The 64th Annual Grammy® Awards ceremony/telecast was held at the 17,000 capacity MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. Originally planned for the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, concerns about the Covid Omicron virus variant led to the need to postpone the ceremony, which led to another problem: Crypto.com arena (formerly known as the Staples Center), where the Grammy Awards have been presented 17 times since 2000, was not available at a later date.
As the old show biz adage says, however, “the show must go on,” and for the first time ever, the event was not just postponed by more than two months, it was also relocated to a venue in Las Vegas. But unlike last year’s “virtual” show, the 2022 telecast featured a live audience for the award presentations along with 31 band performances. Covid prevention compliance was once again strictly monitored on site, with daily testing and reporting, and masks mandatory in all areas.
Despite changes in the Grammy Awards over the years, ranging from category changes (additions or deletions) to the use of different hosts, to venue changes, the emphasis on quality — particularly audio quality — has always been job one. And a major part of maintaining consistency in that high standard comes down, in large part to the crew, who over the past couple decades or so, has been largely the same team who come together every year to put it all together.
Key players on the audio broadcast side include seasoned pros such as audio producer Michael Abbott and mixers Eric Schilling and John Harris working the broadcast music mixes out of the Music Mix Mobile trucks. Tom Holmes handled the overall broadcast mix from the NEP Denali truck. On the P.A. side for the live, in-venue sound, the FOH mix duties were shared by Ron Reaves (handling the house music mixing) and Jeff Peterson, who this year was assigned to mixing the live production elements and also designing the P.A. rig brought in to the MGM Grand Garden Arena by his employer, Southern California-based ATK Audiotek (now a Clair Global company), a longtime live audio provider for the Grammy Awards. The P.A. team from ATK included system engineer Craig Robertson and system tech Kirk Powell.
Capping off the FOH team was Leslie Ann Jones, Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing® Steering Committee co-chair. Backstage were monitor engineers Michel L. Parker (stage left) and Tom Pesa (stage right).
The Systems Approach
We chatted with FOH team members Ron Reaves and Jeff Peterson about this year’s show. One change for the production lineup was ATK’s Mikael Stewart, who stepped down from the house production mixer slot, leaving that gig to Peterson, who had been the event’s systems engineer for the past 15 years.
No matter what venue is used for the Grammy’s, ATK brings its own system in. “For award shows, we never try and use the house system, although sometimes we can use parts of it,” Peterson says. “At the MGM, we used some of their fills to reach the upper couple rows, but we didn’t use anything else.”
The main P.A. was comprised of “four clusters of JBL VTX A12 line arrays, with 52 boxes total,” he explains, “with two hangs (16 total) of JBL VTX S28 subwoofers. Delays were four hangs (each with eight) of JBL VTX V20’s.” There was plenty more in the system, including a DiGiCo SD7Q for the FOH music mix and an SD10 for house production mixing. The monitor rig had two DiGiCo SD7Q consoles, 24 channels of Shure PSM1000 IEM hardware, ATK’s LM3 and LM6 wedges, ATK C6 sidefills and 60 channels of Shure, Audio-Technica and Sennheiser wireless mics.
One unusual touch was the use of multiple K-array Tornado-KT2 miniature speakers with a 2” neodymium driver in a freestanding enclosure. These were placed on the cocktail tables that were strategically positioned in the hall for social distancing, and carried a dialog feed.
“A majority of the award elements and dialog moments this year happened in front of the P.A., and the nominees were seated at tables right next to the award stage,” Peterson notes. “To give us some extra headroom and more clarity for the listeners, we added K-array Tornado speakers on top of the tables where the nominees were seated.”
The FOH Position
This year marked FOH music mixer Ron Reaves 20th Grammy Awards show. Reaves is no stranger to mixing such events; in fact, among his other clients are the Latin American Music Awards, The Latin Billboard Awards and the Latin Grammys.
“It is a lot of pressure,” Reaves admits, but “it’s a pressure that I thrive on. I enjoy it. And I think everybody involved in this show would tell you the same thing, but you know, we’ve all done it for so long and it’s just gotten a little easier over the years. However, we’re given more time on this show than most shows to get it right, because it is a music show. And the music people care. The Academy cares, and we care a great deal. So yes, Grammy week is my most fun week of the year.”
So how did Reaves react to mixing in the MGM, rather than at the former Staples? “The MGM is a good sounding arena. Both Jeff (Peterson) and I have mixed literally 100 shows there. So there was no compromise whatsoever. In fact, it’s probably a little better room than the Staples Center. Well, not quite as big, but Staples Center is a little more lively. Besides, it’s nice to be able to roll right out of bed (at the MGM) and walk to work.”
With two FOH mixers, two monitor mixers, two broadcast music mixers, and an overall broadcast mixer, who does all the instrument, background and front line vocal mic choices, unless an artist has their own mic of choice? “Eric Schilling and John Harris. I’ve always felt like I’m welcome to chime in, but there’s no need for me to really get involved. Cause they use mics I would probably pick anyway,” stated Reaves.
So is the live sound mix supposed to kind of sound like the record or a more live-ish sound? “It depends on the artist. I’m just there to reinforce their vision. And sometimes they want to do something a little different because it’s the Grammys, so there’s more live feel to it,” Reaves explains. “Some of them play exactly like the record, like Chris Stapleton. His band were Nashville professionals. I suppose they sounded like it because they came out and played the song exactly the same way four or five times in a row, sounding just like the record, whereas some of the things were not much like the records and went for a different feel. But overall, we had a good time, like the Lady Gaga thing, which was a treat. How often do I get to mix a real orchestra?”
Another thing that appeals to Reaves and brings him back to the project year after year is the work ethic and the creative environment. “The client cares. They really do care. And I would much rather work for somebody that’s listening close and cares about every detail — everybody that’s on the floor Grammy night is either a record producer, artist, engineer or fan — so they get it. It’s nice to have people understand what you’re doing. It’s a great team.”
