Last month, I wrote about the projects and events that keep me busy when I am not out on the road working behind a mixing console. However, over this past weekend, I participated in a project at home in California that truly got this year off to a great start.
My friend John Ondrasik, from the band Five For Fighting, invited me to mix three local shows that would be performed by John (vocals, piano and acoustic guitar) and a string quartet. The musicians comprising the quartet were Dave Eggar (cello), Jeremy Kittel (viola), Melissa Tong (violin) and Elizabeth Bacher (violin). All of these players are immensely talented, classically trained virtuosos who have combined to perform intricately orchestrated quartet arrangements in accompaniment to John’s extraordinary compositions.
Five For Fighting’s first national hit was “Superman,” a song that resonated with the American audience in the days immediately following the 9/11 tragedy. John Ondrasik is a brilliant lyricist and creator of hauntingly beautiful melodies. His writing is both emotional and cerebral and displays the empathy and insight of a man who is comfortably grounded in the world as a musician, a singer, a husband and a father. John’s talent as a writer and composer touches people on a very personal level, and I sincerely enjoy helping him bring his performances to his adoring audiences.
The Shows
The shows were scheduled at three Southern California venues that were small enough to maintain the sense of intimacy of an evening with John and the string quartet. The first show was performed at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, followed by an evening at the Majestic Ventura Theater in San Buenaventura and ending at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Each of these venues has been hosting quality music acts for many years and each provided a familiar environment for this particular experiment in the performance of John’s material. In the past, Five For Fighting has often appeared with large orchestras accompanying the band. But cutting down to piano or acoustic guitar complemented by only four string players represented a whole new direction for all of us.
We would be carrying no production with us for these shows. Consequently, we would be using house sound and lighting systems plus in-house monitor engineers and lighting directors. In addition to my duties mixing FOH sound, I would be functioning as tour manager, production manager, backline tech and merchandiser. On these show days, I work non-stop from the minute I walk into the venue until the time I get in my car and drive away. One can easily become rather complacent on well-funded tours with well-known artists. I actually like the reality check provided by participating in one-man-crew gigs. It’s good to occasionally step out of that comfort zone we all fall into while traveling around the world in the artificial bubble that grows around big tours.
Gear, Here
When I was asked to participate in this project and given the production parameters, my first thought was that we should at least carry our own microphone package. With everything else changing on each of the three nights, I felt that a package of high-end transducers would provide us the best starting point and ensure maintaining a reliable constant at each venue. However, many of my own microphones had already been shipped to Clair/Audio Rent in Europe in preparation for James Taylor’s next tour leg. Additionally, there was no budget for equipment rental for the Five For Fighting shows and therefore renting gear was impossible. In order to assemble the particular collection of transducers I hoped to carry, I would need to enlist the assistance of friends.
My first call was to Kim Hilton at Earthworks, Inc. in the hope of borrowing a PM40 piano mic system. I have been using the PM40 with great success for the past few years and it was a must-have item for these string quartet shows. Kim was both helpful and enthusiastic. She was familiar with Five For Fighting’s music and was very supportive regarding this project. Kim told me that Earthworks would have PM40s at the NAMM show and said I was welcome to pick one up at the close of the event. I am extremely grateful for the support that Earthworks has provided for my work with several performers over the last few years and I can’t thank them enough for helping to make these Five For Fighting shows as good as possible.
My next call was to Shure in the hope of acquiring a pair of microphones that have been in development for the past year and are now getting close to production. It is a product about which I will have more to say in coming months. It is also a product about which I am very excited. I have been advocating for the development of a microphone of this type for what seems like years and the engineers in Illinois have created an exceptional design. The point man for this project at Shure, John Born, generously agreed to send me two of the latest prototypes for field-testing on vocals for these shows. Once again, I am extremely thankful for the great relationship with Shure that has now spanned more than 30 years.
String mics were the final missing pieces of the puzzle. While Dave Rat and I were speaking at a NAMM workshop, I asked if Rat Sound had any DPA 4099’s in their microphone inventory. Jon Monson from Rat Sound soon called me to let me know that I was welcome to use the three 4099’s they had on hand. That left me one mic short, but I was both pleased and grateful to Rat Sound for the help they were offering. In a stroke of good fortune, I spoke with our cellist, Dave Eggar, and he let me know that he actually preferred to use his own Realist pickup on his instrument. Problem solved.
The one piece of gear that I did have at my house was the Radial Firefly tube DI box that we would use on John Ondrasik’s acoustic guitar. John planned to perform all but two of the songs at the grand piano but I wanted the quality of the acoustic guitar sound to match the quality of the sound from other instruments. That requirement made the Firefly essential to our performance. I have been employing this product from Radial since it was first released on both bass guitar and acoustic guitar with consistently excellent results. I must extend many thanks to Radial for making this fantastic product available to me.
When Yamaha agreed to provide a C7 grand piano at a very reasonable, endorsing-artist accommodation price, all of the pieces we needed to make the audio experience unforgettable were finally assembled. None of the venues owned audio systems that could be described as state of the art but we had exceptional artists on the stage, astoundingly good material presented with unique, astounding arrangements and a determined old guy mixing who had the necessary experience to coax the best possible sound out of whatever equipment we encountered.
Each show became a joyous experience for the musicians on the stage, for the captivated and often spellbound audiences and especially for me at the mixing console. The classical string arrangements perfectly enhanced John’s beautiful compositions: “100 Years,” “Chances, World,” “The Riddle,” “I Just Love You,” “Nobody” and “Superman” — among other amazing pieces — were given completely new incarnations in a 15-song set that left everyone wanting more. Each of the three nights transported us all to a place of intense and complex beauty. I will carry that positive energy and sense of artistic elation with me all year long. I hope that the positive feedback from these shows will encourage John to schedule a tour with this band format soon. I can’t wait to experience this uplifting presentation once again.
Safe Travels!
