Audiosquid

Fellow tour manager and friend Matt Johnson hooks me up with a tour of the US with the UK band Embrace. A great bunch of gentlemen to work, the tour went well overall. The band carried their own in-ear system, which made all of the shows much, much easier in many ways, especially as we were playing the smaller clubs, most with monitors from FOH, which in this case worked out just fine, as the bands mix requirements were fairly simple, and I didn’t need to spend time working on some crap wedges, that would only sound so good anyway.

Embrace at the Troubadour in Los Angeles

Matt, our tour manager, had a vacation scheduled the same time as the last couple of days of the tour. He was going to have another tour manager come out and take care of the last bit, but then convinced me in the end to take care of the tail end of things.

He gave me his US cell phone, and as I got tired of keeping track of the two of them, I taped them together into one SUPER PHONE! Brain cancer twice as fast…

And since I wasn’t necessarily prepared to TM, I didn’t have my printer with me… So back to the old school hand made day sheets.

The 4th of July was spent as a day off in St. Louis. I think I was the only one to go out and see fireworks. Can’t say I blame an English band for giving a rats ass about Independence Day!

After the fireworks we head off to Kansas City for a quick show on the 2nd stage at the Verizon Amphitheater, and then I send them all off to fly home and go right to Live8. Meanwhile Brendan and I ride the bus back to it’s home in Atlanta before flying home to San Francisco.

Off to Europe again, our first stop this time in Barcelona, Spain to play the Primavera Festival (seen above). The show went well, with a Heritage 3000 and a dv-Dosc rig, but no where near enough subs for the size of the audience. Oh well.

It just so happens that the AES convention is going on right next door to the festival, and it just so happens that we have some time off here in Barcelona, so on the day off, Oliver and I go to the convention. Our first stop was a discussion by d&b on subwoofers, and adjusting the dispersion pattern by facing subs the opposite was and messing with phase and delay. A cool little presentation. They should have had their demonstration at the festival, the stage I mixed at could have definitely made use of the lessons taught.

Next we head for the convention floor to check out all the gear and talk some shop. I stop by the Empirical Labs booth to check out their new eq, the Little-Freq, and I was very impressed. I t could do freq conscious compression, and as a de-esser it was superb, the best I have ever heard. I talk a bit with the owner/designer, who was very cool. Told him how much I like the distressor, I’m sure he hears it alot. Sadly with digital taking over live sound, and the fact that these units are 1K plus, I doubt I’ll be using them soon.

Next mission… check out all the digital live sound desks, first stop, Digico. Having just used and being impressed by their D5 I check out some of there other offerings, some smaller versions, some sort of ugly looking buttons/labeling on the new desk, but seems cool.

Right next door, Digidesin, where I get a great demo of the desk by Placebos FOH engineer, and this thing looks cool. The ability to use TDM plug-ins is a very big plus in my book. It still looks a bit space agey up close, but not as bad as you think looking at pictures, and it all feels fairly solid.

Didn’t bother with Yamaha, or perhaps they didn’t even have a booth, cause if they did I probably would have thanked them for the mac native interfaces, and ask why it’s only for certain desks and not all…

Last, a trip over to Inovason, where I get a good, though grumpy, demo on their SY-80, and this thing is pretty cool to. It comes out in the conversation that I am on the road with Mercury Rev and that we are about to do a run of shows in France, and when he hears about the show at Olympic in Nantes, he asks if I would like them to bring a desk by for me to use that night. Hell ya, I’m game, so he hooks me up.

Out third french show into the tour, and true to their word, inovason brings their SY-80 by. Using the desk for the first time definitely slowed things down a bit, but overall I liked the desk. The eq’s and comps sounded good, it was cool how you could layout the faders in basically any way you liked (though that could also get confusing). I had a couple of things I didn’t like, that may or may not be possible, but the fact that I could only control the eq and especially pan of one channel, and the headphone amp on the desk was weak, and I couldn’t quite get it to solo matrix and groups like I wanted.

Overall a slight thumbs up.

I got the offline editing software to work just fine through Virtual PC on my mac. Speaking of offline editing, everyone I spoke to at AES seemed to have no interest in making a mac native offline editor. Thanks for nothing..

The Olympic in Nantes also had a new PA since I was there last, a Nexo Geo rig, I think the Geo-T, they also had those huge weird looking subs, and those things were absolutely amazing. Only one cabinet a side for a club that fits 800 people, and it was more than enough, especially really good in 30-40hz subsonic range.

