LONDON – Sound engineer Randy Meullier, who is using a Soundcraft Vi6 for the U.K. and European legs of Alice Cooper's Theater of Death tour, credited Pete Russell at SSE Audio Group for giving him access to his first-choice console.
"Earlier in this tour I did a fly-in show at the Skaanevik Festival in Norway and it was a joy to use the Vi6," said Meullier said. "I was delighted when Pete told me he could make one available. In fact as a result of the Vi6, mixing has become fun again. The audio quality is breathtaking and after the first three shows on the board I had more people come to FOH to compliment me on the sound than any other situation I can think of. I feel like I have total control over the system instead of it controlling me."
Equipped with the v3.0 software, Meullier is using 42 inputs, but along with the desk, Meullier credited systems tech David Quigley for the success of his mix.
"David and I first worked together in Australia. He's the best of the best – and would always be my systems guy of choice anywhere. He's constantly on things, always tweaking the EQ, listening to the system and walking around the room to let me know what is needed. An engineer is only as good as his support staff of systems techs. Anyone who doesn't think so is fooling themselves."
The band generally uses a lot of pick-up PAs on tour in the U.S. – sourcing racks and stacks locally while carrying their own monitors and control. This can bring its own problems, as Russell acknowledged.
"This is the fourth tour we have done with Randy, and I know how frustrating it has been for him to get consistency due to the inbuilt quirks of the console he was using prior to this – which won't handle the anomalies of different systems easily," Russell said. "The Vi6 is clean and fairly flat in comparison and he can get a better sound when different systems are put in front of him from show to show."
Meullier agreed. "I was an analog engineer who was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the digital world. But the Vi6 is like an analog board, and a pleasure to use. In Norway the house technician helped me configure the console to my liking from the basic input list I had created from the downloaded offline software," he added.
The concert went well, and Randy had the show saved on his memory stick. When he arrived in Cyprus and found another Vi6 waiting for him, all he had to do was plug in his USB and load up his show file.
"After these few dates with the Vi6, you had to drag me kicking and screaming away from it, it sounded so good."
Meullier noted that the Alice Cooper band can be particularly difficult to mix. "They play loud, and this year they have gone to in-ears. These cause Alice to sing softer but with much better quality – but Alice's mic isn't always directly in front of his mouth because of all the action on stage. I could never get the quality of his voice with my old desk, whereas I can get it with the EQ on the Vi6 and can push him harder with no trouble to keep him on top of the mix, because audiences want to hear every word he sings. I try and do it with minimal FX, generally using just short slap delay and reverb."
Meullier said that as a 30-year veteran of the sound board, he was starting to feel jaded until being rejuvenated by the Vi6. And what feels particularly good, he added, is the EQ.
"On the Vi6 it is just so precise. I first noticed this on those shows in Norway and Cyprus. Because of all the action on stage, Alice's vocal mic will sometimes get pointed at various loud things on stage, so I will tweak the EQ a bit at times; I noticed right away I needed minimal adjustment to do what I needed."
Of the channel count, 24 of the inputs are dedicated to Jimmy deGrasso's drums alone. "Myself, Jimmy and his tech Lorne Wheaton have worked hard on the tuning and miking scheme for this drum set. Lorne is an expert tech who can really tune a set of drums, so I use minimal gating and a touch of compression on the kicks and snare – but the excellent dynamics of the Vi6 do not color the sound in any way."
Because of the loud stage volume, Meullier has also used some minor gating on the downstage background vocal mics. He noted that the dynamics section allows this to happen more effectively than any other console he has used.
"I now know what I'm going to get every day, and that makes me totally relaxed. It's just a case of loading last night's show, renaming it to today and tweaking it a bit … and off we go. The band rarely does sound checks, so I have gotten used to some fast first-song tweaking, and I find I can do it as fast as any analog console."
By using the MADI output on the Local Rack, the sound crew can also be ready to multitrack the shows.
For the tour, Cesare Sabatini and Toby Mamis are handling production and tour management duties respectively, and sound engineer Paul Bostic is once again partnering with Meullier at the stage end, with SSE systems tech Andy Yates assisting Bostic.
"It's vital that a legend like Alice Cooper can get the sound quality he deserves," Meullier said. And after his experience piloting SSE's Vi6 over the 10 U.K. dates, he added that when the touring season resumes in early 2010, a Vi6 will be at the top of his technical rider.
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