LEMO may be one of the most popular Austrian performers today, but at heart, says Niklas Fuchs, he is more like “the friendly musician from next door.” This relaxed and engaging personality is reflected in the star’s LEMO Unplugged Tour, which has a set that looks like a living room.
“LEMO truly is authentic and friendly,” said Fuchs. “On this tour, he wanted the audience to feel like they are visiting him at home listening to his songs from the couch. So, the design basically consisted of a whole lot of carpets on stage, standard E27 LED Bulbs, and some living room luminaires that we literally bought on the way to the first show. It created a special atmosphere.”
Filling in on the tour for LEMO’s usual lighting designer Bernhard Endl, Fuchs accented this welcoming mood with a warm, inviting light show. Position in a vertical configuration over the stage, his rig focused attention on the artist while contributing to the homey atmosphere. He used different parts of his rig at different points in the show, to create more varied and moving looks.
“Over time I learned the power of not using the whole rig in certain situations,” said Fuchs. “This really opens up a whole new set of possibilities. It gets a lot easier to create drama, big contrasts and always keep some element of surprise throughout the show. Also, stages can look a lot bigger when there is just one well-focused spot on the singer.”
Fuchs ran his show on his new MagicQ Stadium Connect and busked the entire time. “I didn’t do any preprogramming or anything in this case,” he said. “I just used my busking show file for the whole tour, creating the show in the newest BETA Version of the Stadium Connect, currently running on 1.9.5.3.” Speaking of his new Stadium Connect Fuchs noted: “It is the ultimate desk for me. I’ve built a custom case for it. I am hugely in love with this piece of equipment.”
Busking as he does, Fuchs finds the Motor Faders, quick access to Group Masters, and the additional playbacks on the encoder knob to be invaluable on this tour. “With busking, it really gets down to the number of physical buttons, faders and knobs you can quickly access for various looks and tweaks,” he explained. “I programmed my busking file especially to suit the layout of the Stadium Connect. I am just using two pages. On page one I have all my group masters – the important ones on the faders, the less important ones on the encoder knobs. Then on page two, I have a total of 42 directly accessible playbacks. 10 Faders, 10 Executors on Pause Buttons, 10 Executors on Play Buttons, 10 Playbacks on Encoders and Flash Buttons, and two crossfaders that are also programable.”
Another feature that Fuchs is enthused about is the built-in Numpad. “I know it sounds silly, but I really appreciate having a physical Numpad on the Stadium Connect,” he said. “Silly?” Hardly. When you impeccably busk an engaging show like this one, any preference you have is just fine.
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