Global rock heavyweights Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP) quickly rose to fame after the release of their first Album The Way of the Fist in 2007. Since then, 5FDP has sold more than 2.6 million albums in the U.S. and a new single, “Wrong Side Of Heaven” (on the plight of veterans suffering PTSD) has racked up more than 10 million plays on YouTube since Aug. 11.
Five Finger Death Punch and Volbeat recently concluded a co-headlining North American fall arena tour, which kicked off Sept. 16 in Salt Lake City. Also on the bill were two other heavy rocking groups, Hellyeah and Nothing More. 5FDP guitarist Zoltan Bathory noted that “the tour’s lineup is diverse, but we share a fan base and both have serious draw. Together it’s a very powerful package.”
The tour played sold-out arenas across the U.S. performing for an average of 8,000 fans at every venue. California-based Sound Image provided stacks and racks for the tour including 48 Adamson E15 and 12 E12 line source enclosures and 24 E218 subwoofers.
Bruce Reiter, 5FDP FOH engineer and production manager for the tour, first heard Adamson Energia line arrays when he went to listen to one of his favorite mixers, Ken “Pooch” Van Druten, mix at a concert.
“I thought it translated heavy music in a smooth and powerful way,” Reiter explains. “After speaking with a few respected FOH mixers, we decided it was the perfect fit for what Five Finger Death Punch was doing.”
Great Sound and Coverage
“The production manager in me loves how quick and easy the system goes up and comes down,” adds Reiter. “As a mixer, I have to say that it’s frickin’ awesome. My guitars sound natural, drums are crushing, bass is booming and vocals are crystal clear — never harsh. The P.A. has a very comfortable sound. The volume level from front to back in the arenas was incredibly even as well.”
According to Reiter, Sound Image provided the best audio crew he could hope for. System Tech Cameron Whaley, along with Tarik Kahn and Tony Luna, took great care in deploying the Adamson system to ensure the best outcome for 5FDP fans.
“Every audience had the same great sound, front to back and side to side,” Reiter continues. “Tarik flew the stage left P.A. and Cameron flew the stage right P.A. Tony Luna, who mixed monitors for 5FDP, also assisted with getting the P.A. up and down. These guys were great.”
Whaley had not used the Adamson P.A. prior to the tour, but came away impressed with every aspect of the system. The typical performance setup consisted of left-right arrays made up of 12 E15s followed by four E12s. Outfill was covered by two more arrays, this time each consisted of eight E15s with two E12s on the bottom.
“For some of the larger venues we expanded the main arrays, but mostly this set-up did the job nicely,” adds Whaley. “The E15s, with their enhanced low-end, were a great choice for this type of music. And the E12s? They are incredibly versatile in the way they can hang directly below the E15 array. They sound sonically the same as the E15s, which creates a seamless transition. The system is pretty flat to start, so once it was hung I would do a few minor EQ adjustments and that was it.”
Both the Adamson E15 and E12 are 3-way line source enclosures. The E15 is loaded with two 7-inch Kevlar Neodymium midrange transducers paired with two 4-inch high frequency compression drivers while the E12 features a single 7-inch Kevlar Neodymium midrange transducers paired with a 4-inch high frequency compression driver.
From venue to venue, Cameron would quickly shoot the room and input the data into Adamson’s predictive software to determine the specific setup for the space including number of boxes, height, and where to set the bars on the rigging frame to properly distribute the weight of the array.
“It took maybe 20 minutes each day and was very straightforward,” Cameron explains. “The system was perfect for this tour.”
The Bottom Line
Enhanced low-end is provided by two 15-inch (E15) or two 12-inch (E12) proprietary Kevlar Neodymium woofers. The end result is seamless mid-high energy with minimal distortion at very high SPL levels and substantial low end for most applications.
Each performance also used all 24 E218 subwoofers — either ground stacked 12 per side under the left-right arrays for the smaller rooms (with limited rigging) or half stacked on the ground while the other half was flown behind the main PA at larger arenas.
“It’s a terrific subwoofer, and very flexible,” Cameron continues. “There is plenty of punch and definition, and they are very easy to fly. I particularly liked that you could put a 3 degree angle on them and didn’t have to just fly them straight.”
