Key Things to Know
- The Phil Collins Story, a docu-concert celebrating the life, career and music of Phil Collins, debuted Feb. 3 at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York before a 50-city North American tour.
- A DiGiCo Quantum225 console, provided by Clair Global, handles both front-of-house and monitor duties for the production.
- A DiGiCo DMI-KLANG card and KLANG:app running on iPads let the six onstage musicians mix themselves, removing the need for a dedicated monitor engineer.
- The entire monitor system runs over a single Cat5 line, eliminating the split snake rack and networking rack found in traditional setups.
- Sound designer and front-of-house mixer Theodore “Ted” Woolsey uses snapshots to automate each musician’s monitor mix song by song.
What Is The Phil Collins Story?
The Phil Collins Story is a docu-concert that celebrates the life, career and music of Academy Award, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning performer and songwriter Phil Collins. The production debuted Feb. 3 at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York, then embarked on a 50-city North American tour. Chronicling Collins’ chart-topping run from Genesis to his solo career, the show pairs live musicians with state-of-the-art audio, dynamic projections and intricate lighting.
“It’s not really a film or just a concert, it’s a multimedia experience with live music,” says Theodore “Ted” Woolsey, who handled sound design and mixes the live sound for the project, working with A2 Ethan Ginsburg-Margo. “It’s the story of Phil’s life and it goes through a lot of the stories and all the hits, including with Genesis, with live musicians onstage. It’s pretty spectacular.”
What Console Powers The Phil Collins Story?
A DiGiCo Quantum225 console, provided by Clair Global, powers the show and manages both front-of-house and monitor duties. The console works as the hub for the entire production, paired with a DiGiCo DMI-KLANG card for signal distribution and control and iPads running KLANG:app for the musicians onstage. Woolsey ties the digital platform to authentically vintage Phil Collins outboard gear, including Bricasti reverbs and the Yamaha SPX2000 multi-effects processor, alongside more modern Waves plugins.
“The Q225 lets me manage everything easily from a single surface,” says Woolsey. “And I designed the setup so that there’s no need for a monitor engineer. I’m using KLANG so that the musicians can mix themselves. The intuitive KLANG:app interface makes personal mixing easy for them, while the immersive mix engine helps them find the right balance much more quickly.”
How Do the Musicians Mix Themselves?
The musicians mix themselves through KLANG:app on iPads, fed by the DMI-KLANG card out of the console. The music director runs a Logic session with a click track off a laptop next to his keyboard, and that click reaches the six band members through the KLANG:app on their iPads. The same feed cues the lighting and video operators, who work from their own KLANG mix and the click.
“The show starts with the music director running a Logic session with a click track off of his laptop next to his keyboard,” says Woolsey. “That goes to the six musicians in the band through the KLANG:app on their iPads, and it also cues the lighting and video operators, who have their own KLANG mix as well as the click. When they hear the click, they start the show manually.”
Why Does the DMI-KLANG Card Simplify the Signal Path?
The DMI-KLANG card simplifies the signal path by sharing all monitor audio off a single SD-Rack, so the production needs no split snake. The whole system runs on one Cat5 line, moving from the DMI-KLANG card out of the console into an access point that drives all the iPads. That approach replaces the traditional method, which would route inputs through a split snake into a secondary rack before distributing them to in-ears.
“It’s really cool how I can split up audio in so many different places through so many different ‘languages,’ like through MADI, Cat5, and over fiber,” says Woolsey. “In this case, the whole system is one Cat5 line with the DMI-KLANG card out of the console into an access point that drives all the iPads. But with the DMI-KLANG, it’s all shared off a single SD-Rack, so there’s no split. It’s all digital through the one Cat5 line. That’s it, that’s the whole system, there’s no split snake rack, no networking rack. It’s just shared off the same I/O and it’s all going through this access point into the KLANG.”
The simpler signal path also cuts down the potential points of failure across the production.
How Do Snapshots Automate the Monitor Mixes?
Snapshots automate the monitor mixes by recalling each musician’s dialed-in levels for every song. During initial rehearsals, the six musicians set their individual mix levels song by song, and Woolsey saved that data with the snapshots. When he moves to the next song, the console changes each musician’s mix automatically to the balance they built for that moment.
“The combination of the Quantum and the KLANG is like having a monitor engineer that knows the whole show, but each musician is handling it themselves,” says Woolsey. “And I like giving control to the musicians. They can easily make their own monitor tweaks through KLANG:app, focus on their playing, and be fully immersed in the show. And that also lets me focus on the live show and my front-of-house mix. Really, it’s the best way this show could be done.”
How Does the Production Stay True to Collins’ Sound?
The production stays true to Collins’ sound by recreating his signature sonic details, including the Sennheiser 421 microphones that captured his heavily gated tom-tom fills on songs like “In the Air Tonight.” Woolsey notes the show is live in more ways than one. While a click track guides the musicians, sound, lighting and video all run independently of each other, relying on their respective engineers to keep the performance together. That analog spirit mirrors much of Collins’ own career and gives the docu-concert its live-show energy across all 50 cities.
