ISCHGL, Austria – After winding down the first leg of the Freedom tour backing her fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom, Alicia Keys has since headed off to Europe with monitor engineer Kevin Glendinning in tow. Glendinning is using a Yamaha PM1D digital audio console.
"The PM1D system is a very advanced and reliable network that I have had a lot of success and countless hours on," said Glendinning. "I remember when the PM1D first came out 10 years ago, looking at the complexity and thinking I'd never get my head around the functionality of the entire system."
Several years later, while using a PM5D, he needed to advance to a PM1D system for Justin Timberlake's 2006 club tour. Due to band expansion, the musical director insisted that all musicians have stereo mixes.
"I called up Joseph Lopez at Yamaha on a bit of down time and asked to take the PM1D certification class," says Glendinning. "He really took me under his wing and got me one-on-one console time in the Yamaha Commercial Audio Headquarters training room, which was very valuable. Once I figured out the simplistic elements (getting audio in and out), it all came really quick and reminded me of an analog desk."
"So many of the new digital consoles have lost the feel of mixing boards and adapted more of a computer-like feel to them. The PM1D has faders, knobs, meters, buttons, just like what we had been used to using. I really get frustrated mixing on what feels like an iPhone or consoles with layers and layers of information you can't see at a quick glance. The PM1D rig is two pages ins and outs, very fast, and visually concise."
From a monitor perspective, Glendinning says the PM1D "is the fastest console out there with mechanical control that's very responsive." Since the entire band is on PMs, he also uses a PFL system linked on the PM1D cue bus.
Glendinning started his professional career working at db Sound in Chicago (now Clair Global Chicago), where he says he was fortunate enough to be on tour with a lot of headliner engineers like Niall Slevin, Jon Rodden, Paul Owen and Chris Wade-Evans. "I learned what I could from them and have been independent now since 2003."
Coming up in the ranks, Glendinning said he learned to mix mostly on Yamaha consoles. "The company has such a vast catalog of desks, from small format entry level to top of the line 96×48 frames. I have used many different types of manufacturers' consoles on various tours to switch it up, but I will say this, whether it was a simple fly date, SNL, or the Grammy Awards, at one point or another, I got the artists all on a Yamaha, and everyone was always very happy."
The monitor engineer has mixed for such acts as Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5, Lenny Kravitz, Leona Lewis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and No Doubt, to name a few. He also mixes the entertainment portion of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Golf Tournament each year.
For more information, please visit www.yamahaca.com.
