Lorde's Ultrasound Tour Runs on Four DPA d:facto 4018VL Mics

Lorde's Ultrasound World Tour covers arenas, amphitheatres and smaller venues on several continents with the final date set for the Austin City Limits Music Festival on 10 October 2026. The live show uses very few microphones: most of the music comes from synths and direct inputs, and there is little traditional backline on stage.

Four microphones in total

Front-of-house engineer Philip J. Harvey explained that the stage has only four microphones: Lorde uses one, and the other three are for backing singers. Everything else is connected directly. All four use the DPA d:facto 4018VL capsule. Harvey has mixed Lorde for more than ten years and has built her vocal chain around this capsule since the Melodrama tour.

With so few microphones, bleed from other sources into the vocal channels cannot be avoided. Harvey said the off-axis sound of the 4018VL stays natural, which he finds makes the mix easier to manage.

Monitoring and RF

Monitor engineer Kevin Glendinning set up a Wisycom wireless system for the whole production, with the same equipment for the band and the crew:

• Wisycom MPR50 belt-pack receivers;
• MTK in-ear transmitters;
• a CSI16T combiner;
• an MFL RF-over-fibre link.

Because the system is wideband, the team does not swap equipment between regions and only changes frequencies. Part of the show has Lorde performing from the front-of-house position, deep in the audience. To keep coverage there, the RF signal is carried over fibre into the crowd area. The system architecture was designed by RF specialist Stacey Handley.

Glendinning said that everything he does depends on what comes through the belt-pack.