HANOVER, Germany – Not all artists and touring support crews have to worry about how a vocalist sounds while hanging upside down on a trapeze. But that was the problem facing the audio crew supporting Pink's Funhouse tour.
"A normal headset was out of the question, so Pink became a VIP ‘test pilot' for our new ear set microphone combined with the SK 2000 body-pack transmitter," noted Pierre Morant, relations manager EMEA at Sennheiser. "She is the first artist to use this single-sided ear set and, if the acrobatic interludes on this tour are anything to go by, it has definitely withstood its baptism of fire."
When not hanging upside down, Pink uses Sennheiser's evolution wireless and 2000 Series and also benefits from a few special modifications. "Pink uses her SKM 2000 with a special e 935 capsule in silver," noted monitoring engineer Horst Hartmann. FOH engineer Chris Madden added, "The handheld has been trouble-free, it sounds fantastic with hardly any EQ. The gain-before-feedback attributes have been outstanding considering she sings in front of the PA for most of the show."
Madden also uses the SKM 2000 with the standard 935 capsule for the background vocals, and the sound engineers have also used the 2000 Series for the instrument transmitters. "As far as sound quality is concerned, the low-end is fantastic especially on guitars and bass guitars," Hartmann said. He uses the evolution wireless ew 300 IEM system for monitoring, together with A 5000-CP circularly polarized antennas. "RF is absolutely rock-solid especially considering the distances involved on the show," Madden added.
The microphone inventory for the Funhouse Tour also includes wired evolution models such as those used on the drum kit. The kick drumbeats are picked up by two e 902s, while the snares and the rack toms are picked up by dynamic e 904s with a cardioid polar pattern. Additional e 902s are used for the floor toms and two e 914s are utilized as overheads. A further model, the e 906, ensures the sound produced by Justin Derrico's guitar amp is heard loud and clear.
Madden's gear list also includes RF condenser microphones for the production of the live DVD of the Funhouse Tour. "I used two MKH 8040s and an MKH 800 Twin double-capsule microphone to record ambience at FOH," he said. "The MKH 800 was recording front/back and the 8040s were doing L/R and were pointing slightly backwards away from the stage. The handling of the pattern on the Twin works really well. Both microphones deliver excellent sound quality with no wind noise. Overall they performed brilliantly and I was hugely impressed with their overall quality, I will be trying them out for different applications once we've finished using them for the tour." Both sound engineers were also impressed by the support they received from Sennheiser. "Getting the same kind of support wherever you land is like having a safety net."
So far, nearly two million concertgoers have heard and seen Pink's performances, and Morant noted the artist's attachment to the gear. "During rehearsals for the Funhouse Tour, Pink was so impressed with the test microphone that she simply didn't want to give it back."
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