Simon Higgs, best known for his work on monitors for The Who
We recently caught up with Simon Higgs at MusicBank rehearsal studios where he was setting up for the V Festival with Olly Murs. Simon is best known for his work on monitors for The Who over the last 14 years.
Simon invited us down as he had been faced with the (not so unusual) problem of reducing the physical size of The Who’s playback system, while also looking at the advantages of upgrading the sonic performance and features available to him. Simon explains “For The Who and Roger Daltrey’s solo work we are still using Fostex 8-Track HD machines for backing tracks. Sequencer parts for “Baba O’Riley” and “Who Are You”, for example.” He also mentioned that “Roger is doing a show in the Bahamas in a couple of weeks, and I suggested buying an audio interface with QLab instead of freighting this heavy rack.”
Simon had made some calculations, and found that the cost of transporting the large racks around the world was simply huge, so he decided on buying an RME Fireface UCX instead of forking out the transport fee for the old racks. As well as the big bucks saved, Simon has also gained serious flexibility with his new feature set found on the RME Fireface UCX and (the included) TotalMix FX software.
The RME Fireface UCX audio interface with the Basic Remote Control (BRC)
Simon went on to explain “Roger is an honorary patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, and regularly performs at benefit gigs. Co-incidentally he’s just asked how he could use the sequencer tracks at an upcoming benefit with Queen.”
This of course is where the RME Fireface UCX comes into its own, as they now intend to use an iPad with Auria to output the click and cue tracks to the headphone output on the Fireface UCX for Roger Taylor.
This is of course not the first RME product to be found with The Who, as Paul Ramsay (FOH) uses 2 MADI HDSP PCI cards, a MADI Bridge and an RME MADIface to record the shows.