Following the recent release of Linkin Park’s The Hunting Party album and 30 Seconds To Mars’ Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams, the three-band “The Carnivores” tour was announced in March of this year and also featured opening act AFI. The 25-date arena and shed tour kicked off in early August at the Cruzan Amphitheatre (West Palm Beach, FL) and wrapped up Sept. 19 at the Concord Pavilion (outside San Francisco). The combination of three great alt rock bands on a single bill led to a string of packed dates, although this three-acts-at-each-stop format provided plenty of work and a need for precise logistical coordination for the mixers and tech staff and a bit more complexity than the usual rock tour.
Key to the success of the outing was soundco Sound Image of Escondido, CA, who provided a huge Crown-powered JBL VTX V25 line array rig, which logistically, seems simple enough. However, Linkin Park’s veteran engineering team Ken “Pooch” Van Druten (FOH) and Kevin “Tater” McCarthy (monitors) each brought their own outboard, monitor systems and consoles — having both recently switched to DiGiCo SD7’s.
Meanwhile, Eighth Day Sound, who is 30 Seconds To Mars audio vendor, supplied consoles and monitors for that band, while Sound Image provided all the audio gear for AFI.
In many ways, The Carnivores Tour was more like a traveling festival, with six console changes (FOH and monitor) and five mix engineers. Making this all somewhat easier was mixer Jay Rigby, who handled FOH for both 30STM and AFI (although using two different consoles) and ace systems engineer Vic Wagner, who kept everything running smooth and on course.
Linkin Park in the House
Holding down the fort at FOH was Van Druten, who graduated from Berklee College of Music and moved to L.A., where he found work as a recording engineer/producer — back in the 1990’s, when such jobs still existed. He actually did fairly well, working on a Tony! Toni! Toné! album that received a Grammy nomination. Then, came a life-changing event:
“I was working doing some demos with a hair band called Warrant,” Van Druten recalls, “and they asked me to mix FOH for them. I had never even mixed anyone in a club, yet the next night, I was mixing for 10,000 people at the L.A. Forum. I fell in love with the instant gratification part of live mixing. I never looked back and later found myself mixing for Whitney Houston.”
Well enough, but where did the “Pooch” moniker come from? “I was working for Vince Neil after he left Mötley Crüe, and he starting me calling me ‘Big Dog,’ which evolved into Pooch, says Van Druten. “While working for Whitney, someone there called me ‘Pooch’ — she heard it, loved it and always called me Pooch after that — and it stuck.”
As an FOH mixer, Van Druten has not been typecast into any musical genre and has also recently worked with Slash, Alter Bridge and The Conspirators. At one point, while working with Limp Bizkit, he did a stadium tour with Linkin Park, Metallica and Limp Bizkit. Later, when Linkin Park’s FOH mixer left, Van Druten was asked to work with them, and he’s been with the band for eight years now.
Speaking of the change to a DiGiCo SD7, Van Druten says “we started talking to DiGiCo in January and purchased consoles in March. The Avid thing had run its course, with no plug-in manufacturers supporting TDM. And believe it or not, the change also came out of a need for a solution that was more than 96 inputs — we wanted a 128-input solution at 96k Hz.”
Most of his effects are virtual, but Van Druten keeps three Bricasti M7 reverbs in the house rack. “Those things are amazing; the depth is unbelievable,” he says. Yet nearly everything else is either in-console or via Waves, although he doesn’t overuse effects or processing “All of the delay effects and a couple choruses are from the DiGiCo effect racks,” Van Druten adds, “with a couple Waves reverbs.”
One exception to that was Autotune (used as an effect, rather than vocal correction) and which cannot run in his Waves MultiRack. “The solution we had for that was to use Apple MainStage to host Autotune on a Mac Mini with an AES card to go into the console. It’s controlled via MIDI from the SD7.”
Another interesting denizen in the house rack is an Isochrone 10M atomic clock from Antelope Audio (antelopeaudio.com). “My friend Andy Meyer, who mixes Justin Timberlake right now, said ‘you have to hear what happens with the Antelope clock’,” Van Druten explains. “We did some A/B tests and it really made a huge difference. It really affects imaging, panning and depth within the stereo field. It’s very noticeable. I’ve got 80 inputs of stuff I have to find space for and being able to sharpen that area up has been great. I wound up buying one from Sweetwater. The Antelope clock is now a definitive part of my arsenal.”
