Sound Company
Thunder Audio or house-supplied P.A.
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
- FOH Engineer: Nick “Nicky 5” Altadonna
- Monitor Engineer: Tricia Ellsworth
- Tour & Production Manager: Robin Laananen
- Guitar, Bass & Drum Tech: Dennis Moroni
Gear
- Thunder Audio P.A. System: Main Hangs: L-Acoustics K2; Side Hangs: Kara II; Floor Subs: SB28; Front Fills: Kara; Side Fills: SB28 w/ARC II tops
- Consoles: FOH: DiGiCo SD10 w/onboard Reverb, Delay (slap, mid, long); MON: DiGiCo SD9
- In-console Effects: DiGiCo Warm Hall reverbs, Simple Delay
- Outboard Rack Effects/Plugins: Waves Primary Source Expander, Berzerk Distortion
- Vocal Mics: Shure Beta 58A, Shure SM58
- Transmitters: Shure UR2, Shure PSM 900
- Receivers: Shure UR4D, Shure P9RA
- IEM’s: Ultimate Ears (UE7 & UE11)
More tour details from Steve Jennings:
Amyl and the Sniffers is an Australian punk-rock band who in 2019 won the “Best Rock Album” category at the ARIA Music Awards. The band consists of vocalist Amy Taylor, Declan Mehrtens on guitar, Gus Romer on bass and Bryce Wilson on drums. The tour includes venues with house-supplied systems; at other gigs, Thunder Audio provides an L-Acoustics K2 system (along with the mixing consoles used on all shows.) We spoke with FOH engineer Nick (Nicky 5) Altadonna and Monitor Engineer Tricia Ellsworth about the tour.
At FOH
Nick “Nicky 5” Altadonna started mixing FOH for Amyl and the Sniffers in September, 2022. He first heard of them when he was working with Modest Mouse as monitor engineer in Madrid during a European Festival tour in 2022 at the Mad Cool Festival. “They had gotten in touch with our tour manager Robin Laananen at the time and were looking for crew for their first major U.S. headline tour. I heard them and said ‘Yes, I’d like to mix FOH for these guys.’”
Altadonna notes that the band’s frontperson, Amy Taylor, delivers an energetic performance. “She has a strong vocal presence, especially in the upper mid-range. I have had very good success with a Shure wireless Beta 58 that she currently uses. I don’t have to scoop out a lot of low mids that I would normally do on a male vocal. She likes to move around a lot on stage and I work with Trish [Ellsworth] (at monitors) and Dennis [Moroni], our backline tech, to make sure no matter where she is that her mic is not feeding back, particularly in the front fills.”
Altadonna says it can definitely be a different set of challenges every night depending on the room. “You have to remember where this band has come in – just the last couple of years. They went from playing 500 cap clubs to now playing to 3,000 cap venues. My goal is to make them sound big and it starts with a big-sounding drum mix. I’m mixing on a DiGiCo SD10, and as far as effects and plugins go, I am using onboard effects that today’s digital consoles provide. I set up a slap, medium, and long delay and ride that into her vocal depending on the song. But when it comes to mixing them, I strive to achieve that big rock band sound, and that starts with making sure the drums hit you right in the chest, then I tend to build my mix around that.
“It’s been nothing short of a great ride to see the success they have had in just the past few years. I have been a big fan of their music style my whole playing/mixing career. I feel fortunate to get to mix a genre of music that inspired me in my early days. I’m just happy to be here every night and see the crowds they attract, both young and older generations.”
At Monitors
Monitor engineer Tricia Ellsworth is mixing the tour on a DiGiCo SD9. In the console she uses DiGiCo’s Warm Hall reverbs for all vocals and DiGiCo’s Simple Delay for lead vocal. “For outboard, I use Waves Primary Source Expander and Berzerk Distortion for the lead vocals.” Ellsworth notes that three of the four members are using Ultimate Ears (UE7 & UE11). “I make sure to wrap-up Amy’s in-ears belt pack receiver prior to securing it to her costumes to ensure it continues to work no matter what throughout the performance, enabling her to move about as she wishes without it falling off of her.” Bass player Gus Romer uses wedges, drummer Bryce Wilson uses a subwoofer in addition to his UE11’s to feel his kick drum and the guitarist, and Declan Mehrtens has wedges in front of him as backup. “Amy has sidefills as backup to her UE7’s,” Ellsworth adds.
Ellsworth says the band are really good at articulating their needs at soundcheck. “Amy is very nimble, and although her travels around the stage (and sometimes into the audience) keep me engaged, I rarely have to spring into any quick action while mixing their monitors during the performance.” The stage volume is at a reasonable low volume, notes Ellsworth, such that they have implemented “VIP” fills upstage for guests viewing side stage to hear the show. “That mix is fed from Nick’s FOH desk. We use Shure SM58’s for the backing vocals and Shure UR2 transmitters with Shure Beta 58A mic cartridges on Amy’s vocal. Those hand-held transmitters are tough enough to keep up with whatever a vocalist puts them through. The 58’s and Beta 58A are appropriate for the sound that the Sniffers are going for, and Amy’s style of performing.”
