Seventy inputs– most of them guitars–are a big enough challenge for any live engineer. Now factor in all of this: Those guitarists are all world-class players doing a show that tracks the history and influence of the guitar. The mix of players changes over the show's three-day run and range from acoustic-based classical and bluegrass to the searing electric vibe of Albert King and Eric Johnson. The show is seen as a possible "audition" for a theatrical run and is being recorded for a DVD. Oh yeah, and you are mixing in surround on some gear that is seeing its first public use in this country. That was the challenge facing the producers and crew of Primal Twang: The Legacy of the Guitar, a world-premiere revue staged at the 730-seat North Park Theatre in San Diego in September. Virtually all of the artists were critically respected musicians' musicians: Dan Crary, Albert Lee, Eric Johnson, Doyle Dykes, Andrew York, Peter Sprague, Beppe Gambetta, "Classical Gas" composer Mason Williams, harp guitarist John Doan, Raul Reynoso, Dennis Caplinger, Jon Walmsley and revered folk icon Doc Watson and his grandson Richard Watson. Their involvement triggered a groundswell of interest that enabled director Anthony Leigh Adams, producer Christina Adams, co-producer/ production stage manager Jeff Gregory and production coordinator George "Corky" Lang to secure an enthusiastic production team and an unusually wide range of technical support from sponsoring manufacturers including Aviom, Lectrosonics, Audix, Millennia, FutureSonics, ClearSonic, Fishman, L.R. Baggs, Taylor Guitars and Fender.
San Diego-based rental company Meeting Services, Inc. added these donated items to its mix of JBL, Soundcraft, dbx and Lexicon rental gear, and MSI's Ken Freeman provided an audio project plan and technical crew to pull it all together. "This never would have happened without them," Gregory asserts.
And it all came together in a month. "I walked in the door after a nine-hour drive from San Francisco," Gregory recalls, "and within 30 seconds was in a production meeting." That was one month before opening night. The crew didn't assemble on-site until five days before opening on Thursday, Sept. 7.
"We had a tech day on Sunday, we were off for Labor Day, and started band rehearsals on Tuesday," recalls FOH engineer Gary Hartung. "16-, 18-hour days. It's been very, very, very hectic. We had a lot on our plate as far as getting the PA inputs tuned properly for all these guitars, and getting rehearsal started."
If You're Gonna Go, Go Big
The complex production was the brainchild of director Anthony Leigh Adams, who was inspired by guitarist Dan Crary's one-man concert. The two hashed out a theatrical piece tracing the guitar's history by presenting performances of various genres that evolved along with the instrument: classical, flamenco, gypsy jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, jazz, reggae, folk, bossa nova, rock, pop and permutations in between. Originally, they planned to incorporate film footage of famous guitarists into a multimedia presentation but then the idea emerged to bring in "great stars" such as Watson–the first artist Crary wanted to invite onboard.
"This is definitely a show that started out small and suffered very severe mission creep," wisecracks Crary, who fronted the house band and served as narrator. "It became a big deal of its own momentum and we're thrilled with that, and we've struggled to manage it. Everything about it has been a challenge because of the scope and complexity."
Microphone, pickup and personal monitoring technology provided by manufacturers supportive of the music helped Crary and Adams realize their theatrical vision, and also helped simplify the tricky task of miking acoustic instruments. The cue-intensive production was a guitar geek's dream but it required a brainfuzzing degree of technical coordination both backstage and at front of house. It was essential to have engineers experienced at miking live instruments, and vital to prevent any bleed-over that might muddy the sonic quality of the DVD.
Lectrosonics' RF wireless systems provided a partial solution, by enabling Crary and Walmsley to move freely about the proscenium stage and throughout the house. Aviom's personal monitoring system for the key musicians made it possible for the house band to mix themselves onstage, and for the monitor engineer to concentrate on Crary's PM mix while simultaneously avoiding leakage that would have spoiled the DVD recording.
"What Dan accomplishes throughout the show certainly could not have been done without wireless technology," says Matt Robertson of Lectrosonics. "The challenge was indeed Dan himself, because he's wearing a six-string guitar, changes to a 12-string and back. Each of his guitars has a pickup as well as a microphone in it, so he needed two body pack transmitters per guitar plus the headset mic he's wearing as well, and he needed the ability to walk anywhere in the theatre."
