Alicia Keys is out in style, with a tour whose vibe is '30s with a modern twist. With her band all dressed in white, the stage draped in curtains and Alicia's vocals smooth yet vibrant, her theater/arena tour is selling out everywhere. We spoke with FOH and monitor engineers Tony Blanc (pictured) and Chris Schutz about the show.
Tony Blanc: For Alicia's tour, we are out using Showco/Clair Bros. and their propriety cabinets, the Prism system. The venues have varied from theaters to arenas; hence the P.A. size has constantly varied in size. The basis of the system comes with sub-bass, and the "Gray" nearfill boxes. My mixing console is a Heritage 3000 with a Yamaha DM2000 for the opening acts. The Heritage is a meat-and-potatoes desk–just very functional. I use a lot of outboard compression. When the tour was spec'd we had no idea of the opening acts and their number. The DM2000 has more memory than I have left, a compressor/gate on each channel and 12 FX engines.
Chris Schutz: I'm on a Yamaha PM5000. The preamp and EQ sound great. I am using all 12 of the stereo auxes for 10 PM mixes, which are all stereo. The main reason I chose the board was for the outputs; I had heard from other engineers that it sounded great. Well, it does; it is a great-sounding board, and in true Yamaha fashion, easy to get around on. The automation works well and is easy to navigate. I use several scenes for cues during the show: four of the eight mono auxes for wedges and the rest for FX sends. There are also four stereo matrix outs and eight mono matrix outs. I have an OBTW ("Oh By The Way") PM mix on a stereo matrix, which has kept me out of few jams when a beltpack has RF interference. I also drive some additional wedge mixes for John Legend as well as a few Backline Tech Mixes from the matrix. There is also a Midas XL3 sidecar, which handles the opening act inputs.
TB: I'm not using any gates. They are in the racks, but with the way the drummer plays, it was not appropriate to use them. I'm in love with Distressors, and they are on all the main vocals. The remainder of the compression is dbx units. There are a pair of dbx 160s across a subgroup of snares and toms. Eventide Ecilpse and TC5000 are used for vocal treatment.
Most of the stuff in my racks I use on every tour: a couple of reverbs, TC2290 delay and a Wendel. The old Wendel has been with me 15 years. It's very useful for tuning a P.A. that uses compression as part of its drive. I fire the kick and snare and can hear the room react.
CS: The very nature of this show requires as quiet a stage as possible. It is like taking a step back in time back to the '30's. Everyone is using PMs for Alicia's set, of which all are Future Sonics'. Two of the band members are using EM3s, which are Future Sonics generic ears. Alicia, the three background singers and the musical director are wireless; the rest of the band is hardwired belt packs with Stewart PA100 amps driving them. All mixes have Clair IOs inserted across the mix bus for EQ. There are four SRM wedges, two down center, one at both her piano and Wurlitzer position. I use these sparingly; mostly they are for comfort. The MD gets one SRM with a full band mix for fill. Two are two R4s for sidefills to augment low-end to give a little more feel on stage. I rely heavily on the house to fatten up the ear mixes. I am using the new Sennheiser G2s for Alicia's PM mix. The packs are small and sound great–you barely notice then in her outfits. The rest of the wireless are Sennheiser 3000 series. The Distressor handles Alicia's vocal–I will not do a tour without at least two in my rack. A dbx 160SL is inserted across the BGV submix for Alicia's mix. The rest of the compressors are two Valley People PR10 racks with Gainbrain IIs loaded in them. They are older, but sound great. Aphex gates for a few of the drums. A TC M3000 and Eventide H3000 for Alicia's vocal FX. Three M-Ones for BGVs, M5000 SPX 990 finish out the rack.
TB: This is my first tour with Alicia. I hope to do many more with her, as the talent is quite breathtaking and I love watching her work night after night. It's a great theater show. We have just done a couple of arenas, which have taken a little getting used to, as the environment is so different.
CS: Alicia and the band are great to work with. She knows exactly what she wants and communicates it well. At the same time, she never panics on stage. One night after her quick-change they did not connect her PM to the pack. She did the biggest number of the night with no PMs or wedges. With perfect pitch, never once looking over to me, she did the song. We didn't know she had a problem until after the song was over. She's a true professional. Alicia has such vocal power and never holds back; she's great to work with. It's a fun show to mix, even from a monitor guy's perspective.
Alicia's vocal mic is a Shure U4D with a Beta 58a capsule. It sounds great, I have a few dips in my EQ but for the most part her channel is flat. We have used the Beta 58a since Tony and I started with her in January.
TB: This band has been a dream. It is the easiest show to mix, and make sound great since I stood in front of Sting's Blue Turtles band. I have a long relationship with Showco/Clair. They have been very supportive on this project, as always.
