How many times have you encountered a lead singer with an attitude? Like he consistently comes to work with the right attitude each day, excels at his job and seems to have a sense of just being a regular guy on and off the stage? Well, that's Paul McCartney, the guy Pablo Boothroyd mixes for each night.
Pab will tell you it is business as usual to record each sound check and each show for every stop on a Paul McCartney tour. This time, the job also entailed sending two songs live, as they happened, to a couple of astronauts for a morning wake-up call in space. A Paul McCartney tour also usually results in a live CD and a tour DVD, as well as some goodies used for Internet content. When it comes to the art of the concert tour and everything that surrounds it, and I mean everything, Paul McCartney is simply one of the best to work for out there and he just keeps on doing it better and better. Pab and I each pulled up a road case and sat down for a look-see at the Front of House position used on the 11-week Paul McCartney US tour. "Of course, mixing the show is my primary function really, but when you work with somebody like McCartney, we do a lot of recording, a lot of archiving, a lot of capturing of event situations where there's a sound check or a moment in a sound check," Pab told FOH. "On the last tour, we'd recorded shows and sound checks with no problems. That was all good, but that's 2002, and now it's 2005. Technology in those three years was just always improving, always expanding, always bettering itself, and I looked at what was around and decided to upgrade various aspects of my Front of House world. One of them was to have more digital tools available to me.
"I need the facilities to be able to mix sounds for various promos, radio or whatever needs to be done. And to me, the stuff that's around at the moment –the D5 excellent, even PM1D, excellent. Lots of good things out there, but in the recording world, Digidesign ProTools are field leaders and they decided to go and rock my world by bringing out a digital console that was the last piece in the whole jigsaw puzzle that let me fit a lot of things together.
"We've already had several products or mix sessions from the setup we've got. Such as an HMV competition where there were three songs that myself and Wix Wickens, the keyboard player, remixed. I just set up monitors in a room at the back of the gig, and we knocked out three songs that were used. Then, we ended up doing another thing for AOL and the projects go on and on, you know. It's a handy way of getting an instant result."
Tell me about how you are using the two consoles you have chosen.
Pab Boothroyd: People have their arguments and people say, "No, he's mixing on a Midas! No, he's gonna record it on a VENUE!" It's not true. I've got a Midas and I've got a VENUE. I mix on both of them. They are both one console. One feeds the other and the other feeds that one. One is helping to record the show. One is helping more to mix the show. I wouldn't want to do without any of them.
How long did you consider the VENUE before having it on this tour?
When the desk first came out, working with Mike Case in England–formerly of Yamaha –he was calling me and talking to me about the development of the Digidesign desk. So, I listened to it. I tried stuff on it. I was intrigued by the plug-in side.
As soon as the VENUE console was available on a demo form, it was pulled into the warehouse at Concert Sound. We compared it against other consoles–the M5D, lots of things and a reference analog board like the Midas XL4, and it seemed to sound really nice. It had a nice, sweet top end to it. An interesting layout, but different. Not hard to get your head 'round or to navigate. A very simple, clean desk with a fairly normal-sized footprint. Kind of appeals to some people, doesn't to other people, but I liked it.
I could see information in front of me. So the board got a thumbs up.
We tried it on a few things. The board sounded great, nothing wrong with that. It seems to be safe, seems to be reliable. All major factors. And then, as McCartney came together and it was developing, I decided to take the plunge and offer a proper ProTools recording system to Paul, which he was already familiar with obviously from studio stuff and even his own studio.
So working alongside of Digidesign with Ian Nelson, Steve McCale and Chris Bock, who runs VENUE Digidesign U.S., we started to put together a system with a ProTools work station. I record 64 tracks every night with the capability of actually recording 112 tracks. The VENUE takes absolutely every input we've got for the show plus all the audience mics, various mix-backs and VT from our video world. That all gets recorded and tracked on the ProTools in a proper Pro- Tools session–48K, 24-bit and we write to a couple of Glyph 73 GB ultrawide SCSI drives.
There's a bigger saving with a VENUE and in the recording aspect of a ProTools HD rig in that the stage box acts as all my mic pre's, so you haven't got racks and racks of them elsewhere. You've just got a stage box that gives you all the A to D conversion that you need. So that was accomplished. I have to say we have no problems with it, knock on wood. We hit go, and it records two and a half hours of show every night.
Well, let's get a point of comparison. What were you doing the last time around? I know you recorded every gig three years ago for a live album.
We had 48 tracks of TASCAM. Absolutely fine, no problem there, but because we were going to 48 tracks, there were certain things that were being sub-mixed down. All of Paul's instruments would hit a pair of tracks. All three of his vocal positions would hit a single track. We managed to whittle it down, but there was a little bit of compromising with that within some of the sub-grouping and sub-mixing from the XL4s. Even though most things were taken from direct outputs and analog bus sub-routing. Certain things had to be post-fade, just purely from switching inputs to an output. Not that there were any problems with the several products that came from that method–a multi-platinum selling DVD and an album. All great, you know, but I knew I could take it a large step further. I could have just one instrument assigned to its own track all night, untouched, unabused, straight from the mic, and the mic pre. There you go, Mr. Producer. Do whatever you like.