We had a festival show in Saint-Beurac the next day which went fine. Sonic Youth played after us, and was doing fine till the power went out, but they played on, destroying the DJ rig.

Next day we head to Reims, France to rest and do some sightseeing.. —>

Another show of note on this tour was our show in Skopje, Macedonia. A bit of a rough/poor looking place on our trip from the airport to the hotel. The area around our hotel seemed to be a very small oasis.

Just one local sound company I think, and they aren’t doing too bad as they bring me a Soundcraft Series V and a Meyer Milo rig. Worked out quite well. The audience was amazing, and we sold the show out at around 2000. Not too bad for a country the band had never been to before.

The meyer rig worked out well. They had one of those fancy Meyer processors with the humidly/temperature adjustments. Amusing and scientific, but not a must have.

Now the locals just need to make some nice multipin snakes for their outboard gear (compared to a selection of all sorts of cables) and maybe we should break it to them gently that those SKB cases don’t really save you any money in the long run…..

Also, note to self: don’t check in your FX rack as luggage on a flight, ship it, or leave it home. Thanks to some kind baggage handlers somewhere, I need to replace the rack ears on my TC-D2, yet again…. ;-(

Mercury Rev returns to the US, and after a break through April, we head out on a US tour, supporting the Doves around the US, but first we head out to the west coast to play the Coachella festival. We are the second to last band on the second stage, and out at FOH there is a Midas Heritage 3000, that I can set up pre set before our show, good deal. Thing is, the power supply is not liking the voltage its getting from the genny supplied power, and was shutting down during the day. So it just sat there and collected dust while everyone mixed on the new PM5000 that didn’t seem to mind the power.

And how about the PM5000? Well, it’s mic pre’s seem to sound really nice, though the eq’s still don’t do anything for me. Slightly better color scheme. Tons of doo dads and features, but didn’t do much for me, not that I’m complaining.

I bought an ishuffle, and I find it incredible amusing at the moment, this stick of gum type thing that cranks out tunes, and it sounds pretty good to. This is actually my second one, as the first one went through the washer/dryer in a pair of pants. It came out nice and clean, but would not play any music. Though it still works just fine as a USB memory stick, so now I have one for music, and one for all those fancy digital desk show files.

Right before we started this tour, the Doves had to pull out of the first couple of west coast shows due to some overworked vocal cords, so we continued on as headliners, in some smaller venues at last minute. After LA our first stop is San Francisco where we play at the Independent, a short walk from home, which was nice. You can see info on the Independent here. The show goes well, though Oliver is not happy with the Soundcraft 500 at monitors (and I don’t blame him!)

We head up north to Seattle, for a show at the Showbox. While the XL-3 that is in there now is nice, with a sidecar for support acts, I really liked when they had the Gamble in here. I find a blown driver in the Nexo rig. No big deal, not great attendance, so the boxes that worked covered things just fine.

Then on to Portland for a show at the Aladdin, and one of those Crust Crest desks, I like this place though, nice little theater.

And then we find ourselves with some time off, I think there was a vancouver show in the mix, but without the Doves it gets pulled, so we have some time to make it out to Colorado for the next show, so we decide to head for…

Yellowstone National Park. We make our way out to the park, bus, trailer, and all. We figure that the park can handle it as some RV with a car in tow are as big as we are.

We stop up in the near by town the night before and rest up before driving through the park the next day. It’s pretty quiet in town, as we learn the the road that goes all the way through the park only just opens the day we want to drive through it. What luck, a little earlier and we would have been sadly disappointed. But it looks like the roads are clear, and we stock up on food for some picnic action, eh boo boo?

So the next day we head through, and it lives up to all its expectations. Beautiful scenery, wildlife, natural wonders, it’s all there. We saw herds of bison walking right next to the bus, we saw wolves, elk, a bear, old faithful, waterfalls, and bubbling pools of mud.

We make our way in the west end, and out the east. The road was dirt in some small sections, but well maintained, and was no problem with the bus and trailer. Once out the other end we found a picnic grounds with some out door bbq’s we could make use of, and made our selves some grub.

A long drive through Wyoming, and then through Colorado to Boulder, and we arrive with an afternoon off in Boulder where I grew up as a kid. Great to be in Colorado again, and cool to spend some time and walk around town through some of my old haunts. Lots of really cool neighborhoods here right on the foothills, too bad it’s all silly expensive now, I’ll have to wait until I win the lottery.

