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HammerFall’s Monitors Rise with Mackie

Metal may sound big and epic, but that doesn’t mean the FOH position has to be when metal acts tour. Case in point—Sweden’s venerable Hammerfall, who’s guitarist, backup singer, and programmer Pontus Norgren also happens to be a front-of-house engineer, having mixed Thin Lizzy, Europe and Yngwie Malmsteen, among others.

Sweden (April 3, 2017)—Metal may sound big and epic, but that doesn’t mean the FOH position has to be when metal acts tour. Case in point—Sweden’s venerable Hammerfall, who’s guitarist, backup singer, and programmer Pontus Norgren also happens to be a front-of-house engineer, having mixed Thin Lizzy, Europe and Yngwie Malmsteen, among others.

With that in mind, it was Norgren’s call when the band selected a Mackie DL32RTM rack-mount digital mixer as part of its new monitor system. “The DL32R was right for us for several reasons,” Norgren asserts. “Our monitor system uses the KLANG:fabrik 3D personal monitor mixing system, which supports Dante. I went through more or less all the rack mixers with Dante to find the right one, and the DL32R had everything we needed.”

HammerFall’s monitor rig fits in a 4U, shock-mount rack built by Sound of Silence, a Stockholm-based firm. The entire system, with cabling, weighs 57 lb. (26 kg) and is flyable. “We have to fly everywhere, and now we can always bring the monitor setup and have the sound we want,” observes Norgren. “We load the presets, we connect the monitor system, and it sounds the same each time.”

Inside the rack, the band’s drum mics, vocal mics, and guitar and bass DI outputs connect to a pair of 8-channel splitters. One split feeds the FOH console; the other goes to a Mackie DL32R with optional 32×32 DL Dante Expansion Card. The DL32R sends its outputs via Dante to the KLANG:fabrik, which feeds 3D-processed output to the in-ear transmitters.

The KLANG connects to a wireless router, allowing it to be controlled from several iPads. The DL32R can also be controlled from the iPads, using Mackie’s Master Fader app. Each band member has an iPad to mix his own monitors. Typically, they control monitor mix levels and 3D processing with the KLANG app and manage the DL32R’s EQ, compression, and effects with Master Fader, but they can manage levels with Master Fader if desired.

Mackie
www.mackie.com

LOUD Technologies Inc.
www.loudtechinc.com

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