Rising star Maisie Peters is out on the road for a good 200 dates in support of her album The Good Witch. As well as her own headline dates in theaters she’s also been opening up for Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour… quite the busy year! We caught up with Maisie’s tour and spoke with her FOH Engineer Nathan Kennedy and Monitor Engineer Michael “Fitz” Fitzsimons about mixing her in these various situations.
Nathan Kennedy
FOH Engineer
FOH Engineer Nathan Kennedy was mixing on the DiGiCo SD10 on a previous run, then decided to use the Quantum 225 series to try out the newer features- (Spice Rack and Mustard processing). “The Chilli 6 has been a great addition to Maisie Peters vocal chain, meaning I need less outboard. I’m using the Mustard Vintage VCA on the Kick/Snare group on the Toms group as well. I’ve found it to be a lot punchier than the standard compressors and is really letting the drums sit well in the mix and make space. It’s been useful in other ways being lighter, smaller, making it much easier on truck packs and the screen is outstanding for outdoor shows.”
Kennedy always approaches mixing bands in a similar way. He was a Clair system guy for a number of years. “I’ve worked with the best engineers and system guys. So I use techniques I’ve learnt through them. I learnt how to trust what comes out of the left and right. I tune a PA using Smaart in rehearsals and when it comes to the show. As long as the P.A. has all drivers working, we will get a very similar show. I take my knowledge from Howard Page (FOH engineer for Sting) and Tim Peeling (System Engineer for U2) and it works. I mix the show from the reference I use in rehearsal which works for a left/right recording too. It means I’m not changing channel EQ for the room. During rehearsals once I have my reference with pink noise and Smaart. I mix the band over the tracks. The tracks are there to help not to overtake from a live sound. Maisie’s vocal chain is going through the Neve 5045, the onboard Chilli 6, the onboard graphic EQ and then goes through a group where I do my compression.”
For Maise’s combined dates in theaters and stadiums, Kennedy says there are challenges in both situations of the tours indoor and outdoor shows. “On the Ed shows we would usually get 30-minute sound checks. This was quite fast, but getting my reference EQ with pink noise and the Smaart software is a great starting point. The show is in the round and had a brand-new sound system from Meyer Sound. The mix position for FOH was under one of the delay towers. The system was very well put together but of course you can’t help but have reflections. Making Maisie’s vocal cut through is a challenge in this situation. The way I control this is controlling the low mid’s down to 125Hz. I use this same technique for theaters which will give a lot more clarity in your mix.”
Kennedy uses onboard effects and plugins. “I have customized the effects quite a bit from the default and am very happy with the results. I use the Neve 5045 on Maisie’s vocal to help with the bleed of cymbals and drums on stage. So when Maisie isn’t singing into the mic during solos or the end of songs it isn’t picking up stage noise. I use the LM44 in-line from my Left and Right as system EQ. I find the accuracy and sound of the Lake to be the best for this role.”
Michael “Fitz” Fitzsimons
Monitor Engineer
Monitor Engineer Michael “Fitz” Fitzsimons is on the DiGiCo SD10 for Maisie’s tour. He’s been using the console for about eight years now and says the boards layout comes very naturally to him. “We’re about 65 days into the U.S. leg of the tour so it’s practically muscle memory now! Sonically I love both the DiGiCo and Yamaha platforms and I’m excited to try some of the V6 features on the Rivage, but DiGiCo feels like home to me.” Fitzsimons’ overview screen contains each of his banks plus his snapshots and song notes. “Whilst the show is scene driven via timecode, there are still quite a few manual moves to make. I love actually mixing the show, despite the great automation capabilities of the console.”
The band onstage, with the exception of drums, are receiving a pre mixed stereo drum buss and Fitzsimons is using the UREI 1176’s on this. “The 1176’s have such an identifiable sound which I’ve always loved. With such a quick attack, they keep the drums smooth and controlled throughout a very dynamic set, whilst the split channels going to Jack Geary (on drums) have room to breathe a little more and have tones of attack on the EQ’s which is important to his on stage mix but not necessarily to everyone else’s taste!” The Bricasti M7 is on Maisie’s vocal, notes Fitzsimons. “I like the onboard reverbs and I’m using several of them in my session, on drums, as channel inserts on acoustic guitars and background vocals. But I wanted something extra for Maisie’s vocal and the Bricasti really makes it pop. It’s such a wide sound and it really puts a shine on the vocal sitting on top of her mix. When I introduced it in rehearsals she noticed the difference immediately.”
As for Peters’ vocal mic, Fitzsimons says Sennheiser reached out to Nathan (Kennedy), and sent the MM435 and MM445 capsules for them to try out at the start of the year. “Which we did, from clubs to stadiums in Australia and New Zealand back in February, originally settling on the MM445. It’s got an extremely narrow pick-up pattern which allowed me to get a lot of detail in the highs without battling bleed too much. We’ve since moved onto the MM435 which has proved effective especially on the open air shows! They’re both fantastic capsules, they come everywhere with us.”
Fitzsimons says they’ve been using the Sennheiser 2050 for IEM’s and 6000 Series transmitters with MM435 Capsule since he began mixing monitors at the start of the year, additionally changing instrument RF to 2000 series this spring, so where RF is concerned they’re all Sennheiser. “I’m more than happy with the performance of it and the band love the results too, though I do split my antennas into a Shure AD600 with which I’m running wireless workbench, it’s such a powerful tool, its the one thing I can’t do without.”
One of the main challenges with mixing the stadium shows, notes Fitzsimons- and especially doing them in the round is the slapback coming from all directions. “We are traveling with some Clair CP118 subs, which sit behind our keys and guitar positions and I’m driving these pretty hard at the stadium shows to move some air in time with the ears and keep things tight on deck. The band usually love to hear the crowd and I ride the ambient mics almost constantly at headline shows, but this only adds to the challenge in stadiums, and I find it better to leave them out so that is certainly a big difference between the two environments! Logistically? we needed to approach our audio prep slightly differently because of the unique layout of Ed’s show. We have to carry extra long looms with us to get across the gigantic circular stage and drop down into the pit where the monitor position is, but all of that aside its pretty much business as usual.”
For a crew and gear list, CLICK HERE.
More tour photos from Steve Jennings:
