a-ha's Career Ends on a High Note with DiGiCo and Sennheiser After a 28-year career, the Norwegian trio a-ha has decided to split, saying farewell to fans with a major world tour. Two DiGiCo consoles, plus a full complement of Sennheiser microphones and in-ear monitoring systems, were key components of the sound system. Taking in Asia, Europe, and North and South America, the tour finished on home ground in December with four sold-out dates at the Oslo Spektrum. Having used a Digico SD7 on the band's previous Foot Of The Mountain Tour, front-of-house engineer Sherif El Barbari was happy to use it again. This time he was joined by monitor engineer Kursten Smith using an SD8. "When the band asked me to do this tour, as far as equipment goes, all I asked for was an SD7," says El Barberi. "It has never let me down and, with its full redundancy; I have complete confidence that everything will be fine. "It also allows you to do cool things. I've started to get fancy and use a camera feed to the desk, utilizing macros to achieve my own video mix, remotely switching via MIDI between eight camera signals. Sound engineers have a bad habit of looking at the desk, not at the stage, and so the video screen on the console helps me to look at the stage as much as possible." Supplied by Capital Sound, the audio rig includes a Martin Audio W8L Longbow system and Sennheiser microphones. The SD7 has around 47 inputs from the stage, of which nine are for various loops and samples. "Even though those channels don't change in level, dynamics of live instruments and vocals do," El Barberi continues. "I'm using snapshots for each song as a starting point, but I'm still mixing to compensate for changes. I also use relative groups a lot and varying cross-fade times for different channels on different songs." He continues, "I've actually set up sessions to allow for 128 inputs, we did two shows with a symphony orchestra so it was handy to be prepared for a larger number of inputs. One reason I really like the desk is because you can simply arrange things and tailor your interface -- even during the show." In terms of effects, Sherif is using onboard effects for guitars and drums. For vocals, he likes to use TC Electronic System 6000 along with a 2290 delay and an Eventide Ultra Harmonizer. All dynamics are onboard plus gates and compressors as well as dynamic EQ with just two Avalon Vt-737sp vacuum tube preamps for lead singer Morten Harket's main and spare vocal. "I'm running Morten's vocal channel on copper to front of house, because it makes sense to use this head amp rather than run it through the stage rack and inserting the Avalons locally, unnecessarily adding latency, " says El Barberi. "I've always used the MIDI facility of the desk to run any outboard effects and now also to run the video. So I'm growing into using more of the SD7 as I go -- some of it because it's cool and some of it because it really makes sense. "The SD7 is my favorite tool, no question," he says. "We used to do long sound checks but, with a good sound team, now we hardly do any at all." The complement of Sennheiser microphones includes a wireless SKM 5200 with Neumann KK 105 capsule for lead vocalist Morten Harket, while bandmates Paul Waaktaar-Savoy and Magne Furuholmen use e 935 wired dynamics for backing vocals. A combination of e 902s, e 904s and e 614 small-diaphragm condensers are used on the drum kit, with an e 614 on the glockenspiel. "Morten is incredibly sensitive to the performance of his microphone and wireless personal monitor system," says El Barberi. "In fact, I've been an engineer for close to 30 years now, and I have never met someone who is so spot-on regarding what he hears, what he feels, and what he expresses. He is a perfectionist who is capable of delivering, and that has really raised the bar for Smith and myself." The singer is now attached to the sound of the Neumann KK 105 capsule. "That Neumann condenser sound is so clear and clean. It rings clear and true when he hits the incredible high notes for which he is known," Sherif adds. Meanwhile, at the monitor position, Kursten Smith is using a Digico SD8, having previously been a regular D5 user. "I've had it for over a year and I really like it. It's easy to get around and it sounds good," he says. "I changed to it because of the multiband compressors and EQ. Although I inherited the SD8 on this gig from the previous monitor engineer, I had used it with another band before." "The console is set up with every song having its own snapshot, just basic settings for mixes and mutes," he continues. "I'm using only the internal effects - a graphic on Morten's channel and reverbs. The SD8 is a straightforward console. It's easy to use and sounds really good, which is exactly what you want." The entire band is using Sennheiser ew 300 G2 or G3 IEMs. "We carry spare packs in case of any RF trouble, but we didn't need to use them," says Kursten. "Sennheiser's equipment performs as advertised, provided you have decent frequency management. The tour's video walls complicate things, but the Sennheiser gear is robust enough to deal with it." 
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