Developed to pair with the E12 or E15 enclosures, the E218 features two light-weight, long-excursion ND18-S Kevlar neodymium 18-inch drivers mounted in an efficient band-pass enclosure.
The Mix Position
Reiter manned his personal Midas PRO2C digital console at FOH when mixing 5FDP and relied on a RPM Dynamics AES50 recording system for recording and virtual sound checking.
“My Midas has everything I need to mix 5FDP right in the box,” Reiter adds. “The Midas digital consoles are my absolute favorite thing to mix a concert on.”
Reiter’s PRO2C was also used by Will Hoffman to mix Nothingmore. Luna mixed 5FDP’s monitor rig and Sennheiser in-ears on another PRO2. All of the 5FDP band members are on in-ears except for lead vocalist Ivan Moody, who relies on four stage wedges and sidefill, provided by Clair Brothers.
“Sound Image and Clair Brothers staff worked amazingly well together to make this tour a success,” adds Reiter. “It was a terrific team all around.”
Hellyeah’s FOH mixer “Goody” used another Midas PRO2C with a Waves Multirack and RPM Dynamics TB2/48 interface for recording and virtual sound check. Volbeat FOH engineer Mads Mikkelsen toured with a DiGiCo SD8 equipped with Waves SoundGrid. Whaley used two Midas XL88 matrix mixers to switch between the boards at FOH.
Mics… Lots of Mics
“The Five Finger Death Punch sound is captured mostly with Shure mics,” Reiter explains. “The band loves them and I demand them.”
Reiter captures vocals with Shure Beta 58As. Palmer PDi 09 direct boxes combined with Shure SM57 microphones — phase aligned using Midas’ variable phase alignment tool — are on are on guitars and bass. Jeremy Spencer’s drum kit, with 26 inputs, is another challenge for the FOH engineer.
“I spent a lot of time choosing the ‘correct’ position for the mics and once again, I mostly rely on Shure microphones,” adds Reiter. “I used Beta 98AMP mics on all of the toms and cymbals and Beta 91AMP mics combined with a trigger for the kicks. For the snare, I used a Beta 56 on top and a Beta 98AMP on the bottom. Cowbells and percussion toys were also covered by Beta 98AMP’s with an Electro-Voice 468a on the timbales.”
And In The End
At the end of the day, it all ends up being about the audience receiving an audio experience that meets their expectations. The heavy metal crowd anticipated chest thumping low end and vocal clarity turned up to “11,” and they were not disappointed.
“Sound Image really did a stellar job with the audio production,” adds Reiter. “The system was exactly what a tour this size needed and fit the type of music being played extremely well. I would recommend it to anyone.”
Five Finger Death Punch
Sound Companies
Sound Image, Clair Brothers
Sound Crew
FOH Engineers: Bruce Reiter (5FDP); Mads Mikkelsen (Volbeat);
Will Hoffman (Nothingmore); Goody (Hellyeah).
Monitor Engineer: Tony Luna
System Tech: Cameron Whaley
FOH Techs: Tarik Kahn; Tony Luna
Production Manager: Bruce Reiter
P.A. System
Main Hangs: (48) Adamson E15 line arrays; (12) Adamson E12 line arrays
Subwoofers: (24) Adamson E218
Drive: Sound Image W2 Drive
FOH Gear
Consoles: (2) Midas PRO2C; DiGiCo SD8
Processing: Waves Multirack; Waves Soundgrid
Drive: Meyer Galileo; (2) Midas XL88; Roland OctaCapture; Rational Acoustics SMAART 7
Recording: RPM Dynamics TB2/48; RPM Dynamics AES50
Monitor Gear
Consoles: Midas Pro2C; DiGiCo SD8
IEM’s: Shure PSM1000
Wireless: Shure UR4D
Monitors: Clair CM22 wedges; Clair i5 sidefills
Mics: Shure Beta 58A (vocals), SM57 (bass, guitar amps), Beta 98AMP’s (toms, cymbals, snare bottom, percussion), Beta 56 (snare top), Beta 91AMP (kick); E-V 468a (timbales).
Direct Boxes: Palmer PDi 09