Mics, and More Mics
Linkin Park’s mic selection was a co-venture of Van Druten and monitor engineer McCarthy, although the band was also involved in the process. “When we first started, every mic here was Audio-Technica, and we ran with those for three or four years,” says Van Druten. “We started with a few other choices — including SE Electronics, mostly on drum mics on Rob Bourdon’s kit. About three years ago, we were looking at changing wireless, and the band wanted to do some A/B comparisons. It’s a tough test: we have a guy who goes from barely singing to screaming, and a guy who cups the mic and raps into it — and they wanted to use the same mic for both. We ended up with a Sennheiser 865 capsule and have used that ever since.”
Obviously, kick drum and ample LF is part of the Linkin Park sound, and the mic choice in that regard was somewhat unconventional. “We have a Shure 91 on kick as well as an Audio-Technica AE2500 dual-element mic, so we have three inputs of kick drum. I lean on the 91 and use the AE2500 elements, with the condenser high-passed all the way up, so it’s just click. Then I low-pass the AE2500’s dynamic capsule all the way down so it’s just sub information. Those are mixed in with the 91.”
Drums and vocals pretty much sum up Linkin Park’s mic requirements. “We have tons of direct inputs and recently revamped the backline, so there are no guitar amps — all are just Fractal Audio Systems direct guitar information. That cuts way down on the mic locker.” Bass is taken from two sources — one is a Tech-21 SansAmp — the other is straight out of the back of Brad Delson’s Ampeg SVT amp head.
How Loud?
Van Druten is definitely a fan of the JBL VTX rig. “It’s really great; the definition in the highs are amazing; and there’s no distortion, no resonance. It’s clearly one of the best P.A.’s on the market today.”
Clearly there’s no shortage of horsepower from the Sound Image-supplied system, but Van Druten likes to keep things in perspective. “I mixed Kiss for a lot of years, which was all about making it the loudest you could,” he recalls. “There are some engineers that do a lot of irresponsible things out there, but today, I am super-concerned about fan’s hearing loss. I am now adamant that no one should come to one of my shows and suffer hearing loss from the experience. Our basic rule is 102 dB A-weighted SPL Leq over ten minutes at the FOH position, which is 110 feet from the downstage edge.”
However, there are also tweaks within that rulebook. “It all depends on the venue. Sometimes 102 dB sounds too f**king loud, so there definitely are nights when I try mixing 99 or 100. Within that, there’s quite a bit of dynamics, which is one of the things I love about being live guy, rather than someone who records. I get to mix dynamically, and there are portions of the show that are 90 dB for three or four minutes and moments of 103/104.”
Linkin Monitors
Ruling over in the band’s monitorworld is Kevin “Tater” McCarthy, a veteran who began working at Showco 27 years ago. One of McCarthy’s high-school friends from his native Detroit moved to Texas and as “a joke” wandered over to Showco, applied for a job and to his surprise — was hired. “A few months later, he said he could get me a job there, so I went down and started working at Showco. That was 1987 — and I’m still working in the industry.”
McCarthy’s “Tater” nickname came from his OCD-like attention to detail — probably a good thing for a touring monitor engineer. “I’m pretty adamant about how my world gets set up,” he explains. “Everything, every cable has to be set up exactly the same. So in my early Showco days, they started calling me ‘The Dictator,’ which got shortened to ‘Tater.’” Longevity is also in the cards for McCarthy — he’s been working with Van Druten for 12 years, eight of which have been with Linkin Park.
And like Van Druten, McCarthy is not afraid to invest in his career. “Everything at front of house — including the snake that comes to me — is owned by Pooch. And everything from that snake that’s on stage is mine — wedges, amps, monitor electronics.” Also in his bag of tricks are Adamson M12 wedges and SX18 side fills — all with Lab.gruppen PLM10000 powering. “We’ve been using Adamson for a while, and the band likes them,” he adds, while he’s also a fan of Radial Engineering, who made “all of our interconnect — stage cabling, stage boxes, iso transformers, DI’s and everything.”
A key part of McCarthy’s package was his acquisition of a DiGiCo SD7. He was initially attracted to the sound quality — which he describes as “phenomenal,” and the board’s 128-input capability, but as a bonus, also found the learning curve to be straightforward. “It’s a very complex console and I learn to do something new on it every day,” he says, “ but it’s also very user friendly and from the day we unpacked it, I went right into using it.”
Multiple Mixes
“I have nine mono speaker mixes and 10 stereo in-ear mixes for the six guys in the band. It’s a lot of mixes with a lot of stuff going on and mixes have gotten more complex over the eight years I’ve been with them.”
The entire band is on in-ears, except for guitar player Brad [Delson]. “All the wedges and side fills are for him,” McCarthy says. “We’ve tried asking him to switch, but he wears earplugs with gun muffs over those, and over the years, he’s learned to hear and listen that way. He doesn’t want to change, and I don’t blame him.” In terms of stage levels, “it’s actually pretty quiet onstage. Brad like his wedges crystal clear and not too loud.”
