From the 2013 release of his remix of Ed Sheeran’s track, “I See Fire,” chased by his own hit, “Firestone” featuring Conrad Sewell, the following year, Norway’s Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll—best known as Kygo—has long made his mark on the international dance music circuit. This fall, the popular DJ/pianist/producer embarked on 26-date North America, Europe, and UK-crossing “World Tour Part One” that featured performances at iconic venues like Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, and a hometown show at Telenor Arena in Oslo. And for each stop, Kygo’s audio engineering team of Eds John at front-of-house and Ross James on monitors have stood behind a matching pair of DiGiCo Quantum5 consoles supplied by the tour’s global production provider, Solotech.
Kicking off on September 7 at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado and wrapping up on December 13 at Dublin, Ireland’s 3Arena, the Live Nation-produced 2024 trek finds Kygo augmenting his signature keyboards and DJ decks with a lively ensemble of string players, drummers, and various vocalists, plus special guests like Sofi Tukker, Gryffin, Sam Feldt, Zara Larsson, and others on select dates.
Eds John has served up Kygo’s FOH mix for the past eight years, in addition to working with The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft and UK pop rock band McFly. Although he’s a relative newcomer to the DiGiCo brand, he’s taken a fast shine to the Quantum platform. “The thing I love about the Quantum5 is the way that it feels under the hands—it oozes quality!” he enthuses. “All of the surface faders and encoders are built so well. I think that other console manufactures skimp on this part of the design process and it’s one of the reasons that I use this console.”
Another key reason that he made the jump to DiGiCo was due to its widespread availability worldwide: “It’s easy to pick up consistent packages in all territories. I am lucky enough to live very near to DiGiCo’s UK headquarters and everyone there has been super supportive in allowing access to their programming rooms whenever I need it. When an old friend of mine, James Baker, started working at DiGiCo, he was the final piece of the puzzle that helped me switch over for all my artists.”
John further points out that the Quantum5’s Con Send/Receive function has been especially helpful. “That feature is something that, to my knowledge, no one else does and it really simplifies the workflow between FOH and monitors,” he says. “Also, the text chat is particularly useful, as sometimes getting onto your shout mic or comms can be too distracting while you’re mixing. This is another great way to communicate while getting on with the gig.”
For audio processing, the FOH engineer says that he’s pairing his Quantum5 with a new transform.engine from Fourier Audio. “I’m using Waves F6 into R Compressor across all vocal channels, then Waves C6 across vocal groups on the transform.engine. I also have Waves SSL G Buss Compressor on the master, Sonnox Dynamics on instrument inputs, Valhalla Room as vocal reverb and piano reverbs, and Eventide H949 for vocal thickening.”
“Before using the transform.engine I kept things simple, so I only used what was on the console for simple setup,” he continues. “I still have all of that processing in place in case I can’t get a Fourier unit. The Quantum5’s internal Spice Rack is great for multi-band dynamics on vocals, and I’m also still using the internal effect for certain duties, like vocal delays, so I can access the parameters easily and using a tap tempo macro, which for me was the simplest way to achieve this. I’m using the channel strip de-esser for vocals on tracks that are a little brash from the album stems and the channel dynamic EQ on pianos to set them nicely in the mix. I use a lot of group processing, which helps mix stuff together before hitting the master buss.”
John notes that the tour is carrying two DiGiCo SD-Racks and three SD-MiNi Racks, all loaded with 32-bit cards and on an Optocore loop. One SD-MiNi is for the support acts, another is in monitor world for all the shout lines and ties in some Rupert Neve Design outboard, and the third is at FOH for shout lines at that end of the venue. “And we’re using DMI cards for the transform.engine, a Waves port for Pro Tools multitrack, HMA for the loop, and MGB for the backup record system.”
Ross James, whose Quantum5 console is deployed in the standard stage-left monitor mix location, is also using the new Fourier Audio device. “I use mine across both inputs, mainly on vocals,” he says. “I have one on a piano, too, and all of my IEM outputs, plus all my effects. My staple plugins are Waves F6, CLA2A, SSL G Buss compressor, McDSP Retro Comp, and Valhalla Vintage Verb, all of which are performing flawlessly on the transform.engine.”
Although James has only worked with Kygo for two years, he’s been a DiGiCo user for more than eight. “I’ve been a fan since around 2016, just before the SD12 came out,” he recalls. “I went up to their HQ and did a training day and it’s been my preference since then. As for the Quantum5, I am absolutely using Quantum features on this show. We have a lot of guest singers on this show, and some singers like their vocal straight through with little to no compression, but the extremes in dynamics aren’t always the best for Kygo, or anyone else on stage, so I get to compress them a bit more for those people—and having Nodal Processing means I don’t have to duplicate channels to achieve this. Same with wedges, I have a different EQ on the singers for the wedges and their IEMs, It’s super useful to me in monitor world. I also love the Spice Rack and Mustard Processing, which is used all across the board.”
Counting talkback and ambient mics, Kygo’s show boasts 72 inputs, including a lot of tracks channels, keyboards, DJ decks, and a dozen guest vocal microphones. “We are touring with vocalists but are also ready for surprise guests at any moment at very short notice,” says John, noting that James is keeping busy with 16 IEM mixes plus a pair of wedges at the other end of the fiber loop. “I’m also doing IEM mixes for all of the departments at FOH, including lights, lasers, and video. There is a fairly complex shout system between all departments with a FOH mix blended in.”
At the end of the day, John says that the biggest compliment that an audio engineer can get is to not be noticed, “just to seamlessly carry out our jobs so that the audience believes the sound comes from band to speakers without a whole team of people in the middle making it happen. With DiGiCo and Fourier Audio in the mix, there have been zero complaints on sound for this tour and that’s just the way we like it.”
For more information on Kygo, including his upcoming “World Tour Part Two” dates in 2025, visit www.kygomusic.com. Solotech can be found online at www.solotech.com.