Our show was at the Fox theatre, my first time in there, and dig the classic Soundcraft Series IV they have in there. Once a great desk (and a beast of a thing), and for a time, in the 90’s it was a great classic, but now it would probably be best to just retire the thing to a museum. I don’t know if it’s dried up capacitors or what, but the 20+ old Soundcraft desk just don’t sound like they use to, and the eq’s just stop doing anything useful. It was sort of fun to mix on that old beast though, all antique and whatnot.

After our show in Boulder we have yet more travel days as we head out to Minneapolis for a radio recording that goes well, and then on to Chicago to finally join up with the Doves at the Vic theatre. But first, on the way, more sight seeing. We head for Mount Rushmore, but sadly it’s a bit, how shall we say…, foggy…

Bad weather aside, we take a trip though the badlands. Definitely worth the detour as we brave the rain. I’d love to return here sometime when the weather is a bit better.

We join the Doves for the rest of the tour, and I get to take the Digico for a test drive. Paul with the Doves treats us well, and gives me all sorts of tip on working with the desk. When all was said and done I liked it. It sounds good, the eq’s are useful, the compressors aren’t too bad, it’s easy enough to get around on, though the touch screens can be a git finicky, seemed to work better if you used the other side of your finger, tapping it with your nail. The rope lighting seems to do a so so job of lighting up the surface, bit I just can’t help that but think it looks a bit 70’s disco.

It got a bit freaky towards the end of the tour, as Paul would get the local PA sounding as good as it could, and I had all the songs saved as scenes. I’d hit recall and there it was, just like yesterday, and the day before. Things got so easy it was a bit freaky, but I got used to it. 😉

After a successful tour of the UK, we move on to Europe, and I like to call the first half the midas tour, as the first 4 shows had me running through the whole line of Midas consoles.

The first show in Amager Bio in Copenhagen started with the Midas Heritage 1000. Not a bad desk, has a feature I wish they had in the 2000/3000 (aux send on/off part of memory).

And amazingly, though brand new, it was as dusty as there old Soundcraft K2 that they got the Midas to replace. Is it really all that hard to dust a console? I think they even had a brush at FOH to dust it. Just couldn’t find the time…… 😉

Next we moved on to Rockefeller in Oslo, and they have also replaced their desk since I was here last, and went from an XL-3 to a Heritage 2000. They also had a new EAW 750 rig with fancy computer control, that really didn’t impress me.

We move on to Burns in Stockholm, where we find a 5 star restaurant taking up the audience area, we have a really good lunch at such said restaurant, and then got to set up and sound-check in-between lunch and dinner. Once dinner concluded our show began.

In Stockholm I end up with the conclusion of the Midas Heritage Line with the 3000. (yes, there’s the 4000, but that’s for monitor engineers who have too much time on their hands 😉

The room was quite ornate, with a Nexo Alpha rig hung for the occasion. I think they had an in-house Meyer rig that wouldn’t have been to bad, but who am I to argue. I think I sat for most of this show….

Yet more Midas (back to a Heritage 2000) in Berlin. They were going to give me an allen and heath or something, and then we see them roll in the Midas. I ask where that’s going and they say it’s for monitors. Hold your horses and send that thing to FOH. Luckily this didn’t annoy our monitor engineer as we still had the inovason out with us. One disaster nearly averted. 😉

Our roadie (and my roommate) Brendan gives the signal to say that the show is going well.

Our next gig at Grünspan in Hamburg breaks the Midas tradition, and I find myself on a 32 channel Soundcraft Delta. Somehow, I make it work, and it works out allright.

But the next day in Dusseldorf the Midas returns, this time with a favorite of mine, the Legend 3000. I could totally due without the extra monitor faders and channel EQ, and the stupid looking meters, beyond that, a great desk.

And that was the last Midas I would see this tour. Oh well, the next gig in Frankfurt had me working a Soundcraft MH-4, which I like almost as much as the Midas. The glowing phantom power button (even when you aren’t the one suppling phantom) is very cool.

Our last gig of this run was at the Elysee Montmartre in Paris, and here they have a Crest X desk. Crusts I like to call them. And they used to have a PM-3000 (which was just as crusty), lets hope they can replace it soon…

I also mixed a couple of support acts on the tour, in the UK I was mixing …bender, Steve Gullicks band, and in exchange I got him to snap a couple of pictures of me in action for the web page, a good exchange I think.

In the EU I mixed Timesbold, which was a real pleasure. They had a small harp with them that sounded really good, it was a good change of pace.