It's A Mad, Mad, Monitor World
Manning Soundcraft Series 5M and MH3 desks backstage was John Shearman. "In the monitors, in the earpieces, the mix I'm sending them is basically not using the microphones," explained Shearman (a road veteran originally from Essex, U.K. with such touring credits as Prince, Flaming Lips, and Smashing Pumpkins). "Every instrument is either DI'd or has pickups," he notes. "We avoided using acoustic guitar mics in the monitors, because it's difficult to get a level. We're using wedges onstage for the guest artists but not for the house band; they exclusively have Futuresonic PMs and run their earpieces from the Aviom mixes. It's basically the only way we could have dealt with this situation." Had they used wedges for the band, he believes, the resulting leakage into the mics would have created "a disaster."
"I don't think I'd have gotten any usable signal using regular wedges," he continued. "And that was the main aim: to make the recording as clean as possible. Not having any really loud monitoring onstage means we can actually do that. Of course, we've got the Plexiglas screen around the drum kit. Otherwise we'd have all that leaking into the instrument mics." Lending years of touring expertise on stage, Future Sonics' Marty Garcia worked closely with Shearman, the musicians and audio tech Clayton Green to optimize the stage sound.
If Shearman's monitor world was a linchpin of muso-centered engineering activity, San Diego-based Gary Hartung (with touring credits including Pat Benatar, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Mary Chapin-Carpenter) had a station at the rear of the theatre that was the live audio hub. While Mark Kirchner recorded the show from his Pro Tools outpost upstairs in the lighting booth, Hartung tracked nearly 70 inputs, watched the stage and the script and eyeballed five data screens on Soundcraft's brand-new Vi6 digital mixing console. Manning a board that's being used at its first-ever public concert event in the USA presented a huge challenge, as did the speed and abundance of onstage changes between players and instruments. Hartung's goal was to "let the music speak for itself" and to replicate as closely as possible the period sound of the performances–so that, for instance, when Walmsley ripped into a Beatle's song or surfguitar solo, it sounded like a live show would have in the 1960s.
Surrounded with Sound
Primal Twang marked the first theatrical- show use of JBL's new VP series powered loudspeakers, set up in a surround configuration. "We're doing 5.1," Hartung explains. "I'm using an ambient program on a Lexicon 960 Surround Processor, and then I'm spreading all the featured guest guitars into that program. This puts a little more 'space' in the hall, and a little more ambient feel.
Hartung noted he did not need a lot in the way of PA. "We're only using two of JBL's VP7315 15-inch 3-way powered loudspeakers per side, supported by two VP7118 powered subs per side. Then we have several VP7212 powered units for surround locations, and we're using the house's installed JBL center cluster, plus two of the same identical speakers in the coves of the theatre. On top of that we're using JBL front fills on the lip of the stage. Meeting Services provided more of a theatrical system than a typical live touring rig. Production didn't want to see a bunch of speakers in the camera shots, so it's a low-profile system."
Like Shearman, Hartung and Kirchner stressed the priority placed on the DVD recording. "All these performers, they're worldclass, they're used to hearing and recording their instruments in world-class studios, and we want this DVD to be on par with that," Kirchner explains. "A lot of preproduction went into this to make sure that these guys can walk in, plug in, play, and basically we're capturing a studio-quality recording."
Responsible for inputs feeding the recorded tracks, audio producer Henry Austin was instrumental in coordinating the various guitar microphones and pickups. Phil Garfinkel of Audix was also onsite to assist with microphone applications. "This was really an audio team effort" observed Austin.
The DVD's release will share a memorable concert with fans unable to attend in person. It could also conceivably open doors for Primal Twang to tour regional theatres or even Broadway. That was a prime motivation for the production team–along with supporting the music and spreading it to new audiences.
There was teamwork onstage, as well as backstage. Gary Hartung noted that the level of musicianship made his job much easier. "There's a tremendous familiarity between the musicians, and a lot of the material is very popular," he advises. "They're all top-notch. They'll exchange between themselves quite a bit during any given song, and it's really interesting to listen to the different textures and techniques, because you'll have a steelstring guitar meshing with a nylon-string guitar and a flamenco guitar and a banjo and a fiddle and a 12-string acoustic guitar and an electric guitar, and a bass–all in the same song. Musically and technically, this show has been a real pleasure."
