Livewire Youth Music have received an incredible surprise late Christmas gift from leading pro-audio live sound manufacturers Allen & Heath, with the donation of one of their flagship dLive c3500 live sound mixing desks to be used for gigs and teaching young people live sound in its amazing 250 capacity venue in Saltash, Cornwall.

Over the years a great many local young people have been taught the finer art of mixing live sound at Livewire, including Sam Walsh who went on to be legendary Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre’s front of house engineer and Alex Skinner, who went on to develop a career at Allen & Heath himself. This amazing donation will massively enhance their ability to reach even more budding young sound engineers and hopefully support them into long lasting careers.

Comments from Andy Rance, youth work coordinator:

“We are so delighted with this amazingly generous donation from Allen & Heath – we have had a wonderful and long relationship with this UK leading live sound and DJ product manufacturer based right here in Cornwall. This new dLive desk will be a huge upgrade to Livewire’s live music venue and massively increase our ability to teach local young people live sound – this means that we can also now use our existing and much-loved Allen & Heath iLive T112 as a monitor desk on the stage again and we can now also teach young people skills around monitor engineering. For local young people to be able to learn hands-on with up to date, high end professional equipment is both crucial for them to develop music industry careers and inspire them. In the same way that legendary ‘Who’ Guitarist Pete Townshend has enabled us to give young people the opportunity to use and develop skills in studio recording and producing, Allen & Heath are helping Livewire’s live music provision, enabling the next generations of young sound engineers to access current technology and skills – we really are indebted to them.“

Comments from Will Rogers, Livewire’s long-time studio and venue engineer:

“It will be so great to get the new Allen & Heath D-Live system as a teaching aid within Livewire Youth Music. It’s so good for the young people to learn through enabling them to be hands on with cutting edge technology, supplied through one of the very best live sound manufacturers within the Industry. The D-Live’s flexibility and compatibility with Laptops and IPads via Allen & Heath’s D-Live Director Program gives the operator increased control anywhere from within the room, with offline show programming from off-site if required. The increased sample rate, improved effects and intuitive operation makes the Allen & Heath D-Live perfect for our venue. Aiding to maintain it as one of the best sounding and equipped in the area.“

Comments from Alex Skinner of Allen & Heath:

I joined Livewire as a teenager and quickly discovered a passion for sound engineering with the help of the team and facilities available there. It offered me a safe environment to learn and practice with real bands on professional equipment and without this opportunity, I would not have developed the skills I needed to get where I am today. As a former member of Livewire and now an Allen & Heath employee, it’s great to see that the company can support this vital project to inspire the next generation, whilst supporting young people in so many ways.

For more about Allen & Heath, click here.