For our last show in Paris …bender came back, and I found myself mixing all three bands that night, busy busy busy.

Here we see …bender getting bent.

They always seem to short, the good tours….

Mercury Rev hit the road in March for their headlining tour in support of their new album “The Secret Migration”. Lucky me, for this short run of the UK we are carrying all PA, and our Tour/Production Manager hooks me up with Skan, and I’m mighty happy he did.

Skan (out of Reading) was able to supply my wish list for the tour to a T. Scott was my systems tech and a fine tech he was. Wish we could have done this for the entire tour…

Midas Heritage 2000 48chn

Control:

(3) XTA Stereo 31band Graphic EQ’s – house L/R, downfill L/R, support main graphic.

(5) XTA Processors – main L, main R, subs and front fills, and 2 backups

Sony CD Player

Laptop PC with wireless for XTA control and Smart.

Powerbook G4 for set list notes, recording/playback, and MIDI program changes.

Effects:

PCM-81, TC D-2, Antares AVP, TC M-3000, PCM-91, SPX-990, SPX-2000

Inserts:

(2) dbx 106xt Compressore, dbx 160sl Compressor, BSS 402 stereo comp/de-esser, (2) Distressors, (3) Drawmer stereo gates, (2) FMR Audio RNC Compressors

Support inserts:

(2) dbx 1066, Drawmer quad gate

Here we see Oliver, our monitor engineer at Barrowlands. He made use of an Inovason rented from Goldfrap (who he had also worked with). All the band were on IEM’s.

Oliver used a PCM-91 for vocal reverb and the bands Sennheiser G3 system with Future Sonic ear pieces.

Some d+b wedges and amps for the support acts and there’s monitor world for ya.

The PA for most of the gigs:

(6) or (7) dv-Dosc per side

(3) dv-Sub per side

(3) SB-218 per side (on an aux send)

(2) Arcs per side for downfill

All of the shows with this configuration were ground stacked.

The two pictures below are from the Manchester Academy. I’d been in here before, both times with the Martin W-8 rig, and needless to say, this time with the dv’s was by far the best.

Scott tells me your not supposed to stack more than 6 of the dv’s….. but the coverage was perfect in the venue, and it worked really well at keeping things off of the low ceiling.

For our last two show in the UK we flew the dv’s and had 14 per side. In aftersight we probably should have had some more subs too, but we made due.

On the right we see Scott getting the rig ready to fly at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. And the picture directly below is from there also. The rig worked out really well and at the Hammersmith we could fly more dv’s than v-dosc due to the weight limits of the hanging points.

The picture below and to the right is from our last show in the UK at Guild Hall in Southampton.

The end of the year found me working with The Fever playing venue across US and Canada, great bunch of guys, and the tour went well concluding with one very flat tire on the way home from our last gig. Thanks to a Mass State Trooper, AAA, and a cranky tow truck driver we finally make it to Cracker Barrel, and then home.

After the tour with the Fever I found myself on the road in the US with the Secret Machines. Cruising around the east coast crammed in a van again. They were great to work with, and with in-ear monitors very easy to work with in the small clubs we were playing that didn’t always have the greatest monitors.

The parking angel saw us through it all. Everyone needs a parking angel.

After the US tour we went off to Japan for 2 shows at the Summer Sonic festival in Tokyo and Osaka. Yet another smooth and well organized tour of Japan.

Mercury Rev started things back up again, with a couple of headling shows, and a bunch of shows with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds throughout europe and the UK. I was tour managing and mixing house sound. A crazy hectic time it was for me, but all in all a good tour. For the shows supporting Nick Cave I had the same desk every-night,, a trusty Midas XL-200. EML from Belgium provided a good Adamson line array, which worked out fairly well for all of the shows. With the exception of a broken multi-core in Switzerland, everything went smooth, though I was beat in the end, with merch, accounting, mixing, tm’ing… Whew!

We joined Nick Cave and the bad seeds at the Brixton Academy in London for a couple of nights. A sort of grand looking room, with a bit to grand of a sound, though when filled up with people it wasn’t quite so bad.

There’s my FOH rig for the tour (with Nick Cave’s XL-4 in front). The above pics were from a sort of cool hall in Leipzig called Haus Auensee, an old German hall converted into a sort of disco/show room.

The Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam.

The end of the tour found us at Pontins Holiday camp at Camber Sands for the All Tomorrows Parties Festival.