Focusrite Are Sky High With Jamiroquai!
Focusrite’s Saffire has proved its worth yet again, this time in what can only be described as one of its more unusual outings, 35,000 feet in the air. Rick Pope, Jamiroquai’s long-time sound engineer, used the Saffire to record a one off, record-breaking performance by the band in the front of a plane on a trip to Greece.
A specially selected audience mostly comprised of competition-winning Jamiroquai fans witnessed the “Gig In The Sky” and the band performed half a dozen tracks. Pope takes up the story; “We had a full band, six musicians and three backing singers. They only took out two rows or three rows of seats for us. It was basically where you come in through the main door and we had a 10 and a half by nine and a half foot square to set up in!”
“I needed to record the gig and needed something standalone and FireWire because it was all done on batteries as obviously there was no mains in the plane. So I needed something that would power off FireWire from my computer and the Saffire PRO 26i/o was the first thing that came to mind. I’d heard some of the stuff done on a Saffire so I thought I’d give it a go. Even compared to Pro Tools HD it performed really well.”
“It was simple once it was up and running: stand alone, just hit record, go and that was it. It did everything I wanted it to do and was ideal for the gig because everything had to be scaled down. I had a really tiny desk that you could rest on your lap, a laptop and this little 1U bit of kit which was compact, small and sonically sounded great.”
Pope reveals there are no plans for further mile high gigs and that at least three world records is enough for now.
“Someone said it was five world records but all I know is that it was the highest gig in the world, the longest distance traveled during a gig and the fastest gig in the world!”
“We had a bit of turbulence and everyone had to sit down (otherwise no one would have been able to see) but I think people enjoyed it. Yeah, I think it went pretty well for a gig on a plane!”
About Focusrite:
Established in 1985, Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. has evolved from a manufacturer a professional recording console to one of the world’s most respected manufacturers of high-quality microphone preamplifiers and signal processors. The Focusrite product line includes the Platinum range of processors for the project studio market, the classic ISA range of professional recording modules based on Focusrite’s original console input stage designs, the Red range of premium, recording signal processing, the Blue range of mastering processors, converters and controller, and as well as the revolutionary Liquid Channel classic mic pre and compressor emulator and the brand new, innovative Saffire professional audio interfaces with onboard DSP and 24-bit/192kHz processing.