Chris Parker

UK-based Live Engineer and Production Manager (Patchwork London)

So Chris, did you have a busy summer?

While at the start of summer I’d been trying to ease back into life off the road; to fill my seat as a project manager at Patchwork London, I found myself being drawn back into a heap of festival shows which have been a blast! The Arlo Parks campaign took us to Coachella & Bonnaroo in the US, to Japan, Australia and New Zealand amongst a bunch of UK and EU festivals. We had a week there where we did Glastonbury, then supported Harry Styles at Dublin Aviva Stadium, followed by Billie Eilish at The O2 – all back-to-back!

I also hopped on some shows with the lovely guys in the Sigrid crew, Declan McKenna, Sugababes & The Amazons, to name a few!

And you’ve been taking your dLive along for the ride! Why don’t you give me a quick rundown of what you’ve been using?

So with Arlo we designed a fly-package here at Patchwork London which consisted of a CTi1500 + C1500, both in Scott Dixon cases (22kg and 26kg respectively), along with a pair of CDM32’s and 3 x DX168’s, both in cases under 23kg. The system gain shares over fibreACE cards, so we’re able to take in-house CAT5 or fibre to get FOH seeing audio. The feeling of being able to wheel the desk and brain over to FOH in two 23kg cases is great, no worries about hanging around for a telehandler to lift the desk in & out!

What drew you to that console in particular?

They sound great and they’re incredibly fluid to work with. I don’t think there’s a better layout architecture out there – it makes mixing so much fun, and the number of softkeys and fader spill options give the desk a heap of power in a small format.

The compressors and processors it has onboard take a lot of the need out for external hardware or plugins; from the Source Expander to the Bus Compressor. Being able to stay compact and fly meant we hardly had to change the package for the entire campaign. The DX168’s are a total game changer too; the fact it has the same pre-amps as the dLive MixRacks is brilliant.

What was your favourite show this year? 

Tough question.. Fuji Rocks in Japan was amazing, and mixing the Greek Theatre in LA was a brilliant experience despite the 95dBbA limit there. Sounded great!

We’ve had a challenging recovery from COVID, as the industry blinks in the sun of touring post-pandemic, what would you say have been the biggest changes from ‘the before times’ to now, have they been positive? negative other?

I think the sheer amount of touring dates that have happened this year as a response to the lack of touring during covid has been an interesting topic. While we as crew appreciate the amount of work, we’ve seen a lot of artists cancel dates and entire runs due to burnout and it’s opened up a lot of conversation about touring and mental health.

If you could engineer any show, what would that show be and why?

Another tough question, and not one I’m sure I have the answer to! Some of my favourite tours have been slinging it in the back of a splitter across Europe and sharing the camaraderie and ‘silliness’ to be found in doing concerts for a living. I don’t take myself too seriously and I think it’s important to find the silliness where you can – so my dream show would have to be in a sweet spot where there’s fun, comfortability, and a feeling of mutual achievement & appreciation as part of the team.

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