on a number of The Beatles’ studio
albums – came to the FOH position and thanked Luijten for a great show. “I think I did
pretty good,” laughs Luijten.