Toby Keith - American Ride Tour - Mobile Production Pro

SoundChai Wallahs PushSoundcraft Vi4To The Max At Green Man FestivalSound company Hark provided a Soundcraft Vi6 console at Green Man’s second stage (the Far Out Tent). Photo Credit: Ian HunterOne of the fast emerging collectives on theUK festival scene are the Chai Wallahs,whose increasingly familiar marquees arededicated to providing an eclectic blend of musicappealing to different lifestyles.one touch away.“One factor that grabs you immediately is theintuitive interface and the user programmablefader pages, while the sound of the desk isalso excellent — the parametric EQ’s arevery accurate and analogue sounding. This isalways my ‘go-to’ desk — there’s no need tolook anywhere else.”Founded three years ago by Si Chai, today,Chai Wallahs attend a number of summercalendar events — including Green Manin the Brecon Beacons — and are quicklybecoming seek-out destinations.Inside the organic-looking structure aselection of the UK’s finest undergroundtalent and established Afro-beat, Funk andReggae artists perform alongside DJs in afree-form mix, with the emphasis on acousticmusic earlier in the day. It also provides itsown chill area in the form of a unique cafébar.Green Man has become one of ChaiWallahs’ more recent destinations, andafter their debut last year, this summer theywere again out in force, with London-basedsound engineer Harry Bishop piloting aSoundcraft Vi4 in the 800-capacity tent.“The Soundcraft Vi is my weapon of choice,”said Bishop, who last year took Soundcraft’soriginal Vi6 digital desk around the festivalcircuit.This time around the Soundcraft Vi4 hadbeen sub-hired in from Mark Hornsby’sPA company Hark, with whom the soundengineer has a close relationship. Hark alsoprovided a Vi6 and Vi1 at Green Man’ssecond stage (the Far Out Tent).Harry Bishop has been an aficionado ofSoundcraft mixing desks since the early daysof analogue, and remembers mixing on aSeries I board at Plan B in Brixton manyyears ago. “I am very familiar with theanalogue desks but the Vi is a step above, andmy favourite digital desk,” he says.The reason for this is the easy transition itoffers the engineer from analogue to thedigital world. “The most obvious factor isits analogue feel because the channel strip islinear, it’s not multi-layered, and everything isChai Wallahs choose their own roster ofartists who rarely bring their own productionand so Harry ends up mixing most of theperformances — a situation with which he isentirely comfortable.With at least ten bands a day operating forfour days without sound checks, providinglive audio is no easy task. But from a genericfestival patch the speed of access the Vi4affords, provides the opportunity to changedesk templates with ease.For many of the repeat performances Bishopcan simply dial up the stored show mix.“Inside the desk structure I use the snapshotsto recall the different band mixes and whena new band comes through I recall a ‘linecheck’ snapshot which provides me with aclean slate to work from,” he says.The desk provides him with a highlyflexible mixing environment he says —notably because of its zoning and monitorcapabilities.6 mobile production monthly