Setting Up
Linkin Park never sound checks. There’s a line check, followed by the backline techs playing a song and then the crew is done until showtime. There is a fair amount of recording with every show. “I record the band every night and can use that for references,” McCarthy states. “I take the MADI out on the SG7 and into Waves MGB’s [DigiGrid MADI interfaces] and use Reaper software to record. It’s very simple.” Out at FOH, Van Druten is also capturing shows using MGB’s for main and a backup recordings — also to Reaper.
Essential to the monitor operation is monitor tech/wireless coordinator Paul White. “Paul is my assistant and essentially does everything from the monitor desk on out,” McCarthy adds. “I set up monitorworld and he does the mics, the wedges, gets the multi’s and stage power out, and then works on wireless, getting all the frequencies coordinated for all the bands. With the backline, we’re probably running 40 frequencies or so; 30 Seconds To Mars is another 20-some and AFI has another 10 or 15, so its a big job. All the in-ear hardware is Shure PSM-1000’s, with Sennheiser 2000-series for the mics.” Sound like a big job to me.
The Systems Approach
In charge of all the out-front gear (P.A., interconnects and FOH setups) is systems engineer/FOH tech Vic Wagner — who also did all the photography for this article.
“I fly the P.A.; I shoot the room every day; figure out rigging and the inter-box angles; subwoofer placements and arrays; and once it’s all up I tune it and turn the house over to Pooch,” says Wagner. “I also maintain all of Pooch’s equipment. For redundancy on this tour, we have an ‘A’ rig and an identical ‘B’ rig, both with an SD7 and the same house racks. Pooch owns all the ‘A’ rig gear and Sound Image rents the ‘B’ rig to the band. We use the ‘B’ rig both as backup and for one-offs and rehearsals and when the ‘A’ rig is being transported overseas.”
Sound Image has a huge inventory of JBL VTX systems and Crown I-Tech 12000HD amps. Speaking of the latter, Wagner says “the Crown amps have lot of headroom; they’re great for this show — not because it’s so loud, but we’re using every frequency from 20 Hz to 20k and we need that headroom for the kind of dynamics of the band and the depth of Pooch’s mix.”
The mains consists of JBL VTX V25’s hangs for the mains and auxes — along with VTX side hangs in Europe — and flown JBL S28 subs and G28 ground subs. Each hang has up to 16 boxes, depending on the venue and configuration.
“We’re flying the V25’s in a 1:1 ratio to the S28’s. So for every 15-inch driver in the V25’s, there’s an 18-inch driver behind it,” says Wagner regarding his technique. “I think it gives the P.A. a very studio monitor kind of feel and the subs become an extension of the P.A. We also have ground stack subs directly in front of the pit area. Having 16 subs in the air — 70 feet apart — creates two huge monoblock subs and a tremendous power alley. Combining these with the ground subs, I can time-align the power alley away, so more energy is spread evenly across the audience plane. It’s also a double-edged sword, because it creates a lot of LF energy we have to control — especially in arenas — but I have enough prediction software and measurement tools on place to optimize it for everyone in the crowd.”
Another of Wagner’s interesting approaches concerns pit fills. “I have VT 4886 boxes for pit fills — they’re hung off a lighting truss about halfway between the main hang and the center about 18 feet above the stage — and a handful of extras for spots/front fills. That’s something that’s really cool and unique about this tour — it provides excellent coverage in the pit because you sometimes can’t stack front fills high enough, and with a big mosh pit, the front fills don’t project beyond the first two or three rows on people standing in the front. Flying the pit fills is an awesome way to keep coverage consistent in that area.”
Regarding measurement tools, Wagner relies on Rational Acoustics Smaart Version 7.5, especially with its new RT60 and waterfall chart functions. For system tuning, “I’m using Harman JBL Performance Manager — it’s cool and gives me time alignment, EQ and level adjustments as well as creating groups and zones within the P.A. I can also set the spacing of the ground subs within Performance Manager. The software offers me feedback on any issues — to see voltages and peak and RMS inputs and outputs of the amps, impedance checks on all the drivers.”
But the bottom line comes down to reliability and performance — both of which have been well tested on this tour — and versatility is also important. “We built the system to be flexible. We’re playing so many types of venues on this tour that it’s hard to have any consistent configuration,” Wagner explains. “We’re doing arenas, sheds and baseball stadiums. Some days, I hang all 16 boxes/side; some days I only hang nine boxes. Next up, we’re doing arena tours in Europe with the same P.A., rehearsing in late October and performing in November. Then shows in Brazil and there’s some talk of another U.S. arena tour in January.” That’s a whole lot of logistics, work and miles to cover.
