Warren Zeiders, on Jelly Roll's “Beautifully Broken Tour”, is perfectly positioned with DiGiCo Quantum225 consoles

When you open for Jelly Roll, you have to be able to hold your place on stage and assert yourself. That is exactly what up-and-coming singer and songwriter Warren Zeiders does, who on his Beautifully broken tourwhich began on August 27 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City and will stop in numerous major markets across the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New Orleans, before concluding on October 27 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

“Pure, raw, unadulterated, courageous, otherworldly talent with star power” – so Highways in Americana describes the sound and presence of the Hershey, Pennsylvania native. The title track of the first of Zeiders' two studio albums, “Pretty Little Poison,” became a number one country radio hit and eventually helped him land a role as direct support on Jelly Roll's recent arena tour. And two DiGiCo consoles are along for the ride: a Quantum2²⁵ front of house, controlled by FOH engineer Ben Ivey, and another at the monitors, operated by mixer Adam Snyder, with all hardware provided by Sound Image, a Clair Global company.

“It’s the cleanest preamplifier on the market,” says Ivey about the Quantum2²⁵The mic preamp is housed in the SD rack, which he and Snyder share in an Optocore network loop. “The input isn't colored at all, which means that whatever I do front of house in terms of the mic we choose, the vocal chain we choose, the sound is colored the way it needs to be. And the onboard processing gives me a lot of tonal and dynamic options. For example, for a while this year I used the Chilli 6 quite a bit on Warren's vocals,” he says of the Quantum's six-band dynamic multiband compressor/expander with two independent fourth-order parametric EQ bands.

According to Ivey, “Quantum's superior flexibility was a game changer,” he says. “What I like most is that you can input anything you want, do anything you need, and set the sound the way you want it. It sounds so good and adapts to my workflow that there's nothing else like it.”

Monitor engineer Adam Snyder, who first experienced the Quantum225 last year on tour with CCM artist Jeremy Camp, is equally enjoying his console, particularly the flexibility of its operation. “I switched my artist from aux to groups, so his mix goes through the groups before it reaches his ears, and I use the dynamic EQ Chilli 6 and Naga 6 that the Spice Rack processing now has on board,” he explains. “Putting that over the groups really helped me get Warren's voice through the mix when the band gets louder.”

And having all the processing he needs in the console ensures there are no delays. “Having everything in one box is more robust than having a separate software rack, because sometimes even the hardware can fail along the way, so it's really handy to have everything integrated,” he says.

Ivey confirms this, noting, “He's one of the most dynamic singers I've ever worked with,” he says. “He has a very wide range of sounds, but also a lot of bite, and the smoothness of the DiGiCo really helps make his voice sound very natural – not super bright or super bass-heavy. The Quantum processing and the DPA VL4018 vocal microphone he uses are a great combination.”

Snyder also experiences this vocal dynamic, particularly in the form of his projection ability. “His voice changes a lot sonically the louder he gets, and I use a lot of the onboard processing to compensate for that,” he says. “Also, for the band – they're all listening with ears – I like how neutral the preamps are for monitors. I try to let the band hear what they're giving me so they can make decisions onstage in terms of tone or playing style, and a really neutral preamp helps with that. But I also love having things on board to color the sound and help them out if I need to. But right out of the gate, it's nice and neutral and true to the original.”

Ivey and Snyder agree that the Quantum2²⁵ With the console, they can let the voice tell its own stories. “We're here to make sure every bit of him comes across in every seat,” says Ivey, “and this console helps us do that.”

For more information on Warren Zeiders' upcoming tours, visit www.warrenzeiders.com. Sound Image can be found online at www.sound-image.com.