Recently, Front of House engineer and Hit Play crew member Jon Chadwick wrote about his experience taking the Allen & Heath Avantis Solo out on tour with Papadosio.
The setup
“While I’ve used the full-size Avantis a couple times, I’m more familiar with the dLive and SQ series, which I regularly use on gigs around town.
Papadosio’s current setup is an M32 at FOH, an M32c for monitors, and a DL32 on stage along with Whirlwind multi-pin disconnect snakes. I initially considered an analog split for simplicity but opted for a digital split over Dante instead to let the band hear the DX preamps. Hit Play provided three DX168s, which gave me a lot of flexibility on stage for where I wanted my I/O, allowing me to not need to use any analogue snakes. It is also a lot more convenient to run ethercon around stage rather than the bulkier whirlwind snakes.
The Avantis’ flexible I/O routing made setting up the Dante split seamless. I could easily tie line mix outs from the M32c to DX168 outputs, ensuring the band retained their familiar monitor setup without needing to run any additional cabling.
Comparing the Solo, dLive, and SQ
Coming from the dLive and SQ, the Avantis felt intuitive, with the same customizable layouts and processing that I’m used to on the dLive. It has a lot of similar features to the dLive while still feeling streamlined like an SQ. Whenever I’ve thought about buying a new console for the band I’ve considered an SQ5 for portability, but I wanted more than three matrixes and more mix bus flexibility. On the other hand, a dLive DM0 with a CTi1500 or just surfaceless DM0 rig with DX boxes was appealing but too cost-prohibitive. The Avantis Solo fits perfectly between these options, offering an abundance of mix buses and more advanced processing capabilities without the massive price tag. All while still being a great control surface.
Speaking of processing the DYN8 was a game changer across vocals, keys, guitars, and our Ableton mix bus. The Mighty Comp gave me a great slammed parallel drum bus, and the Opto compressor worked well on bass and vocals. The reverbs sounded good, but I missed the UltraFX reverbs that were recently released for dLive. I also would have loved to have the saturation and tuning capabilities that came with UltraFX.
The verdict
Beyond processing, the Avantis Solo’s compact form factor is a huge plus for a touring engineer. It’s small enough to check on flights, transport in a sedan, and still powerful enough to handle complex mixes.
One of the standout moments on this tour was the reaction from the band when they put in their IEMs during soundcheck. They immediately noticed the increased clarity and transient response, despite keeping the same mics, mic placement, processing, and gain staging. Out front, I had an easier time carving out space in Papadosio’s dense mix, thanks to DYN8 and the preamps.
Overall, the Avantis Solo exceeded my expectations. The combination of portability, processing power, and flexible I/O, especially with a DX Hub and DX168s makes it an incredible value. Huge thanks to Hit Play, Daniel White, and Chris Baker for the opportunity to take it on tour.”
Listen to Papadosio here: