New Allen & Heath Qu-Pac on Andy The Kid tour

Former Static-X bass player, Andy The Kid (real name Andy Cole), is getting ready to kick off his first solo tour using Allen & Heath’s new Qu-Pac digital mixer.

The Australian-born bassist, who is also a part of the rock band We Are The Riot, knew he needed to upgrade his mixing equipment for his solo tour in order to travel internationally to promote his new album Linchpin – something he wasn’t able to do when he was a member of Static-X.

“With Static-X we just didn’t have the budget to send a big monitoring rig to other countries. The weight and size of the equipment made it a huge barrier for us to get overseas. However, now on my solo tour, I will be travelling with my Qu-Pac that allows me to go anywhere on the planet because of how compact it is. It makes a world of difference,” said Cole.

Cole doesn’t plan on bringing a bass or guitar rig on tour with him, as he will be running the instruments directly into the Qu-Pac. “The Qu-Pac has made all of these touring opportunities a lot more realistic and affordable. I am really excited about it,” he continued.

Andy The Kid enjoys many features of the Qu-Pac – not only does he like the compact desk/rack-mount format and the 16 mic/line inputs (expandable to 32 via dSNAKE), but the onboard effects as well. “Allen & Heath has a really nice stored library of onboard effects. I don’t have to mess with the compression on the bass,” Cole added.

He also recommends that other live bands use the Qu-Pac for touring purposes. “It is extremely user-friendly from a consumer’s point of view. You don’t have to have a degree from the Musicians Institute or 50 years of touring experience to be able to operate this digital mixer, that’s huge to me,” he explained.

Described as having ‘a rock vibe with pop sensibilities added to the mix’, Linchpin is a tribute to Cole’s former Static-X band mate, Wayne Static. “Wayne’s passing last year was a tragedy and it hit everybody really hard. I’m hoping to honour him through this project,” he concluded.

The tour begins in Australia on 22 May.

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