FRONT of HOUSE caught up with Japanese/British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama’s Hold the Girl tour for an impressive night of singing, musicianship, fan appreciation and impeccable audio quality. Prowling around the stage, Sawayama captivated the crowd from the moment she took the stage. She is a chameleon of music styles but mainly a pop star, and soon to be actress with her film debut coming up as well as having done modeling campaign work. Her first album Rina was a huge success and brought her a large following; this tour brings us to Hold the Girl, her sophomore album release.
FOH Engineer Anna Dahlin
Sawayama’s FOH engineer, Anna Dahlin, started out with a degree in acoustics and originally wanted to work in a studio environment. She moved to London and spent some time doing work experience around some of the major recording studios. It soon became clear that laptops were taking over and many studios were closing their doors. “As a result, I ended up working in IT taking care of computers and the website of a London based music agency. Through some old university friends I started getting the occasional live engineering job around London in the evenings and eventually ended up being one of the resident engineers at a club in Covent Garden called The Roadhouse. This was an ideal environment to learn how to mix. They had cover bands playing every night of the week, all consisting of excellent touring and session musicians. If it didn’t sound good, it was always my fault. I eventually crossed paths with an up-and-coming band called Nero that needed someone to do monitors for them on tour. I quit my day job and joined them for what I was sure would be a maximum of six months. That was 12 years ago.”
Dahlin admits she’s not that interested in chatting gear with colleagues, but loves using equipment to make things sound good. She’s been using the DiGiCo Quantum 225 on this run and says this console fit both the budget and available footprint in the truck and at FOH in most venues. “With Darren (Connor) using the same console on monitors, we were able to share a rack and save even more space that way. I’ve probably used every single model of DiGiCo in the past. I’m very comfortable on them and know I can work fast. Given a choice at FOH, I would always go with either the Avid S6L or DiGiCo. The Quantum 225 is great. For a show like Rina’s, there’s no need for more than two fader banks, so the width of the console can be kept to a minimum.”
Dahlin usually listens to a couple of reference songs to get a feel for the room during line check. Then she experiments with some EQ to see what resonates. “If the venue has a tablet, I like to take a walk with that as well. I always talk to the venue’s audio tech. They know the room and are the ones that can walk during the show while I’m mixing and adjusting things. I never get the opportunity to hear all areas of the venue once it’s full of people.”
Dahlin is not using any plug-ins, and relies on the built-in EQ and dynamics, plus the new Mustard and Spice Rack. “This does most of the dynamic work for me,” she explains. “With a track-heavy show like this, you’re constantly fighting the top-end. Musical directors are fond of adding ‘white noise-style frequency sweeps’ and high-frequency content to everything from tracked guitars to tracked vocals. The minute you stick this content through a line-array, it causes all kinds of pain. I end up relying heavily on both multi-band compression and dynamic EQ to push the painful higher frequencies under control. I’ve added an outboard Bricasti M7 as a deluxe reverb for Rina’s vocal. With a pop show featuring the vocal as prominently as this one, only the best reverb will do. In addition to this, the only other outboard is a Waves Maxx BCL that I use to compress the mix being sent to P.A., and to control the bass in rooms where it becomes unruly.”
Rina can be a challenge to mix, as she passes through at least a handful of genres during the show, notes Dahlin. “We cover everything from pop, country, garage, electronic and near enough metal. It’s very enjoyable and refreshing. Rina is a really strong singer, so her vocal is very rarely a problem. We use a DPA capsule that quite naturally rejects feedback and is very flattering on vocals. We occasionally have issues with bleed from the drums, as Rina will perform around them and the choreography means she occasionally points the microphone straight at the kit. This requires some riding of the vocal fader to minimize the sound of cymbals and snare in the P.A.”
Monitor Engineer Darren Connor
Darren Connor is monitor engineer for Rina’s tour. He inherited the DiGiCo Quantum 225 console when he took over the show from Will Taylor, who is now the tour’s production manager. Taylor also works with Patchwork, who supplies the control package for the tour in Europe. Connor says he was never a big DiGiCo fan until the Quantum series was introduced. “The nodal processing on monitors and new multi-band compressors and EQ are fantastic additions. The Mustard compressor options have really complemented my usual work flow, especially on the vocal chain, and I lean on the Optical Compressor a lot.” Connor notes he doesn’t need a ton of plug-ins for the show. “I’m fine with just using onboard standard EQ/comp, and now Spice Rack and Mustard plug-ins. I use a Neve Portico 5045 stereo enhancer to achieve more separation for the drum kit and crowd in the in-ears.”
Connor says Rina is currently using Cosmic in-ears, however she is moving to Ultimate Ears 18 PRO+ as he feels there is a much better stereo field and separation, and space for the vocal is better achieved on them. “The band and dancers are all on a mixture of Ultimate Ears, Cosmic Ears and JH Audio IEMs. Mixing in-ears is an evolving process. You build a great starting point at rehearsals, but each subsequent show and room presents new challenges, from sub-bass from FOH on stage, to — as we’ve experienced in the U.S. — a new drum kit. Crowd levels present the need to change balances in the ears, too. We have added pitching cues on certain songs as the shows have gone on, as sometimes the crowd is so loud, the intros of certain songs get smothered by them.”
For Rina’s vocal mic, Connor says they have the DPA d:facto II capsule through a Shure Axient system. “This is really a great mic and capsule. It was in-place when I came into the gig, and Anna and I are keen to try out the DPA 4018V capsule on Rina next year to try and control more of the stage and room ambient spill into the mic.” Guitars are all on Kemper emulators, notes Connor. “No mics or cabs are needed. Emily, our guitarist is great at programming the sounds she wants that suit each song. All bass lines are played on the keys by Emily like in the song ‘Comme des Garçons,’ or are on backing tracks.”
Connor concludes by noting that “it is an absolute pleasure mixing monitors for Rina and her band. They are all so professional, great to work with and give me very clear instruction as to what they need in the in-ear mixes which I am more than happy to facilitate.”
AUDIO CREW
- Sound Company: Clair Global
- FOH Engineer: Anna Dahlin
- Monitor Engineer: Darren Connor
- Production Manager: Will Taylor
- Tour Manager: Claire Hunt
FOH GEAR
- FOH Console: DiGiCo Quantum 225
- Outboard Gear: Waves MaxxBCL, Briscati M7
MON GEAR
- Monitor Console: DiGiCo Quantum 225
- In-Console FX: Spice Rack & Mustard plug-ins
- Outboard: Neve Portico 5045
- RF Gear: Shure AD4D Axient for vocal mics; Shure PSM1000 IEM transmitters; Shure PA821B antenna combiner
- Playback: Redundant Ableton system for tracks
MIC PACKAGE
- Rina Vocal: DPA d:facto II capsule
- Guitar: Kemper Profiler
- Drum Kit: Kick, Audix D6 / Shure Beta 91A; snare top, beyerdynamic M201; snare bottom, Shure Beta 98; hi-hat, AKG C451B; (4) Shure Beta 98, toms; (2) Shure KSM32, overheads
