Last month, I wrote about working with James Taylor at a one-off outdoor event in Greenwich, CT. At this show, I was able to use my normal Avid VENUE console system with existing show files modified for this particular event. The PA system, the monitor system and the microphone complement were not our accustomed touring gear, but being able to initiate our work from a familiar console platform with saved individual song snapshots gave both me and monitor engineer Dave Staub an advantageous starting point. The Greenwich show and the two subsequent one-off shows in this short run went extremely well.
The final event of the three was the “Boston Strong” benefit concert at TD Garden. In a nine-song set for this performance, James and Carole King reprised the very successful duo format that was seen by thousands on the “Troubadour Reunion Tour” in 2010. Hearing Carole and James harmonize on “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” is always one of the most special and intimate moments in live performance. The set was further enhanced when Jimmy Buffet came to the stage to join in on “Mexico.” Mr. Buffet then remained onstage playing three of his songs. It was an unforgettable hour of music.
Caribbean and European Festivals
Here in the present, Lionel Richie has been performing a series corporate and festival shows all around the world before rehearsals for a U.S. tour that starts up in August. In the next two weeks, I will be working far from home at two festival performances. The first will be held on the Caribbean island beach in St. Kitts and Nevis and the second will be closing the British Summer Time concerts held at Hyde Park in London.
Both are large outdoor events, though the latter will have a significantly greater attendance than the former. In St. Kitts, the P.A. will be a JBL VerTec rig and I will be mixing on a Yamaha PM5D. In London, the sound system will be a Martin MLA and I will be using a DiGiCo SD10.
The equipment that I will encounter at the St. Kitts show will be like meeting up with an old friend you haven’t seen for a while. There may be a period of getting reacquainted, but after a few minutes, all the familiarity will return. I have only mixed one or two shows on a PM5D in the last few years, but during my career I have used Yamaha digital consoles in all of their various incarnations. In fact, I recently had the privilege of reviewing
Yamaha’s new CL-5 in this magazine (FRONT of HOUSE, Oct. 2012, page 54).
While there are definitely operational variations and improvements, there is a discernable continuity of design and function that runs through the many generations
of Yamaha digital desks.
Pre-Programming is Everything
Despite the familiarity factor, I always try to be as completely prepared as possible so that I don’t fall victim to the inevitable time compression that one encounters on a one-off show day.
Lionel Richie is a Clair Global touring account, so my first call was to Don Garber at Clair Soundworx in Cerritos, CA. I asked if it was possible to schedule some time to pre-program our show onto a PM5D-RH. We were still three weeks out from the show, and I let Don know I could be flexible in order to accommodate his inventory and show calendar. He informed me that a console would be available the following week, and we set up a time for my programming needs.
The trip from my house to Clair Soundworx is 71 miles each way and, as it turned out, traffic on this particular day was extraordinarily brutal, with accidents, fuel spills and construction delays clogging up nearly the entire freeway system in southern California.
In total, I spent nearly six hours in my car that day while forced to take huge detours on alternate freeways or surface streets to avoid the mess on the most direct routes. It was the sort of day that makes one re-examine blind and steadfast dedication to professionalism.
Because I encounter them less frequently, I don’t have libraries or presets from previous shows for the PM5D. About 99 percent of my work is performed on tour, and I have been exclusively using Avid VENUE consoles on the road since 2006. The only files I have from a PM5D were created during the early days of James Taylor’s “One Man Band” tour, but there is very little relevant information on the memory cards for mixing a full-band Lionel Richie show. I did mix a Five For Fighting show on the PM5D last summer at the Hard Rock in Biloxi, MS and I am now kicking myself for forgetting to bring a system compatible memory card with me to preserve that information. In order to pre-program this upcoming show in St. Kitts, I had to search my office drawers for quite a while to find that 20MB ATA Flash Memory card that fits a PM5D memory slot.
When pre-programming a show, I concentrate on completing all the busywork tasks that would not be easily accomplished in a timely fashion at line check and sound check. I began with the input patch and fader assignment. (See Fig. 1). I placed the drum inputs and the bass guitar inputs on the 1-24 fader level. I placed the guitar, keyboard, harmonica, sax and vocal inputs on the 25-48 fader level. I also located the various vocal effects returns on this level. I placed the four pairs of Pro Tools information on the four stereo input modules and returned the instrument effects to the four stereo effects returns on the lower level of the stereo faders. This placement gives me layers that are logically related to each other. Most of the time I will have the 25-48 faders visible to have access to the vocals while mixing the drum and bass predominantly off the DCAs. Similarly, I will keep the Pro Tools stereo inputs visible throughout the show — effectively giving me 12 DCAs.
The next task was programming all the repetitive and time-consuming push button tasks for each module: 48V power, Polarity, High Pass in, EQ in, DCA assignment and Mute Group assignment.
I then turned to creating ballpark EQ settings for microphones that are used in multiple instances (see attached input list) and stored them in the EQ library. The SM57 snare mics, SM98 tom mics and the SM58 vocal mics will be individually tweaked at the event, but it’s always good to give myself a bit of a head start.
I next created compressor settings for similar instruments and individually stored a kick drum comp, snare comp, guitar comp, keyboard comp and vocal comp in the Compressor library.
The final task was to choose, modify and assign effects. For this show, I employ a drum reverb (X-Plate), an acoustic guitar reverb (X-Plate), a piano reverb (X-Hall), a sax reverb (X-Plate), a vocal reverb (X-Hall), a vocal delay (Mono Delay), a lead vocal pitch changer (Dual Pitch) and a background vocal pitch changer (Dual Pitch).
I used a SM58 patched into an empty “Test” channel to audition and modify each parameter of the individual effects, and I subsequently stored each customized algorithm in the Effects library. I next went back to the inputs and dialed each into the appropriate Aux buses.
Having accomplished these tasks in advance leaves only determining inputs gains, equalizer adjustments, compression thresholds and fader levels when I have hands-on time at the gig. Pre-preparation also means that I don’t have to keep making demands on the system engineer’s valuable time to help me through those moments when my operational recollection of the PM5D parameters is a bit fuzzy. There are five other acts on the stage on show day and time must be fairly budgeted to each. It is far more important that I request and be available for adequate time with the PA so that our show sounds the way we would like it to sound. My friends at JBL have diligently updated the processing for the venerable 4889 system, and coaxing the best from the PA should be easy.
Next month, I will let you all know how this day on the beach in St. Kitts turned out. I will also be discussing our preparation for, and experience of, the London Hyde Park show. I am very excited about having an opportunity to mix this show on the Digico SD10 and the Martin MLA. This will be my first opportunity to experience these great products in a show situation.
Safe travels!
