DIGICO’S SUPPORT FOR LEVEL 42

Mark Clements has been touring with Level 42 for over 23 years, and for the last 16, he has been using DiGiCo consoles provided by Neal Allen, CEO of Merlin PA Hire. For the band’s 2024 touring dates Allen joined the tour mixing monitors, with Clements at the front of house position. The year began with the pair using a Quantum 225 at front of house and an SD10-24 for monitors. Towards the end of the year, they swapped to a Quantum 338 at front of house, and a Quantum 326 at monitors for the London O2 indigo shows. 2025 will see the Quantum 338 changing to a Quantum 225 for the overseas shows to fit the slimmed down logistics package.

“I love the Quantum 225 and 338,” Clements explains. “Their size is just right, the frames are easy to manoeuvre into any venue, and the small FOH footprint and connectivity options are massive plus points. We have 48 inputs from stage and for most of these I find the onboard vintage compressors and dynamic EQ are particularly useful.”

Last year was a hugely successful year for Level 42, with dates played across Europe and the UK. When the time came to upgrade the front of house console, Allen was grateful to the team at Core Pro Audio for ensuring that a console could be prepped and delivered in record-quick time.

“I’ve worked with Mark on and off for over a decade, so when Level 42 needed some help, I offered,” says Allen. “For the last three or four tours, we’ve supplied everything on the audio side. I purchase my DiGiCos from Core Audio and the team there have been fantastic. They’re so reliable and helpful, even making sure we had the serial number for our new console a good few weeks before it was scheduled to be delivered, so we could complete the touring Carnet. Trust is really important in this job, and Core and DiGiCo always deliver on their promises.”

Allen has continued to invest in DiGiCo consoles, adding the fourier transform.engine to the kit list for the 2024 shows, not just for the reliability of service, but also for the audio clarity and workflow. Live sound, especially monitor engineering, is all about being able to react at lightning quick speeds, so desk layout and available features are high on an engineer’s list of priorities. For the 2024 touring dates he got to see first-hand how his DiGiCo Quantum 338 was utilised day-to-day.

“The guys in Level 42 are some of the most precise and knowledgeable musicians I have ever worked with,” he says. “They know what they like, and they can hear the difference immediately if anything changes, so the sound must be spot on. When we go out to Europe, we just take what we need for the stage-end of things. It all needs to fit in a long wheelbase transit, so every piece of equipment has to earn its place on the van, and the compact size of the SD10-24 has been perfect.”

The SD10-24 has all the features of the bigger SD10, but in a 25-fader frame, making it perfect for situations where space is at a premium. The SD10-24 boasts 218 Dynamic EQ processors, all of which can be assigned to any input or output channel, there are 218 Multiband Compressors, 64 busses and a 24×24 matrix, making it endlessly flexible.

“The band has the best musicians in the world, so their instruments, pre-amps and consoles have to be the very best that is available,” he says. “That includes the consoles. Their sound is very pure so you don’t want to degrade it, and they notice every little change, which pushes us all to be the best we can be.”

Touring can take its toll on equipment and, with the band being out for so many dates throughout the year, the possibility for things to go wrong is ever present. For Allen and Clements, it has been a stress-free experience, something they credit to DiGiCo’s legendary reliability and numerous methods of support if the worst should happen.

“2024 has been trouble-free. DiGiCo consoles are always on my list, whichever band I am mixing, I have never had a problem with any of them,” says Clements.

“The aftersales and support DiGiCo offers is phenomenal; you are never alone,” Allen concludes. “Level 42 are at the top of their game and with the upgrade to the Quantum 338 at FOH, the sound we can give the fans is second to none. Audience members have even purchased equipment from Merlin because of how the gigs sound. People really are telling us that these are the best sounding gigs they’ve ever heard!”