As one of Ireland’s most successful musicians, Glen Hansard has built a solid 25-
year reputation on his emotive song writing and captivating live performances. This
year, touring has been big on the agenda. After completing a European stint,
Hansard and his band headed for North America in September and now they are on
their way to Australia – relying on a MIDAS PRO2 digital mixing system for
monitoring.

As a long-time MIDAS user, Hansard’s monitor engineer Leon O’Neill explains that
for him there has been no alternative to MIDAS. “For me it’s always been MIDAS. In
the pre-digital days, MIDAS were always the best sounding live boards and that
definitely carried through to the digital era as far as I’m concerned. I’ve used pretty
much everything that’s out there. All digital consoles have their strong and weak
points but for me, nothing sounds as good as MIDAS. This is exactly why we carry
one these days, instead of just going with what’s available.’

Dedicated to MIDAS PRO Series for monitors at every gig now, O’Neill explains that
in Europe a PRO1 with DL251 was used to keep things small for transportation
purposes. In the US leg, a PRO2 with DL251 from Chicago-based Ecto Productions
kept the MIDAS theme running.

Talking about particular features, O’Neill says, “The iPad control is fantastic,
especially when you’re doing a tight turnaround on a festival stage. At times we can
only carry wedges for Glen so the rest of the band use whatever’s available. The
ability to run around a stage and EQ each wedge myself while standing in front of it
is an amazing feature.”

“The POPulation groups are also a great feature that I’m making use of. There are a
couple of songs in the set where multiple moves need to be made. I have a POP
group set up for these songs so I can immediately call the relevant channels and
make the moves,’ he adds.

“Glen likes a pretty loud vocal wedge, and the MIDAS is effortless. I find the sound
to be big and warm and I don’t have difficulty managing the brittle top end that I
experience with all other digital boards. When our backline tech hears Glen’s
acoustic guitar in the wedge, he knows immediately whether we’re using MIDAS or
not, enough said!’