Ferrofish A32 on tour with Ellie Goulding

As part of the last leg of Ellie Goulding’s European Tour, she performed at London’s O2 Arena. Having just finished performing across Europe, Ellie Goulding is about to embark on the next part of her world tour, with dates in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. With such a demanding schedule, the decision was made to upgrade the keyboard and playback rigs with the latest technology from Ferrofish and RME – both distributed by Synthax, Inc., a global distributor of leading audio brands. The team was looking for something that would provide sound quality and flexibility, but would also be able to withstand the rigours of life on the road

Will Sanderson, MIDI, playback and keyboards technician, played a major role in designing the new system. He was kind enough to discuss his decision to use the new Ferrofish A32 AD/DA converter for the show’s keyboard and playback rig and the RME MADIface XT 394-Channel, 192 kHz USB 3.0 audio interface.

“The aim was to design a system that would handle keyboard sounds, electronic drum sounds, playback, autocue and timecode, whilst allowing the musical director and the musicians in the band to have free reign with their sound design, and full control of it during the show from on stage. This is an extensive touring campaign, and the show will naturally develop during that time. So I knew it would need to sound great and be robust, but also be flexible enough to handle any changes or developments as the campaign progressed. With so many elements of the show connected to this rig it could not be the weak link.”

The live rack: 4x RME MADIface XT and the Ferrofish A32.

Sanderson shared his experience with the Ferrofish A32. “The sound quality of this converter is fantastic and it couldn’t be easier to operate,” he reports. “We were one of the first people to get hold of it and we didn’t have a lot of time for extensive testing. As it turns out, it really was a case of unboxing it, bolting it into the rack, and turning it on. ”

“Straight out of the box, it worked exactly as you’d expect it to. The Ferrofish A32 is a very well thought out and intuitive piece of equipment. And while I’m certain we’re only using it for a fraction of its capabilities, for our requirements, it couldn’t be better.”

“With other artists I’ve worked for,” he added, I had a lot of success using RME products, so I knew the gear would work well. We needed equipment that was going to be robust, not compromise on sound or build quality, and give us the flexibility we required. The gear needed to be scalable up and down for different touring requirements.”

Sanderson also clarified why he and his team chose to go with the RME MADIface XT over the smaller RME MADIface USB, which they had also considered. “Because this setup was never going to be a carry-on fly rig, compact size was less important. A key reason for choosing the XT is the unit’s visual display, which makes operation easier and speeds up problem diagnosis. Another important consideration is that I have the option to run them from the thunderbolt port via an adapter. This way, I can free up the USB architecture within the computer should it need to focus solely on MIDI.”

Sanderson reports that using MADI provides him extra flexibility and more sophisticated channel routing options. “We were quite ambitious with what we wanted to achieve regarding channel routing,” he explained, “and it was these products that enabled us to commit to a design without having to feel constricted by hardware specifications.”

Sanderson went on to discuss the importance of having redundancy options in a live playback rig. The team uses two duplicate playback and keyboard rigs—ensuring that, if a fault were to occur during a show, the backup rigs would immediately take over, resulting in no audio dropouts. “There are two sides to this system,” he said. “There’s a keyboard rig and a playback rig that also provides all of our electronic drum sounds and timecode, which gets sent out to FOH, as well as the Lighting and Video departments.”

“Both sides to the rig have redundant back-up systems, but I also wanted the flexibility to be able to run the keyboard rig from the playback rig if necessary. The extra security provided by this system breeds confidence in the setup—for everyone involved.”

Sanderson also provided some insight into how the show works onstage. “The rig is positioned offstage, though it is remotely controlled by the band on stage. The musicians are in total control of the show. We have 5 keyboards and 2 sample pads, plus 9 drum triggers on the drum kit—all of which communicate directly with this system via MIDI. I’m basically just monitoring the rig during the show, though I can make adjustments on the fly as required.”

“This tour is an extensive one,” he concluded. “We just finished touring Europe and the UK. From here, we’re off to America for three months before embarking on festival runs. Then it’s off to Australia and New Zealand and eventually Asia. This rig will be travelling ‘round the world with us, so I had to pick products that would be both great sounding and robust—and that’s Ferrofish and RME.”

Ellie Goulding´s website.