The call came on a Monday–not the best time to get my attention. One of the PR folks for AKG was pitching a story on Jimmy Buffett. Jimmy has been a Sound Image client for 31 years, and I like the Sound Image guys, but what was really new about a Jimmy Buffett show?
"Well," said the voice on the other end of the line, "He has these lav mics sewn into his shirts." He what? The rep didn't have a lot more info but had definitely piqued my interest. I called Dave Shadoan who owns Sound Image and asked him what was up.
"He uses them to talk to the backup singers and the monitor engineer," Shadoan explained. His own personal talkback? "Yeah," said Dave. "He won't go on without 'em."
This was worth a trip to check out.
A Day At The Beach The show was, appropriately enough, at a venue with the word "beach" on the name. Jones Beach in New York to be precise. And the vibe stayed consistent as FOH mixer Rich Davis came out with a lanky, easy stride to escort me in wearing shorts a T-shirt and sandals. Shortly after we got to front of house and began to chat, he looked up as a vintage seaplane passed overhead and said, "Here comes the boss." Things are different in Margaritaville.
But the system and the way the sound is approached is anything but casual. Sound Image is hanging 52 of the big JBL VerTec 4889s with 24 4880 subs–eight a side in the air and four more a side on the deck, which Rich feathers in on an aux as needed for the room. "The ones on the deck are where you get your coupling, so they're important even if most of the energy is coming from the hang."
When it comes to consoles, Davis is old school with a Midas XL4 that he has been using with Buffett for years. What is unusual is that he is using the XL4 to do things that most engineers insist on a digital console for.
"I mix shows on digital consoles all the time," Davis says. "The whole dynamics that go away with the digital console, that's the only thing that I miss right now. I walk away and I just go, 'its clean but its just okay. The dynamics are gone.' Play a B3 through a digital console and listen to it and its not the same. You don't have the harmonic distortions. It's clean and MP3ish, and I guess that's what a lot of people are used to hearing."
But why might a digital console come in handy? Just ask Rich how many feeds he is running from FOH: "You've got the live feed for the house, video feed, the Internet for the Sirius Satellite radio feed, Pro Tools…" They're using 16 tracks of Pro Tools to archive shows, but the recordings have been released commercially as well. Does that mean Buffett will join the ranks of artists embracing the "walk out of the venue and buy a CD on the way out the door" business model?
"I don't think so ," Rich answers. "But you can walk in to any record store right now and find live albums that we did. We did the DVD and the football stuff. They record this stuff to play in the restaurants and to shoot video." All of that off of an old-school XL4. He turns to monitor mixer Billy Szocska and asks, "you see anything else?" "Nah I think that's it." Billy answers. Which signals it's time to hit Monitor World and find out about those lav mics.
Monitor World "I love them," Billy says of the AKG WMS 40 Pro wireless. "I love the software. All I have to do is program the transmitters. The receiver will scan the environment, it will ask me how many units I want to run and I'll say four and it will scan the environment and tell me which four channels to put it on."
And the lavs sewn into his shirt?
"Actually, he's got the clip sewn in–it's really low profile. And the thing is, it's a water- proof microphone so you can sweat all over the thing. It's fantastic. That's his talkback. That's the most important thing in the show.
I laugh but Billy says, "I'm not kidding. He wears one mic but has a redundant transmitter on a different frequency at all times. We haven't had to use it. It's been rock solid."
Billy starts to tell about the time he once switched the mic off. Once. The boss was e v i d e n t l y not pleased and the story kind of fades away like a bad dream.
With the whole band on PMs, Billy is running a lot of mixes. Complicating matters is that he and the band are all using FutureSonic ear pieces but the boss uses Westone. "I go crazy," says Billy. "I mean, I monitor Jimmy's mix pretty much the whole time but I still don't have the ear piece he has. Believe it or not, I use my old Future Sonic as my reference because that is what I'm used to. I know how to gauge things with those, and with those I'm able to make him happy and the fans happy"
It's a Tool, Use It For What It Was Intended That, after all, is the job when you get down to it. According to both Rich and Billy, one of the great things about mixing an act as established as Buffett is that they can use what works. No endorsements to deal with or politics. Buffett has never endorsed a product. Never. And that frees Sound Image and the engineers to use whatever tool is best for the job.
For example, while Rich is using Crown I-Tech amps to power the VerTecs and uses the System Architect software to control the amps, he uses the Lake Contour to EQ the system and provide drive control. Billy loves those AKG lavs, but for main vocal mics they used the Neumann KM105 for a long time, but now both loudly sing the praises of the new Shure KSM9, stepping all over each other to praise it.
"It left the Neumann in the dust," says Rich.
"It has a wonderful low-mid," adds Billy before Rich jumps back in with "It's warm and thick."
"But its not tubby or boomy–it's all smooth and right there," Billy finishes.
The rest of the system uses the same "whatever works" approach. Rich is on a Midas while Billy prefers a Yamaha PM5K. There are a couple of dbx 160 comps in the rack that are used for electric guitars, but Rich turns to a classic Manley tube comp for vocals.
Buffett has been taking some time off and this gig is kind of a one-off. So what are the Sound Image dynamic duo doing when Jimmy's at the beach? Billy works with Gwen Stefani and they both work with Brian Wilson, while Rich does Mary Chapin Carpenter– very different vibes from the Parrot Head Party, but both call their other gigs very "musically satisfying."
"Those are fans who listen," says Rich. "It's not about the partying. It's about the music." It's a gig mix that sounds like the best of both worlds.
Back at the beach, it is obvious that Rich and Billy are a real team. They don't exactly finish each other's sentences. Rather, they speak in a series of seemingly unconnected words and phrases, like this one about a gig where Rich mixed a band I am intimately involved with at a Pro Production Industry Jam. Check out this exchange…
Rich: "That was VerTec– "
Billy: "Put them upside down–"
Rich: "Ground stack–"
Billy: "On the the subs–"
Rich: "The convention center–"
Billy: "Exactly."
OK, you had to be there. But despite years in the biz and impressive resumes, both Rich and Billy still operate under the "whatever it takes ethic." Back to that San Diego Convention center gig. "Everyone said 'oh you can't stack.' It just takes a little work. They just don't want to put the effort in," says Rich. " 'You can't do that?' Just watch me!