FOH engineer Rob "Cubby" Colby has been doing so much Latin work of late (Luis Miguel, Robi "Draco" Rosa, Juanes, and Shakira) that it is easy to forget that his R&B roots runs deep, including tours with both Prince and Janet Jackson. Likewise, DB Sound Image has provided plenty of thump over the years. The latest R. Kelly tour was a reunion after years of separation for Cubby and DB Sound Image's Harry Witz. Together, they put together a system and crew that wowed the R. Kelly production staff–a group known for their collective critical ear. The 12-week "Light It Up" tour landed mostly in half-arena and theatre settings, which made putting together a system that could cover everything a bit of a challenge. During the system design process, Cubby was introduced to Michihiro "Michi" Tanikawa, who over the next 12 weeks would become his right-hand man. Cubby comments: "Michi and I have a good musical understanding.
"Chris Weathers who is and has been a promoter rep out of Chicago called me," says Cubby. "He works for Clear Channel. He called and asked if I would be interested, since he had heard me mix Prince and other R&B artists and thought I would do OK. It all seemed to fall right into place. Robert's music is really fun to mix live. He has a great band and he himself is a great singer."
This tour was a situation in which the artist got very involved in all aspects of production but Cubby says it was not a problem. "It was a pleasure for me as he knew just what he wanted and had no problem getting his thoughts across. I've never been in the studio with him but I get the impression that he does it all. He's a great arranger and has quite an imagination. It's clear in his music."
To get that audio vision across, Cubby drove a DiGiCo D5 feeding an all-EV set of stacks and racks that included a 32-box array of Xlc-127 backed up by 32 of db Sound Image's single 18-inch half Xsubs with four Xld-281s providing front fill. The system was powered by 28 Electro-Voice P-3000 amps. Crossovers were XTA with EV's custom parameters and system EQ was provided by a SMAART system. Processing was minimal with the only insets to the D5 being some dBX 160SLs on the vocals.
"Given the production demands and the venue types of the tour, I knew the P.A. had to be some kind of mid-sized line array," says Cubby. "So, I did some research on my own about what was available. I then spoke with Harry about the Electro-Voice Xlc mid-sized line array, because he had a large part of the design process with EV. So, I flew down, met Michi there, set up the rig, listened to it, discussed the rigging options and set up the FOH environment. My footprint doesn't change that much. I've got three of reverbs, a delay, very little compression and two Distressors. It's more about the speaker system. After hearing it, I knew that we made a really, really good choice."
"This is always about the team effort," Cubby continues. "I spend my time at the production rehearsals, and that's when we establish our formula. It's not rocket science– well, sometimes it borders on rocket science as to how we're going to set everything up to work the best together, to make it as effective, as efficient and above all sounding the best it's going to sound in every venue in every seat."
The monitor desk is a Yamaha PM5D and the mixer is Carlton "Phrogh" Brown, "A great guy with the best speaking voice I've had the pleasure to work with," says Cubby. "This is my first tour with Carlton. If I remember right we have done a few oneoffs ice age's ago. If you have read past interviews in FOH with Cubby you know that he is very particular about making the right mic choice for the job. Kind of a "garbage in, garbage out" mentality.
"For vocals it was my first time using the Audio-Technica AT5400. Carlton and I tried a half a dozen handhelds and we both felt the AT was the way to go. It was the best mic when cupped. And Robert has some bad cupping habits with his handheld, but it was very manageable with the 5400. It still sounded full-bodied, and didn't give Carlton too much trouble on stage with the side fills and wedges. Backgrounds were wired Neumann KSM105s. There is no live percussion player, there's some nice tracks coming from DP on a few songs. The band is very well rehearsed and tight, a great rhythm section. For drums it was AT2500 on the kick, AT3000 on toms, AKG414 overheads, Shure SM57s on the snare drums, AT3031 on the hats. I have more than 20 Radial DI's on stage. This company has made the biggest impression on me of late. Radial makes a great product."
The "Light It Up" tour recently ended so, as David Essex said "And where do we go from here?" What's next for Cubby?
"I'm going to enjoy some home time for the summer with my family. My son is 14, and with him out of school it's the best time to catch up. I'll do some fill in gigs here and there but nothing too long. September will be here soon enough."
FOH engineer: Rob "Cubby" Colby
Assistant Engineer: Michihiro "Michi"Tanikawa
Systems Technician: Dustin "DJ" Johnson
Production Manager : Chris Gratton
Musical Director: Donnie Lyle
Monitors Engineer : Carlton Brown
Gear:
32 Electro-Voice Xlc-127+ full range loudspeakers
32 Single 18-inch half Xsubs (db Sound Image proprietary design)
4 Electro-Voice Xld-281 front fill
1 Electro-Voice X-Array Xn and
2 Xcb per side as side fill
28 Electro-Voice P-3000 Power Amplifiers
