Will Donbavand Tames Unpredictable Acoustic Instruments with Fourier Audio transform.engine

As FOH engineer for Noah Kahan, Troye Sivan, Zayn, and Dermot Kennedy, Donbavand has come to rely on the transform.engine’s agility on stage

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – July 2025

Acoustic instruments change. Aside from how their timbre can alter according to temperature and humidity, their tonality and resonances can change drastically depending on how they are played. It’s a phenomenon that front-of-house engineer Will Donbavand faces on performances by artists like Noah Kahan, with whom he’s just wrapped up a string of EU/UK shows on the artist’s We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour.

What Kahan’s fans likely don’t notice is how Donbavand subtly affects the sounds of those instruments as the shows progress, using a series of plugins in a process made much more manageable by the implementation of the Fourier Audio transform.engine. As he did on other recent tours, with Troye Sivan last year and Zayn earlier this year, Donbavand was able to manage sound with a streamlined workflow.

On his most recent run with Vermont-born singer-songwriter Kahan, Donbavand was using transform.engine software v1.4 paired with the transform.suite ’25 software bundle, integrating the Fourier device with a DiGiCo Quantum5 FOH console, while fellow monitor engineer Clark Wright also utilised a Quantum5 for monitors. “I’ve been using the transform.engine since early days on that Troye tour,” Donbavand says. “It was version one, and I’ve tried to integrate it pretty much into every new gig since. It’s just been a good thing to add to my workflow and my palette.”

Key to letting him tame the nuances of acoustical instruments’ susceptibility to their environment has been the Oeksound Soothe Live dynamic resonance suppressor plugin. Having as many as he needs on the transform.engine lets him adjust the show’s acoustical tonality as it moves along.

“There are so many acoustic instruments on that gig that have odd resonances when played in certain ways and when they interact with the PA, both behind and in front of it. I found Soothe to be a way of kind of minimising song-by-song interventions; having it on the transform.engine lets me focus with my ears and on Noah’s vocal,” he says. “Sometimes there are banjos and mandolins, which, if they’re strummed in a certain way, can resonate too much in some upper mid frequencies. But then you want those frequencies back in there for when they’re being played lighter or being picked for a lead line. So it helps negate having to change EQs all the time or having to change a more standard dynamic EQ or a multi-band compressor to make things gel. The transform.engine lets me keep these instruments sounding consistent, without having to use multiple layers of tools or multiple snapshots per song.”

Donbavand keeps every acoustic musician on his or her own buss with an iteration of Soothe on each. But as the show progresses and musicians switch instruments, the sound also changes. “Say the band member who plays the fiddle also plays a 12-string guitar—the buildup and resonances on those instruments are different,” he explains. “When that happens, Soothe on the transform.engine helps me not have to worry about a change of playing, or a change of resonance, in that it basically allows me to have to be less hands-on on that particular thing and to instead focus on whatever the most important element of the mix is at that time. It removes distractions. It lets you use your ears more, once it’s dialed in.”

Donbavand expects that the Fourier Audio platform will be part of his kit for every tour from here on out. “It’s become an integral part of the workflow now,” he says. “The plugins may change, but how I get at them is going to be through transform.engine.”

For more information on Will Donbavand, visit www.willd.co.uk.

Will Donbavand mixing Noah Kahan at London’s BST Hyde Park on a DiGiCo Quantum5 front-of-house console paired with a Fourier Audio transform.engine

Donbavand manning FOH for Noah Kahan at Montreux Jazz Festival with his Oeksound Soothe Live plugin seen on the transform.engine display

Fourier Audio’s transform.engine, racked beneath the Quantum5, was utilised for Noah Kahan’s recent Glastonbury Festival performance (photo credit: Craig Gordon)

About Fourier Audio

Fourier Audio is a UK-based startup, with solutions incorporated on many international music tours, Broadway and West End theatre productions, and worldwide broadcast solutions. For more information, go to www.fourieraudio.com