By now, you’ve noticed our cover story on Stones’ Hackney Diamonds tour, which wraps up this month, celebrating 62 years of rock history. Along with that impressive record for longevity, the Stones have also maintained an amazing degree of consistency, reflected by both the audio crew (many have been with the band for decades), but also the components in the P.A. rig, which still sound great. While serviceable and admittedly good sounding, neither Clair’s former flagship i-5 line arrays in the rig nor the 40-input 1993-era Yamaha PM4000 analog console at the FOH position have shown up on riders (except this one) in years.
The Stones can have anything they want, yet in this case, it’s simply using what works in their situation. It’s hardly a matter of budget. A recent web search for used PM4000s unveiled a huge selection of clean models in the $2K-$4K range. In fact, the main system on this current 62nd anniversary tour is almost identical to the rig Clair employed for the Stones’ “50 Years and Counting” shows in 2012, and FOH engineer Dave Natale has been using PM4000s on the band’s tours since Bridges to Babylon in 1997.
This time out — as in past years — Natale, the consummate craftsman, delivers world-class mixes from a rig that many others in the biz would consider “archaic.” These days, when a power trio rider may insist on 120 inputs from stage along with a system carrying 100+ instantiations of various plug-ins of every description, it kind of makes one wistful for a little more good old fader pushing in the mix. Congrats, Dave for another awesome tour!
-George Petersen, Editor, FRONT of HOUSE
