In discussions about music, style labels and genres seem to be all-encompassing. However, when someone is asked how to describe a band that is different or somehow breaks out of the mold, a difficulty ensues from those who want every act to fit inside a “box,” whether it’s rock, jazz-pop or whatever. And so it is with Straight No Chaser (SNC). Simply dismissing this act as a “male a capella group” might bring up images of the Yale Whiffenpoofs glee club or perhaps a barbershop quartet, but SNC are far from either of those vocal performance stereotypes.
In fact, the 10-voice SNC are neither strait-laced nor straight-faced but instead are focused on reinventing the idea of “a cappella” in the modern pop landscape. Founded more than a dozen years ago, the group has evolved from a collection of Indiana University students looking for weekend fun into a growing phenomenon with a massive and loyal fanbase, more than 20 million YouTube views and a current, grueling 77-date tour supporting The New Old Fashioned, the band’s latest album.
So it is with this tour, where SNC faced a wide variety of venues and performances places, and needed a sound reinforcement system that had the flexibility to adapt to nearly any kind of hall, theater or space. As in years past, the group turned to Kent, Ohio-based Aggressive Sound, which has been relying upon D.A.S. Audio gear to support the audio needs of tours for bands such as Manowar as well as seasonal performances like Rockin’ on the River in Ohio.
Aggressive Sound operates both locally and internationally, with the bulk of its business happening throughout the tri-state area of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. As the company expands its operations, the ability to have a sizeable equipment arsenal available to handle a wide variety of projects is essential and company principal Jeff Hair turned to a range of loudspeaker systems from D.A.S. Audio to serve Aggressive Sound’s steady stream of clients.
The System
“The tour has been going great,” says Aggressive Sound’s Bob Rager, who is reprising his role on The New Old Fashioned Tour as monitor and chief systems tech, although he also includes head rigger and electrician among his many duties on the small crew.
This do-it-all approach harkens back to Rager’s early days in the industry. “I started mixing for a friend’s band back in 1990. Everything I knew came from being self-taught, and it started growing from there,” he explains. “These days, I can definitely put a system together, and I stay busy working with Aggressive Sound and I also freelance mainly doing concerts and corporate work.”
Now out on the road a week into the SNC tour, Rager has a good sense of how it’s going. “We’re selling out venues, and the D.A.S. system has worked out very well. It goes together quick and simple, sounds great and is all self-powered with the new internal Powersoft amplification. I have separate controls on each box and can create long throws, short throws — whatever I want. I’m using 16 Aero 40A’s and 12 Aero 20A’s, four Aero 8A lipfills and four LX-218CA subs in cardioid.”
The LX-218CA’s — with their ease of creating cardioid arrays — are particularly popular with Aggressive Sound’s Jeff Hair, who added “the LX-218CA is the best and most accurate subwoofer system I have ever heard in my 41 years in this business.”
Rager seems equally impressed with the D.A.S. Aero rigging system. “The rigging is really quick and simple. It has a hinged rig where you put it on angle on a ball bearing, then you pin it and it holds the angle while you are trying to finesse the angles right. It’s really a nice design. It’s simple and goes together quickly, “ he says.
The flexibility of the D.A.S. rig they have on the road is paramount to the success of the tour, says Rager. “In smaller venues, I am just using the Aero 20As at the main P.A. with six a side. So I can do a show with just the Aero 40As or a hang with eight of the Aero 40As and four Aero 20As as an underhang beneath that, or just the six Aero 20A’s/side as a main P.A. It all depends on how large a system I need on any particular day.”
The FOH Position
Front of house engineer Jonin Fehlmann, who is on his second outing with SNC, is also very positive about the P.A. complement. “The D.A.S. Aero 40 rig is very versatile. I also really like the other rig that we used in some of the smaller halls. The AERO 20’s are nice and tight and have great projection out.”
