Gorillaz, partway through an epic world tour, are utilising a DiGiCo Quantum 852 at front of house and another at the monitor position, both supplied by Entec Sound and Light. Engineers Matt Butcher and Dave Guerin can cope with anything the show throws at them.
Entec Sound and Light supply the full audio package and additional crew for the BRIT and Grammy-winning virtual band’s world tour in support of chart-topping new album The Mountain. With multiple different guest performers joining Damon Albarn and the Gorillaz live band on stage every night, even the DiGiCo Quantum 852 is pushed to the max. At the monitor position, Guerin has just 12 spare input channels on his console. At front of house, Butcher has a little more ‘wriggle-room’ and says the real reason behind his console choice is DiGiCo’s speed of workflow.
“There are lots of reasons to use a DiGiCo, but we use the Quantum 852 for Gorillaz because no other manufacturer makes a console that can do what a DiGiCo does,” he explained. “We can edit really quickly on the Q852, it has the redundancy we need, and we can cater for any type of record or broadcast feed request. Usually, it’s just a left/right feed because even just sharing the Groups requires 64 XLR tails.”
The minimum channel count to run the show currently stands at 165 inputs at front of house. These come from multiple vocal microphones, each with a different effect, instruments and guest artist inputs. There is a Quantum 326 for playback alongside the two Quantum 852s. Butcher is also utilising a Fourier transform.engine at front of house and, with the exception of his trusted SPX 900 and a few other vocal effects, it has greatly reduced the outboard effects he travels with.
“The Fourier works well. I do most things on the console, but there are some big reverb effects coming from the Fourier and it’s all nice and stable,” he continued. “We have a lot going on with multiple Optocore loops and huge channel counts, and it’s solid throughout.”
Guerin has created a range of apps to keep up with his channel numbers at monitors. He supplies iPads to the musicians and technicians so they can control their own mixes. His Faders app is capable of directly controlling channel, aux, group and matrix outputs, plus control group faders.
“I’ve created multiple apps now: Faders, Doris, Changes, and SetList,” he expanded. “Each one has a different purpose, so because DiGiCo consoles only connect to a single external app, I designed Router which enables all the apps to connect to the console via a single application. It’s very useful for the tour, not just for the DiGiCo consoles, but also for our RF Tech who can route any of my mixes to any of our 4 backup Sennheiser Spectera at a touch on his iPad. I have 290 input channels and 130 outputs on this tour, so it’s important to stay on top of things! I’m thinking of creating another app that just tells you what happened in the last OSC command you fired, to help you keep track!”
With so many regular and guest musicians, plus a choir, the channels add up quickly and emphasises why the workflow and surface layout of the Quantum 852 was such huge draw for both engineers. For Butcher in particular, DiGiCo has meant stability, reliability and convenience that is not available with any other platform.
“We have used other consoles that sounded great and were readily available, but then they would have really strange errors before the show,” he continued. “The DiGiCo ecosystem is rock solid and works very conveniently for rack sharing and multiple inputs. The audio network setup is pretty easy too. We’ve been using DiGiCo consoles for a long time now, and the high input count works well. It serves our purposes and sounds great.”
Guerin agreed but highlighted the DiGiCo team’s dedication to customer service as another reason not to swap consoles. For him, knowing there is always someone on the end of the line is a key factor in his long-standing relationship with both DiGiCo and Entec Sound and Light.
“There’s great backup from DiGiCo and Entec, with Dan Scantlebury, Tom Olorenshaw, and Matt Smith back at base, plus Colin Woodward, Kev Gill, Alex Chapman, and Alex Goodby on the road with us. On the rare occasions I need help, there’s always someone to call,” Guerin concluded. “I had an issue on a Sunday morning at the O2 in London, I rang the DiGiCo help line and John Stadius, DiGiCo’s Technical Manager called me back. Even though the company has grown, they still provide worldwide support along with the attention to detail that engineers rely on.”
The Gorillaz live experience draws on a quarter century of genre-bending, paradigm-shifting, consistently innovative musical brilliance. Following a triumphant 13-date run of shows across the UK and Ireland earlier this year to mark the release of critically-acclaimed new album ‘The Mountain’, Gorillaz’ first ever stadium show will take place in London on Saturday, 20th June, with support from Sparks and Trueno.
The Mountain World Tour will play festivals across Europe this summer before heading to North America and South America in the autumn. The band will play India for the very first time early next year with shows in two cities: Mumbai on 27 January and Bengaluru on 31 January 2027.
