We caught Khruangbin at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre for two sold-out shows, bringing their musical and emotional vibe to the audience unlike no other bands can do. The Houston-based trio are Laura Lee (bass, vocals), Mark Speer (guitar, vocals) and Donald “DJ” Johnson, Jr. (drums, vocals). We spoke with engineers Jade Payne and Jorge Denning about mixing the band.
Jade Payne, FOH Engineer
Payne first started with Khruangbin in 2018, pulling double duty as backline tech and monitor engineer. Within four months, the FOH position became vacant and she was offered the position. “Khruangbin is the most dynamic band I’ve ever mixed,” notes Payne. “The sound they create is a mixture of explosive, swelling chaos and intricate minimal moments within vast landscapes. I have to hone in on the dynamics of every source onstage and understand how they interact together.”
There’s no lead singer in the band, and everyone sings. “It’s important to treat them as one voice, so I process the vocals similarly, in order to achieve a ‘unison’ voice where you can still pick out the three members, yet it sounds like one voice overall. Everyone goes through their own channel on SuperRack, for utility processing like de-noising and primary source expansion, followed by the dLive’s built-in processing. The Opt-Tronik compressor, one of dLive’s many DEEP processing models, is based on electro-optical tube compressors. It’s super-musical sounding. Then each vocal gets bused to individual doubler effect engines, which feed individual reverbs. I use Waves IR-Convolution with a 4-second spring splash that guitarist Mark Speer recorded himself. I swap that out from song to song with H-Reverb for group reverb busing. I set everyone’s sends and inserts structurally so that, during a show, I can essentially focus on riding a single vocal DCA and FX DCA, to get a proper wet/dry mix ratio that never feels static.”
One of Payne’s biggest challenges is isolating drum source crossbleed into other mics while maintaining a natural sounding image. “DJ plays a jazz kit where the snare, hi-hat, crash and vocal mic are all extremely close to each other. Therefore, it’s super-important that I measure and time-align the inputs to compensate for crossbleed. I delay every source onstage to his vocal mic, treating it as an overhead so to speak. This tightened up the mix and gave everything a little more definition. Yet, a certain level of bleed is completely normal and natural.”
She’s definitely an Allen & Heath advocate. “I love how much dLive has to offer in terms of processing options and quality. We do a lot of fly dates and it was important to me to maintain consistency with the desk I’d be using. The CTi1500 weighs less than 23 kg with its custom Circle Three Designs case. I also appreciate how A&H offers unrivaled support. I can call my rep at any hour of the day, anywhere in the world, and get assistance.”
The only mic still being used from before Payne came aboard is a Sennheiser e906 on guitar. “We’ve tried many different mics, and I was becoming more interested in what DPA had to offer. After seeing a demo of the 2028 and its off-axis linear frequency rejection, I knew we had to try it out. Currently the two downstage members are on 2028s. Last year, Chris Rabold let us borrow his Crown 310A (a.k.a. the Britney Spears mic) which has significantly improved noise rejection on the drum vocal. I mostly use DPA condensers because they can capture the tiniest details while handling extremely high SPL, with adequate off-axis rejection.”
The L-Acoustics K2 is one of Payne’s favorite P.A.s, especially for a venue like Berkeley’s Greek Theatre. “The boxes have immaculate detail, tight punchy low-end and impressive throw. I always walk the venue and make sure the people at the very top, the people on blankets in the grass, will have adequate coverage. With an ample amount of K2’s, I never worry about giving the audience the best experience they can have.”
Payne uses a Benidub Spring Amp 2 analog drive pedal in tandem with a real spring tank built for guitar amps. “I save it for special moments during the show and keeping it barely noticeable, occasionally picking it up the tank and dropping it to achieve the splash-dub effect. Sometimes I’ll lightly flick my fingers across the springs for a subtler outcome. It’s fun, satisfying, and almost feels like I’m some kind of dub conductor. Between this and the IR-Convolution spring sound, we can maintain some of the signature ambience of the band’s records.”
Payne has mixed almost 200 shows for Khruangbin and works with an incredible hard-working crew. “We’ve grown from a few techs to an entire production team in just a handful of years. Many of our team go beyond the scope of their job title. We’re lucky to have Griffin Albee of Sound Image supporting us as monitor/FOH tech and Dana Packley, our backline tech, who is crucial to making the show and stage run smoothly.”
Jorge Denning, Monitor Engineer
Denning started working with the band in 2019, but once subbed for Payne in 2018 for a show at Radio City Music Hall (she was doing monitors at the time). “After that, she asked if I wanted to do monitors for them, because she was going to mix FOH for the band… and here we are still.”
Over the years, DiGiCo has been Denning’s console of choice, and he’s currently on an SD12 with two DMI cards, one for KLANG and one for Waves. “I really like the DiGiCo sound and compatibility with external software. I also like the ease of use — I can see almost everything I need, and it’s a one-button push or knob movement. Another DiGiCo feature I really like are the 32-bit (preamp) cards that give me more headroom and better sound. Also, about three months ago, I started using the KLANG:app which I run on a separate computer, and I really like the results I can get with it.”
The band just started using Radial Engineering Hotshot DM-1 boxes and loves them. “They can just step on it and tell me what they need instead of trying to signal me the instrument, but still sometimes we use signals, and that also works.” In terms of IEMs, “they were all using Ultimate Ears when I started with them, and Laura is now using JH Audio Roxannes, as she really liked the clarity and the bite that they have.”
From a post-pandemic standpoint, “it’s so nice to be back doing live shows,” says Denning, “and I’m really grateful for the amazing band and crew I’m working with. This makes it fun and 100 times easier.”
AUDIO CREW
- Sound Company: Sound Image
- FOH Engineer: Jade Payne
- Monitor Engineer: Jorge Denning
- Audio/FOH/Monitor Tech: Griffen Albee
- Backline Tech: Dana Packley
- Production Manager: Nathaniel Murphy
