LONGMONT, COLORADO ― For a tour built around bringing an audience closer to the artist, what happens beyond the stage can be just as important as what happens on it. For Hilary Duff’s “The Lucky Me Tour,” that philosophy extends deep into the audio system, where solutions from DPA Microphones, Wisycom and Austrian Audio, supplied by the DPA Microphones U.S. team, work together to create an immersive, natural monitoring experience for the performers and the production team.
With a background in music and a passion for building a complete concert experience “The Lucky Me Tour” Music Director Jacob Harelick has been especially interested in the larger picture of a live production. He doesn’t simply create a performance, but rather a complete experience that makes audiences feel connected to it. That philosophy has proven particularly important on the tour, where capturing the energy of the audience is a critical part of the equation.
DPA is a major component of this audience-capture, with the brand’s 2015 Compact Wide Cardioid and 2017 Compact Shotgun microphones dedicated as ambient mics. Monitor Engineer Nathan Bond began using the DPA microphones after he connected with a member of DPA’s Technical Solutions Team, Microphone Application Specialist Gabriel Antonini, which transformed the audience’s experience of the production. “When we started, I was previously using standard shotgun mics over the audience,” he explains. “With 20,000-plus people screaming, that setup didn’t work at all; the sound was not ideal. But the DPA 2015 and 2017 mics made a huge difference. They literally solved that entire problem.”
The 2015 mics provide a wide-cardioid perspective capable of capturing the overall arena, while the 2017s offer a more directional perspective. Together, these solutions afford a much more usable representation of what is happening beyond the stage—and that sound becomes part of the tour’s monitoring experience. “The crowd mics are some of the most important mics for the show,” Harelick says. “They ensure that we capture the experience of the performance and help the musicians relate to the crowd.”
Bond agrees, particularly when it comes to maintaining a natural relationship between the live environment and the in-ear monitors. With the DPA microphones, he says, “you can hear when people are yelling out things at her [Duff] in between songs; you can hear it perfectly.” For Bond, that natural quality is ultimately the goal of a monitor system. “I want to make it sound like you’re not wearing them,” he explains. “You’re hearing everything naturally. The DPA mics really changed that for me. As far as being a monitor engineer, I would definitely recommend those to everybody.”
Impressed by the quality of the 2015 and 2017 microphones, Bond also made the decision to add the DPA 5100 Surround Microphone to his audience capture. “Bringing the 5100 into the system added another dimension. It has such a natural, open sound, and does an incredible job of filling in the gaps at the front of the stage. The result is a more complete immersive audience sound that translates the energy and atmosphere of the show in a very natural way. With the 2015 and 2017 on the sides, and the 5100 in the center, it feels less like you’re listening to microphones placed around a stage and more like you’re actually hearing the room.”
The clarity of the audience microphones is only useful if the sound can be delivered reliably to the people who need to hear the crowd. That is where Wisycom becomes a key part of the system. The tour’s monitoring package includes Wisycom MTK982 Transmitters and a mixture of MPR50 and MPR60 Receivers, with additional MPR60 units supporting technical mixes and production personnel. The tour has also developed an extensive communication network in which audio, radio communication and talkback are integrated into the monitor workflow. The production is using 12 channels of Wisycom in-ears, while Sound Devices Astral transmitters handle guitars and handhelds.
For a production that travels internationally, Wisycom’s wideband tuning played an important role in the IEM system selection. “The biggest advantage in choosing Wisycom was definitely the wideband tuning,” Bond says. “We can put together our package and travel with it all over the world without having to swap out any wireless equipment.”
Bryan “Beav” Van Rooyen, the tour’s RF technician, echoes that assessment. “We’ve been using Wisycom largely on tours since 2020, and it has worked really well for us,” he says. “It’s been especially effective at fitting everything into the available spectrum, which is a huge advantage when you’re dealing with a lot of wireless channels on the road.”
While DPA handles the audience perspective and Wisycom provides the wireless monitoring backbone, Austrian Audio microphones take center stage for the performers themselves. Duff uses the brand’s 707 True Condenser Vocal Microphone, while the rest of the vocals are captured with 505 Active Dynamic Vocal Microphones.
Bond was particularly impressed with the process of selecting Duff’s vocal microphone. The production went through multiple capsules before settling on the Austrian Audio solution, ultimately finding a sound that complemented Duff’s voice and the pop-oriented character of the show. “We tried other brands, but as soon as we heard the Austrian Audio 707, we knew right from the start that it was the right choice.”
That confidence extends across the stage, where the production is using the Austrian Audio OC7 Instrument Microphone on toms and OC818 Multi-Pattern, Dual Output Mics for overheads, along with the CC8 Cardioid Microphone on hi-hat and percussion. For Bond, the ability to find a cohesive microphone package while still tailoring the choices to individual sources has been a major advantage.
Harelick further highlighted Austrian Audio’s suitability for pop vocals, which have proven valuable for Duff, stating “they are perfect for any pop performance.” He also points to the relationship between Austrian Audio, DPA Microphones and Wisycom as a positive collaboration, because the brands all complement each other.
Although the three brands serve different roles within the “Lucky Me” production, the goal behind their use is remarkably consistent: preserve the character of the live performance while giving the production team the flexibility and reliability needed to execute it night after night.
For Bond, that starts with making the audience sound like an audience, not an indistinct wash of noise, and delivering that sound naturally through the in-ear system. For the wireless team, it means having a system that can adapt to different frequency environments as the tour crosses borders. For Harelick, it means selecting microphones that complement the performers’ voices and instruments.
The technology might be distributed across microphones, wireless systems and transmitters, but for the audience, and ideally even the performers, the individual components disappear. What remains is the sound of the room, the energy of the crowd and the performance itself.