ProAudio Review - March 2008 - (Page 26)

Gearin g Up For Linkin Par k: en ‘Pooch’ Van Druten is what you could most accurately call a world-class live sound engineer. He has bounced around the globe with the biggest names in the touring business, acting as front-of-house engineer with Beastie Boys, Guns ‘N Roses, Kid Rock, Korn, Seal, and Earth, Wind & Fire, just to name a few. Currently, Van Druten is in Australia running FOH with KISS, and has just wrapped up a string of dates with Linkin Park. Here, Van Druten details his intricate FOH work with Linkin Park on a highly successful tour supporting their latest platinum-selling release, Minutes To Midnight, and is sure to note his choices in gear for the gig. PAR: What would you call the biggest acoustic and/or logistic challenges for this Linkin Park tour? Are any of these challenges specifically linked to the new material on Minutes to Midnight? If so, how? Touring Gear Front- Of-House Engineer Ken ‘Pooch’ Van Druten Bullins By Strother single seat in the house has a person in it, so the pressure is on to make it sound good everywhere. The stage was not in the center for these shows (end stage 360), so it means that some of the backline arrays were very close to where the seats are. There is always a challenge shooting enough energy up into the high seats and not creaming the people that are close to the boxes in the middle. Also, there is a whole set of challenges when you are shooting sound energy 360 degrees; you have to spend a bunch of time making sure that each array sounds the same and that where the two arrays meet, there is no smearing or canceling. It presents all kinds of issues on the stage itself as well. Luckily, Linkin Park wears in-ears, but when you are exciting the entire room, it makes the monitor engineer's job very difficult. I spend a great deal of time every day working with the monitor engineer Kevin ‘Tater’ McCarthy to ensure that it is a pleasurable experience for the fans and the band. “There is a total of ten hangs of boxes when we are doing 360 degree shows. The main L and R are 12 Adamson Y18 per side, plus four Adamson Y10; Flown Sub L and R — six Adamson T21 per side; Side Array L and R — 16 Adamson Y10 per side; Far Side Array L and R — eight Adamson Spektrix per side; Back Array L and R — eight Adamson Y10 per side; And four Adamson T21 ground subs to fill the center on the floor. So, as you can see, there are many zones that all must be aligned and EQ’d on a daily basis.” PAR: Please name the top five bits of gear — anything from input to output — that are crucial links in the overall sound quality of the tour. Why are you using those particular things? Van Druten: “As I said before, we are embracing all kinds of digital technology. In fact, when the signals get converted at the stage just after the microphones, it remains a digital signal all the way until the amps just prior to the speakers. There is only one analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion that happens. It remains in the digital realm all throughout processing, etc., and travels via AES all the way out to the control surface at FOH and back to the stage. It really sounds fantastic and am excited that it is working out so well. “I use a 96 input/48 out Digidesign D-Show Profile with various plug-ins — most notably the Waves Live bundle and Digidesign All access pack; and a Mac-based Pro Tools|HD3 system for virtual playback and recording of the show, linked via DigiLink cable to the console — no conversion there, either. There is no outboard gear except for playback and a CD recorder. Finally, I use Lake Dolby processing for outboard EQ and a digital matrix: AES In and Out. “In addition to the HD3 system at FOH, we have two other complete HD3 systems that we use to edit and remix the show. We are doing something really unique on this tour that I am really proud of: at each show, the merchandise booths are selling a ‘recording of the show.’ What they are actually selling is a blank CDR with liner notes relating to the shows and inside is a web link that promises that you can download the show that you were just at in ten days. We record every single show and remix it to create a record-quality recording of the show for the fans. We have been doing this for about six months now and the fans are really loving it; it has created a huge buzz amongst the fans that trade shows, who actually have discussions about what performance is better than others, etc. It’s pretty interesting stuff; we really work hard to make sure that we keep the integrity of the shows intact and do not fix things with Auto-Tune, or whatever. If it was a complete train wreck, we try to improve it by doing some editing here and there, but for the most part it is a true representation of the show. This is something that people will be listening to for years to come, so we really wanted to make sure that it sounded great. “If you want more examples, just check out the iTunes EP that we just did; it was recorded at a super-secret Apple Store show in NYC a few weeks ago, and it is being promoted pretty heavily on iTunes right now. “But anyway, what does this mean to me? A lot of listening to Linkin Park. Dylan Ely is the Pro Tools Editor; he and I spend about 12 hours a day mixing and editing in the dressing room at the venue, working on nearfield monitors. Then I go and mix the live show after that. So, on the average, I listen to Linkin Park about 14 hours a day on show days. At first it was really difficult. Not so much about the ear fatigue — as I listen to nearfields at very low volumes — but more about the brain usage of sitting in front of a Pro Tools rig for 12 hours a day and then having to mix a live show. It has gotten easier now that I am used to it, but it still requires a great amount of dedication.” “POOCH” continues on page 29 ➤ Van Druten at his Digidesign D-Show Profile Van Druten: “Minutes to Midnight is a whole new sound and direction for Linkin Park. Some of the things that I normally do for their older material just doesn’t work with some of the new sounds that are flying at me. Luckily, we are embracing a bunch of newer technology on this tour. I am using a Digidesign D-Show Profile, which allows me to create snapshots and different plug-ins for each song and immediate and drastic sound palette changes. I feel like I have the tools to do anything that the band or I can imagine … more so than ever before. It is an exciting time for live sound technology. We can achieve the goal of making it sound like the record every night, and with the tools of digital technology and newer line array systems like the Adamson system, you can really achieve that goal. “Audio-wise, I think the biggest challenge on this tour is that for about half of the shows we completely sold out the venues. Every 26 | ProAudio Review | March 2008 Subscribe to the Digital Edition of Pro Audio Review http://www.proaudioreview.com/subscribe www.proaudioreview.com http://www.proaudioreview.com http://www.proaudioreview.com/subscribe

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProAudio Review - March 2008

ProAudio Review - March 2008 Contents Publisher's Page Studio News and New Products Sennheiser MKH 8040 Microphone Digidesign Mbox 2 Micro Studio Spotlight Upsampler X/Audio Live News and New Products Touring Gear From the Road Broadcast News and New Products ION Audio Tape2PC Cassette Archiving System Brauner VMA Large-Diaphragm Microphone Audio Ltd. RMS 2040 Series Post News and New Products First Look NAB Showcase Buyers Guide Single Slice

ProAudio Review - March 2008

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