The Other Crew: 30STM
Too often, tour articles skip over the supporting acts and crew. Jay Rigby — who mixes FOH for both 30 Seconds To Mars (30SFM) and AFI — leads a team that has earned a nod.
“We were initially thinking about doing 30 Seconds and AFI on the same desks,” says Rigby, “but with the super-quick set changes and trying to interface one sound company’s stuff into another’s stuff could get complicated — also that Midas XL4 I use for 30 Seconds at FOH is completely filled up.” So given that and a need to save truck space, he mixes AFI on a Midas PRO2c.
Fortunately, one thing that doesn’t change between sets is the VTX mains rig. “It’s been good. JBL really sorted things out with development of the VTX rig and our shows have been great-sounding and super-consistent. The VTX has definitely been a game changer for JBL.” However, Rigby is quick to thank all his support crew, including system engineer Wagner. “Vic Wagner has been amazing, getting the P.A. to sound great in some of the worst sounding sheds out there,” he adds.
Obviously different bands require different approaches. 30SFM vocalist Jared Leto uses a Shure UHR-R wireless with the new KSM9 hypercardioid capsule. “The mic itself really sounds nice on his voice and it really keeps the drum bleed out of the mic. Jared cups the mic quite a bit and even with that, you don’t get as much cupping effect as you would with a cardioid pattern” Rigby says. “That signal comes directly into the XL4 and inserted into his vocal is an Empirical Labs Distressor and an XTA D2 multiband compressor, which is a lot like the old BSS DPR-901’s. That combo works great.”
Monitor engineer for 30SFM Francois Paré takes the lead vocal into an API Channel Strip — and routes that into a 96-channel Avid Profile. “Francois — a phenomenal engineer — normally mixes on an SD7, but came into the tour during late pre-production with the Profile and took it from there. Also, we occasionally play in some obscure places, and you can always find a Profile anywhere in the world,” Rigby explains.
“Another great engineer,” Rigby adds, “is AFI’s monitor guy Casey McDonald,” who mixes on an Avid SC48. AFI vocalist Davey Havok sings into an Audix OM7, which “works pretty well. He cups the mic a lot and thrashes the mic pretty hard, throwing it into the pit and that mic takes a beating. The mic signal goes straight in the PRO2 and I have another Distressor patched into that channel, followed by an onboard dynamic multiband EQ.”
Three bands, three different sounds, but one thing that doesn’t change much is house SPL levels. “I try to keep the mix around 102 or 103 dBA, Rigby explains. “Pooch and I decided that we’d do this entire tour with a 102 dB A-weighted average out front. In my opinion, 102 dB is really a comfortable place to be for a rock show.”
Sound Companies
Sound Image (mains, FOH “B” system, monitors and consoles for AFI)
Eighth Day Sound (monitors and consoles for 30STM)
Audio Crew
FOH Engineers: Ken “Pooch” Van Druten (Linkin Park);
Jay Rigby (30STM, AFI)
Systems Engineer: Vic Wagner (also FOH tech for Linkin Park)
FOH Tech: Krysten Dean (30STM)
Monitor Engineers: Kevin “Tater” McCarthy (LP); Francois Paré (30STM); Casey McDonald (AFI)
Monitor Tech: Paul White (LP)
Audio Crew Chiefs: John Leary (main system); Chris Hall (30STM)
PA Techs: Nathan Payne; Scott Taylor (main system)
Production Manager: Jim Digby (Linkin Park)
P.A. System (size varies by venue)
Main: (56) JBL VTX V25 (2×16 main, 2×12 side arrays)
Subs: (32) VTX S28 flown; (18) VTX G28 ground stacked
Front/Down-fills: (14) VT4886
Amps: Crown I-Tech 12000HD
FOH Gear
Consoles: (2) DiGiCo SD7 (Linkin Park); Midas XL4 (30STM);
Midas PRO2c (AFI)
Outboard: Bricasti M7 reverbs, Empirical Labs Distressors; XTA D2
Digital Clocking: Antelope Audio Isochrone 10M
System Software: JBL Performance Manager; Rational Acoustics Smaart 7.5.
Recording Chain: Waves MGB interfaces into Reaper software.
Monitor Gear
Consoles: DiGiCo SD7 (Linkin Park); Avid Profile (30STM);
Avid SC48 (AFI)
Wedges: Adamson M12 wedges and SX18 side fills
Amps: Lab.gruppen PLM10000
IEMs: Shure PSM1000’s
Interconnects: Radial Engineering
