Soulful, multi-talented vocalist and performer Leona Lewis has been on a 14-date
tour of the UK with an SSL L500 console and K-array Slim Array technology, chosen
by celebrated FOH Engineer Dave Wooster.

Lewis’ I Am show provides Wooster with around 65 inputs from the stage. “It’s a
full-on set-up,” he says. “The drummer alone has two mics on the bass drum, three
snares – each with at least two mics on, four toms, all the cymbals, electronic kick
and snare… So he was up to about 20-odd channels on his own!”

According to Wooster, the show absolutely benefitted from the L500’s exceptional
signal path – from the SuperAnalogueTM mic inputs, through the flexible channel
path, and comprehensive internal FX Rack: “What really separates the L500 from
the competition is the sound.’

“The effect on Leona’s vocal was very noticeable in the system,” he continues. “I
think the 96kHz operation makes a difference, but the pre-amps make a huge
difference as well, and whatever it is SSL has done on the EQ is stunning…. You
really hear the HF.

“With Leona I have to deal with a massive dynamic range within every song… The
mix has to be able to go right down to almost nothing and then build to everything.
The way the SSL input section handles that is fantastic.

“Of course, it’s natural that when she whispers I get a load of low end from the
microphone that I don’t need, and when she’s screaming down it there’s too much
high end and not enough lows. I use a dynamic EQ from the internal FX rack to sort
that out. The standard EQ helps calm down some resonances, though there were
only two cuts with low and high pass filters that I needed to make with that.

Wooster’s approach to the console surface configuration takes full advantage of the
L500’s Layer & Bank approach to layout, as well as the expedient Super-Query (‘Q’)
function – a forward and reverse interrogation feature with fast-assignment
function.

“I have all my input channels as a sub-layer,” says Wooster. “That’s where all the
programming is. Then I use Stems on the top layer. I completely isolate them from
any recall and end up with kick, snare, hat, toms, overheads, a bass channel, guitar
channel, keyboard channel, lead vocal and BV stem faders that are always below
my fingers… That’s my mix.’

As well as the console, the tour rig included the innovative K-array “Firenze’ Slim-
Array PA system with acoustic steering. Wooster is convinced that the combination
of the two was unbeatable: “In the 33 years I’ve been doing this,” he says, “I’ve
never mixed on a system this good…”