AudioMedia - February 2009 - (Page 59)

AMSR 02|09 > two rehearsal days before STP set off across the country, and took on a Clair audio system that had been spec’d long before his arrival. Much like 10 years ago, the band eschewed modern-day line arrays, choosing instead traditional Showco Prism boxes, hung in a four by seven grid on each side of the stage. “You mix specifically for this box as opposed to, say, some line arrays where sometimes your mix will translate from one brand to another,” said Mapp. “If you mix to it, you can get good results and have a great time at shows. But a lot of people show up with a digital desk, pull up their last show, and if they’re not expecting it, it definitely can be challenging.” The PA was the only audio nod to an earlier era, however, as Mapp, too, was using a digital desk – in this case, a Digidesign DShow Profile. Instead of racks upon racks lining the mix position, the FOH area was relatively petite. “I don’t really have much out at front of house,” he confirmed. “We’re interfacing the Profile with a Pro Tools rig that the band purchased to record and archive all the shows, and we also do virtual soundchecks sometimes with it. There’s a Clair (Dolby Lake) I/O for EQ with the SIA Smaart overlay, and I’m keeping it ‘club style’ with the Sabine Feedback Eliminator; it works and we need it, ‘cause Scott’s all over the place, crawling up the PA and stuff. Sometimes it seems like he’s out in front of the PA more than he’s actually on stage – and that’s what keeps it fun.” A full 38 different plug-ins were being used inside the Profile, ranging from a variety of URS API-style EQs, to Eventide reverbs on drums, to a Digidesign Smack compressor on the bass. Mapp rattled them off, noting, “I’ve probably got eight Eventide [H3000] Factory plug-ins doing just different panning stuff; Instant Phaser I’ll use in connection with a panning thing for weird cymbals and oddball effects; the Chandler EMI limiter which is sort of their Abbey Road re-creation limiter; a Crane Song Phoenix on left and right; and a McDSP MC2000 multi-band compressor on Scott’s vocal.” Of the fact that every musician had his own home recording setup made for easy communication, Mapp explained, “It’s cool because they know what they want, so they can say, ‘Hey, can you do this or that,’ whether it’s some of the same plug-ins or emulations of outboard gear that they use. They already have a good idea where they want to be set, instead of being like some acts that say, ‘Make it brown.’” At the side of the stage, manning a Digidesign Venue D-Show, was Andy Ebert, veteran monitor man of tours with Neil Young, Guns N’ Roses, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Velvet Revolver, Dream Theater, and others. While Ebert pumped mixes into Showco SRM wedges and Prism sidefills, most of the band wore Sennheiser G2 personal monitor wireless systems, Ultimate Ears UE-11s and UE-7s. “Scott’s mix is very effects-heavy,” said Ebert, “so I have a lot of plug-ins going. There are Eventide delays, reverb, and a ‘telephone voice’ on a few songs. I’m using the Digidesign ReVibe, the TC Electronic reverb, and I just bought the Rane/Serato Dynamic EQ, which gets rid of cymbal noises in the vocal mic – that helps a lot. On kick drum and snare, and bass, I’m using the Crane Song Phoenix plug-in, which brings all the analogue crispiness back in, especially on the snare.” When it comes to hard rock, guitar miking is key, and STP’s Marshalls were captured through Heil Sound PR 40s, which Ebert fondly referred to as, “these beauties. They’re incredible – the low end is tight and they have brilliant high ends. We used them on Velvet Revolver the whole last tour on all guitars, bass, even the kick drum.” Meanwhile, a Sennheiser 409 was placed on a Vox amp next to the Marshalls. “It’s all the same signal but the Vox is clean; that’s how he gets that ‘chimey sound’ through the middle of it all,” Ebert confided. Drum miking for the journey found some of the usual players – Sennheiser E901 and 902 mics on the kick, Shure SM57 on snare bottom, AKG 414, and Neumann U87 and KM184s – but there was also an unusual approach to gating. Mapp enthused, “Big Mick from Metallica turned me on to using triggers to open up the side chains of our gates. There’s a little Pintech RS-5 trigger that sticks on the shell; you send the output of that to a channel and assign that to the side chain in your gate. I have all my channels delayed a millisecond, two or four, because we end up delaying the PA back to the audio, but I don’t delay the triggers – so it actually opens up right before the actual hit. You get the full transient, the high end’s better, and you don’t have adjacent drums opening up. Dynamic for the threshold is way back where it normally is.” Ebert had his own secret weapon for miking the bass, explaining, “Not too many people know about this, but we like it: the Shure Beta98. Everyone knows it for toms; The Chili Peppers were using it, it sounded incredible and I started doing it for acts like Maroon 5; it works great for SVT amps or cabinets.” Mapp may have mixed to ensure fans were left smiling when the reunion they thought they’d never see was over, but it helped that he was something of a fan, too: “They’re such a great rock band; everything comes off stage and it’s in your face. I love all these songs. It was funny coming into rehearsals – they got to Plush and said, ‘Do you need us to go over that song?’, I said, ‘I think I’m vaguely familiar with that one.’” ∫ NEW EXPOSÉ E8B AND VXT SERIES FROM KRK Purity. Freedom from adulteration or contamination. That’s what you need in the recording studio. Pure and simple uncoloured audio. KRK engineers understand this, and take great care to offer speakers that can be relied upon to deliver. The Exposé E8B and VXT series take studio monitoring to a whole new level. With an attention to detail and design expertise unmatched in the industry today KRK has truly raised the bar. Key design elements such as a sleek radiused edge enclosure with optimised airﬂow and minimal port turbulence, and ﬁnely tuned custom components, all ensure that the new Exposeé E8B and VXT series deliver a pure and realistic sound that is in a class of its own. SO PURE AUDIO MEDIA FEBRUARY 2009 WWW.KRKSYS.COM http://WWW.KRKSYS.COM http://WWW.KRKSYS.COM

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AudioMedia - February 2009 Contents Recording News Post News Broadcast News GEO Focus: USA What's Up UK NAMM Review For the Record Project Profile: Hallelujah HHB CDR882 KORG MR-20005 Chandler Germanium Brauner Phanthera Final Cut: Lesbian Vampire Killers SE Electronics RNR1 The Royal Opera House Fairlight XYNERGI Limiting Loudness Product Sampler: Studio Consoles Video Guide AMSR News Stone Temple Pilots Fly Again Rode M2 Yamaha IM8 Series

AudioMedia - February 2009

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