Then I was also doing in-ear monitor mixes for each of the orchestra players, and those were fed to them using Shure PSM600hw hard-wired packs. So FOH and monitors received those four lines from me post fader.
“It was a stereo bass stem and then a stereo stem for the rest,” says Paul, “so if the low end was very different when we got into a sizeable room with a sizeable PA, that bass stem would give FOH or monitors slightly more control from song to song. “So I was taking the 12 synthesizers in stereo, so 24 lines, and doing a sub-mix for the other engineers.”ĭuring the rehearsals, Paul found that the orchestral levels were rather uneven, causing him to have to do a little too much fader riding, so a decision was made to create a separate ‘bass end’ stem that would enable the team to tackle low frequencies without noticeably affecting the remaining orchestral sub-mix. “We had FOH as usual and monitors as usual, and then I’m doing a bit of both,” says Paul, explaining his role. Consequently, Paul Rattcliff was added to the team and given the task of specifically mixing the orchestra and providing them with suitable monitoring feeds and communication channels, this time using a Digico SD8 console.Ī third engineer called Gerry Colclough, this time armed with a Digico SD7, was positioned stage left and he dealt with the band’s monitor mix, feeding it on to Shan and Paul. At front-of-house, working on a Digico SD7, engineer Shan Hira handled the band’s mix, but early on in pre-production he realised that a second pair of hands was needed to deal with the 12 orchestral feeds.
#Mainstage 3.3 new sounds plus
Many Hands.įor the concerts, which took place at Manchester’s Old Granada Studios, the band comprised founding members Bernard Sumner (guitar and vocals), Stephen Morris (drums) and Gillian Gilbert (keyboards), plus relative newcomers Phil Cunningham on guitar and keyboard and Tom Chapman on bass. In addition, the face of each cell was fitted with its own venetian blind which opened and shut throughout the show to emphasize and punctuate the performance and act as a canvas for the impressive light show. Each member of the orchestra was positioned in a large cube-shaped room along with their respective instruments, and these rooms, which the production team came to refer to as cells and pods, were organised into a two-storey wall that covered the back of the stage behind the band. They did, however, celebrate and elaborate on their long-running relationship with synthesizers, by introducing an orchestra of keyboards played by 12 musicians sourced from the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM).Ĭlose-up of one of the cells/pods that housed each member of the synthesizer orchestra.Ultimately, the project, which went under the rather obscure name of –(No,12k,Lg,17Mif), was as much about the visual spectacle as it was the music, so rather than having the RNCM musicians scattered about the stage, the band, with the help of artist Liam Gillick, created an impressive architectural structure to house and display them.
But for their shows at the 2017 Manchester International Festival, commonly abbreviated to MIF, they made the bold decision not to play ‘Blue Monday’, or indeed other signature tracks like ‘True Faith’, and instead focused on songs which were new to their live set, or at least very rarely performed. The massive success of New Order’s 1983 single ‘Blue Monday’ firmly established the band as one of the UK’s most innovative exponents of synthesizer rock and arguably kick-started the alternative dance genre.
#Mainstage 3.3 new sounds series
One of the highlights of the 2017 Manchester International Festival was a series of intimate live performances by New Order, who reinvented their stage show by introducing an entirely new set list and a 12-piece synthesizer orchestra!
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