While plenty of artists are doing tours based on performing an entire hit album, it seems a bit unusual that Peter Gabriel is doing one. Then again, So, released in 1986, is a juggernaut in the annals of pop that landed in that rare sweet spot: the intersection of Popular Hit Boulevard and Critically Acclaimed Alley.
Skippering the front of house mix is Ben Findlay, who is ambidextrous audio-wise: as good on the road as he is in the studio. “I’m not really completely happy with any live mix I do,” he laments. “You go in excited about the great potential [of a live show], and then you spend your time fixing things you’re not quite happy about, trying to manage the chaos, and by the end of the show you think it could have gone better!”
But it’s the ying and yang of his career. “Mixing in the studio would not be enjoyable without also mixing live. I love the spontaneity of the live mix, the sense of camaraderie that happens on the road.”
Speaking of live versus studio, on the recent European legs of this sell-out tour, a company associated with studio mixers, Solid State Logic, has created a board for the road. Now three are on this tour.
Findlay, from Back to Front
Findlay chatted with FRONT of HOUSE from his home in Frome, England and revealed that, like many who end up in this biz, his aspirations to be a professional musician were stymied, but not his desire to be part of “conveying music to people.” Along the way he built stages and even milked some cows. Somewhere in there he also started a small sound company. “Then I realized that for me the closest thing to actually playing is mixing, and that is what I resolved to do.
“In the 1980s, there were almost no accessible technical courses to train you to work in the industry, so instead I followed my nose,” Findlay says. “I made a promise to myself that, every day, I would take some action, no matter how small — make a phone call, read a technical article, network with a friend — I would do something to move my career forward.”
Findlay’s resume includes luminaries such as Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Yusuf (Cat Stevens), and Sting. “A highlight for me was the opportunity to mix a live broadcast for Sir Paul McCartney in Sao Paulo a couple of years ago. To be honest, as I hear myself say this I find it hard to believe it’s me I’m talking about!” He’s also got a Grammy nomination under his belt and a TEC Award on his shelf.
All this was made possible by a couple of key people in life, including Dave “Dave T” Taraskevics. They met during the production of Bugsy Malone when Taraskevics was already working with Gabriel, which lead to some studio work. Findlay was as shocked as anyone when Taraskevics called later, asking if he’d mix monitors for Van Morrison. “I went along to that gig, didn’t get fired, and basically never left the business.”
In 2003, Findlay was working as a freelance studio engineer with Gabriel among other clients, and when there was an opening for an FOH engineer, “Peter asked if I would take on the role. Terrified, I said yes, and amazingly… I didn’t get fired.”
25th Anniversary
“This show is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of So and features all the original band members who played on the So tour from 1986-88,” Findlay says.
The show is divided into three sections. It begins with an acoustic set, with Gabriel on piano. House lights are left on to give that rehearsal vibe. Gabriel, always theatrical, has explained that the show is like a dinner party: The acoustic set is the starter, the main course is a selection of songs from various parts of his career and then, as he puts it, “if you get through all that, you get your pudding — the album So, played from top to bottom.” This long-running tour first started in North America in 2012 and continues in Europe throughout 2014.
But what’s very new this time out is the Solid State Logic Live console that’s being used on the recent legs. “SSL has previously made consoles exclusively for studio and broadcast purposes, but with this project, they started with a blank piece of paper with the intention of creating a live board,” he explains, adding it’s been designed by Enrique Perez Gonzalez.
Gabriel today is sole owner of Solid State Logic, which Findlay points out makes perfect sense. “Peter has always had a fascination with technology and is not afraid to put his money where his mouth is. He bought his first Fairlight CMI II in 1982 and fitted his Ashcombe Studio with the then revolutionary SSL 4000 E console. When he built his Real World studio in 1987, all the rooms were fitted with SSLs. Also around that time he invested in a project to develop what was then a highly advanced two-track hard disk editor with a touch screen.”
Findlay is frank when discussing the inevitable early challenges. “The record for the early incarnations of digital consoles is not exactly unblemished and, despite SSL’s good name, this was a completely new project, so we were apprehensive, suspicious, and sometimes downright hostile.” Gabriel’s studio and monitor mix engineer Richard Chappell and Findlay spent a couple of days a week for three months with SSL’s Jason Kelly and Tomas Wise learning the architecture of the console, and figuring out the most effective way to build the show. “We didn’t experience any glitches as such, but because we were working on an early incarnation of the operating software, there was sometimes a lack of functionality.”