What about mic selection?
We tried a few mics on this tour. I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the newer models that are coming out. It's no secret that monitor engineer John Roden and I and the band up there –we're all very familiar and very happy with the Shure mics and products. We've got 58As on the vocals. A lot of that is familiarity. Paul knows if he's 2 inches off the mic, he knows what it's doing. He knows if he's off the mic, he can sing into the side of it. He's become familiar with things. It's like a comfy pair of slippers. They sound fine.
There are other things out there now. We all know that. That on paper, it would outperform, but if I put it in front of Paul one day and he decided to get off the mic 10 inches, it'll react differently. He's been singing into one of those mics for longer than I've been with him. And he's happy. People seem to be happy with the sound of the show, so I don't see why I need to change that. I have no complaints from producers with regards to the recording. Those things are taken into consideration, but John and I are always striving to see what's out there. We've got a few new things on this tour. We've been checking out some of the excellent range of Audix.
Some of their drum mics, the kick drum, lots of things, the piano mics which we've got in the piano –the SCX 25As –we've got a pair of them in the piano. Absolutely superb. So we're trying out some stuff.
We've got the D4s on the toms and the D6 in the bass drum and the SCX 25As in the piano–great.
We wanted to try a few things. Like I say, you've got to try things, to try to stay on top of what is out there.
Rode is another company, a manufacturer that I've heard about, but never in my life wanted to check out, but they've got a whole bunch of new stuff out. I actually approached them about certain things. So we're trying some NT3 guitar mics. We're trying NT4 room audience mics–the NT4s, the NT3s, we've got the NT1G shotgun mics across the front of the stage.
Do you have a new piece of equipment you're using that you've just grown to love in these 11 weeks?
The Lake controllers in the form of the Clair I/Os, which is where I first came across them. I just think they're a great bit of kit with, you know, the tablet where you can walk the room during the sound check.
When the system engineer–Jason Vrobel in this case–he walks the room, he can hear how the vocal is hitting up in certain corners, whether there's any punch up there and all that. He tweaks away, and we do little things to try and settle the room. This continues on when Paul comes on stage. The first couple of songs, Jason's running around the building. We've then got input in a show form and he's tweaking away, tweaking away. And once we think we've got the room balanced, then I just start mixing the show in a bit more of an extreme form.
Yes, I saw Jason up in the seats with the tablet during sound check.
There's so many more ways you can control a P.A. now, rather than physical alignments and speakers. The electronics now are just so much more advanced than they were even 10 years ago with analog crossovers, it's just amazing–it's just so unbelievably amazing–and so things have moved on for different reasons. It's not just about the shape of a P.A. or box or whatever.
Where do you see things heading concert sound-wise, from here?
Concert sound as in sound reproduction and where's it gonna go? I have no idea.
Where would you hope it goes?
I just hope it just goes on and live music is kept real and we're not all sitting in some sort of anechoic chamber with headphones on and 3-D goggles, although that would be a great experience in itself. People do like when they come to a show and feel the flaps of their jeans wafting with every kick drum beat. They like to feel a bit of energy. Some people may only go to a couple of shows in a year, they come out and they get dazzled, they get pyroed. They feel the heat from flames. They feel a kickdrum in their stomach, and to them, it's a pleasant experience. It certainly is an experience and I think that's what hopefully will be maintained–a real experience that comes across.
With such a high- profile artist, you must get inundated with people trying to get equipment into your hands and to get you to try them. How do you deal with it?
I try and look at everything that's out there and I have no problem with people trying to go, "Ooo! Try this! Try that!" I'll try it, and if it does the job better than what I've got, I will use it. And if it makes him get his show across better, then Paul's all for it.
You have companies approach you and all that and some of them go, "Here, use this. It's the best thing in the world and you shouldn't be without it." OK, great, and then something happens and you phone the number and you say, "Any chance of…?" and you don't get a response and all that. That can happen.
In the case of Digidesign, I first worked with them in the studio with AC/DC guys. That's where I first learned how to use ProTools and I came across the Digidesign world. So when I came out on this tour, one of the things I wanted to be able to achieve with the hectic tour and schedule–you want to have backup and support should anything go wrong. It happens.
At Madison Square Garden, we had a chair trolley at the end of the night wheeling out that caught one of the multi cords. Cut straight through it. Gone. One phone call and that thing is replaced before the next day.
Digidesign has been exceptional as any of the good companies have been. Midas and all of those. I just have to say coming across Digidesign and with them venturing into the touring world… and that's new for them… they've been exceptional. Can't thank them enough.
Lastly, how about SPL for this show?
Paul has a vast repertoire of songs with all kind of levels, song dynamics, SPL, playing style. They're all in this show. It's a bit of a juggle to keep an even keel with all of the songs. I haven't had too many complaints just yet, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed, for tonight as well.