Like many people in the industry, Fehlmann began as a musician. “I started out as a guitar player and had been playing since the second grade. I went to Berklee College of Music from 1992 to 1996, going in as a guitar player and coming out as an audio engineer,” he recalls. “I liked the idea of hearing the full mix rather than what I would hear on stage. Also, I realized that I wasn’t good enough of a guitar player to actually make much money at it. And now I have a lot of influence on how a bands sounds without having to play myself. I like that, and for me, moving away from just being a musician was a good move.”
Fehlmann stepped up into higher-end touring about 15 years ago, when he was mixing jazz bands such as Billy Cobham, Randy Brecker and Michael Brecker. “At some point, I started working with Manhattan Transfer, which was my entry into vocal jazz mixing, and then I started working with Take 6 and got more into the a cappella world.”
Fehlmann is mixing on an Avid VENUE SC-48 and keeps the mix entirely within the box. “I don’t carry any physical outboard gear,” he says. “For processing, I am using a couple of Waves plug-ins and the Avid plug-ins and the VSS3 Stereo Source Reverb from TC Electronic.”
There are only 10 mic sources coming from the stage. But don’t think this is necessarily an easy mix. “There are so many changes throughout the show, from song to song, that I use a lot of snapshot-based general settings for each song, so I don’t have to go in there and change reverbs and stuff. That way, I’m able to concentrate on actual mixing without having to worry about re-routing buses and settings,” Fehlmann notes. “Also, the singers switch around a lot — everybody sings lead at some point, and on some songs, they change back and forth within the songs — but things like vocal percussion usually stays within the song, with four guys that do vocal percussion.”
The 10 vocalists all use Shure ULX-D wireless handhelds. “Everyone is on KSM-9 capsules and it works really well for them — sometimes when someone is doing vocal percussion and that low-end stuff, you have to EQ things somewhat more than you would on a SM58, but I like having that extra transparency on the highs from the KSM-9’s,” he explains. All RF coordination is handled by Adam Lammers, who doubles as the assistant system tech and assistant production manager.
Fehlmann records all 10 mic feeds to Pro Tools for Virtual Soundcheck, which he finds extremely helpful. “We don’t do physical sound checks and to dial in the P.A. within the hall, we only use Virtual Soundchecks — although the guys might come out and make sure we don’t have any feedback problems,” he says. “It’s good for them that they don’t have to do a full sound check, because they aren’t warmed up yet, and I’m not dependent on them having to sing out fully. So while I do record some of the shows, there is no plan to use the recordings for any live releases.”
Monitorworld
When not aligning systems, tuning rooms or supervising rigging, Bob Rager can be found behind the Yamaha M7CL-48 monitor desk, where he handles 22 monitor mixes — mostly in-ears, but one wedge mix for a band member who prefers stage wedges.
“For the in-ears, we are using Shure PSM-1000’s that are networked together,” Rager says. “Most of the guys are on Ultimate Ears earpieces and some are using Jerry Harvey Audio Roxannes.”
The sole two wedges onstage are D.A.S. Action Aero 8A’s. “For what I am doing, I don’t need a lot of SPL there, and those do a very nice job,” Rager notes. “These are low-profile and are plenty loud — in fact, sometimes the guys ask me to turn it down, and with these guys mostly being on in-ears, there’s hardly any stage volume. That’s rather nice for a change, so we can finesse the P.A. and monitors and make it sound great.”
Like Fehlmann at FOH, Rager mixes monitors inside the box, although “I do use an iPad for external control. I also have my laptop set to monitor what’s going on with the RF, because with 20 channels of wireless going on with the mics and IEM’s, I like to keep tabs on things. My other laptop is tied into the D.A.S. software so I can read what the boxes themselves are doing. My hands are full but I like to stay busy, and with this show, at least there is no backline, but we do have a semi full of gear.”
“But most importantly,” adds Rager, “we’re having a lot of fun out here.”
The New Old Fashioned Tour wraps up (after a European leg) on April 10, 2016 at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA.
