Engineer Profile – Scott Howarth

Scott Howarth, UK | Photo: Elliot Ingham
How did you get started in the industry?
I started out mixing in local venues where I would promote shows, I quickly grasped a good idea of how to mix things together. That moved onto PA companies and then into touring with smaller rock bands.
What tours have you worked on?
Over the last 3 or so years, I’ve been full time with bands such as Bullet For My Valentine & You Me At Six. Most recently I have been working with Don Broco and right now heading out on a second tour with an American artist called blackbear.
How did you first hear about Allen & Heath?
I mixed my fair share of shows on older GL / ML models back in the day they were a staple in my early touring years. More modern was the birth of the iLive which PA companies I worked for had then touring GLD / SQ / dLive.
What’s your mixer of choice and why?
The dLive S3000 is a great size. Mixing monitors or FOH and having that bank of 8 on your right for outputs is important to me. But all the while fitting side of stage in smaller venues and support tours is just as important. Since the first day I used dLive, I immediately made it my console of choice.
How do you see the future of live sound changing?
I don’t think we can predicate what innovations are to come but the I believe constancy is an ever-growing factor. Being able to fly around the world and have consistency is the future. Compact mixing; for desks, wireless and even more compact line arrays. Redundancy; this is something that I feel is becoming more and more important and also something I look at when setting up a system for a tour, I make sure I have redundant power on a UPS, redundant cabling and another way to mix the show should the surface go down.