Capital Sound handles Il Divo tour

Il Divo’s new FOH engineer, Davide Lombardi, has praised the work of audio rental company Capital Sound on the operatic pop group’s current tour with Katherine Jenkins.

Lombardi (pictured, left) secured the position on Capital’s recommendation, as the team became aware of his mixing talent on the 2012 Will Young tour. The firm also knew he had classical experience from his time with Andrea Bocelli.

“The guys from Capital came and listened, mentioned my name and I was lucky enough to be chosen,” said Lombardi. “The very first show was BBC Proms in the Park with a live BBC orchestra, which was good experience for me as it was in front of thousands of people.”

This was followed by a three-week stint in Eastern Europe, a trip to South America and a six-week tour with Katherine Jenkins, which took in venues around Europe and ended with gigs in the UK’s biggest arenas.

“I asked for a Digico SD7 for my FOH desk and Capital Sound has been very kind to give me that,” Lombardi continued. “I used the more compact SD10 on the previous tours, but the SD7 was ideal for this tour as we already had 56 channels with Il Divo and, with the addition of Katherine, I needed the facility to have more options available on the console.”

Davide also knew that with Steven Carr (pictured, right), Jenkins’ FOH engineer, working alongside him, the SD7 would give him the facility to mix the band and, at the begninning of the tour, allow him to help Carr should he require it. The SD7 has also been used to record each show to multi-track via MADI.

“This could be used for virtual sound checks, because the boys don’t do a sound check each time, plus the management always wants a multi-track recording at the end of the night,” Davide recalled. “I can do everything from one bit of equipment, straight out of the SD7 into the computer. It’s really easy.”

Capital also provided a Digico SD8 for the monitor position, along with a Meyer Sound loudspeaker system. Microphones were a combination of Audix and AKG for instruments, along with Sennheiser vocal mics for Il Divo and Audio-Technica for Katherine Jenkins.

“This is the first time I’ve worked with Capital and I’ve found it a really good company and I hope we can keep working together in the future," concluded Lombardi. "Capital is definitely one of the top rental companies in my opinion. They provide a great service.”

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