When they started, there were no templates to build from, so everything had to be programmed. “I think now SSL will have had time to develop starting templates which will speed setup times. I am hoping that most of the annoyances I experienced were as a result of early generation OS, and I am hoping that a lot of those issues will be resolved by version two when it comes out later this month.”
The Whole Package
Today, Findlay loves the way the console sounds. He says the 64-bit internal processing and 96 kHz sample rate makes it impossible to overload internally. “You can’t get it to clip,” he says happily. “This has the effect of making mixes very understandable. The masking effect is reduced, so you can have elements low in the mix and they are still perfectly audible. The fader management is infinitely flexible, you can put any fader on any panel and on any layer of that panel.”
Even better, throughout the tour, it did not crash — didn’t even blink. “Stability is everything for a live desk, and this has it in spades. We even repeatedly pulled the power to try and break it, but it just kept coming back.”
He says the board makes mixing easier, and there’s lots of separation and clarity. “The EQ is musical, never harsh, and the dynamics are transparent, even when compressing a signal hard. The mixes come together quickly when starting from scratch. Because the audio is clearly defined, you have more options regarding relative levels, so elements of a mix that may normally be masked with another console are still clearly audible. This leads to accomplishing the often-illusive third dimension to a mix that live engineers strive for — and that is a real sense of depth. I am now at the stage where I am sure I would miss Live if I had to revert to my previous system.”
Chappell uses one just to mix what Gabriel hears. “Peter is very particular about his in-ear mix. It is a constantly evolving thing, and because of his work in the studio. It also means that [monitor engineer] Dee Miller has more time for all the band members.”
Outputs are going to the L-Acoustic K1 system for both front and side hangs. Mics include Audix, Shure and Sennheiser.
The drums have always been key to Gabriel’s sound, and on Katché’s Yamaha kit, Findlay has put an Audix mic package. Overhead, he has Audix SCX25s; on the toms, he has D4s; and for the next run, unhappy with what he was using, he’ll be using the i5s on the snare — he just did a session with them and was “really happy with the way they made the drum sound.” Shure Beta 52a’s and Beta 91a’s are in the kick drum.
About those SCX25s: “I was working with Jeff Beck, and he had specified those lollipop mics for overhead. [Audix co-founder] Cliff [Castle] supplied the package, and at the end, he calls me and says, ‘Ben, can we talk about arranging to get those back,’ and I said, ‘yeah we could talk about that, but I was thinking I’d just keep them’ [laughs]. They are really fantastic.”
Also being put to work on this tour is the Sonnox Oxford EQ with the GML Option plug-in. Findlay says that the Sonnox Inflator plug-in is his secret weapon, a tool he uses primarily on Gabriel’s vocal channel that adds a presence that dominates the mix. He adds it’s effective in bringing extra life to the drum bus, too, and David Rhodes’ acoustic guitar.
And most of all, there’s that voice. “Peter has a lot of body in his voice, so it’s a matter of how much you take out as opposed to how much you put in,” Findlay says. “Dee [Miller] and I have discussed this at length, and have different opinions about where to put the filter, but I don’t like to take out too much. I put it quite low, at about 50 Hertz. In general, I can’t stand that area between 200 and 250 Hertz, but you just take a little out and you don’t have to change the brightness. It seems like it got brighter just by taking a little of that frequency out. Of course you have to have something below that, or it sounds thin.”
Nothing thin sounding about this tour leg, which kicked off in Frankfurt late last month and — after dates in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Sweden and Norway — wraps up in Berlin at the end of this month.
Peter Gabriel “Back to Front Tour” (European Leg)
Crew
FOH Engineer: Ben Findlay
Monitor Engineer (Gabriel): Richard Chapel
Monitor Engineer (band): Dee Miller
System Tech: Adam Smith
Production Manager: Gary Trew
Tour Manager: Dave Taraskevics
Sound Co: Britannia Row
Gear
FOH
Console: Solid State Logic Live (L500)
Speakers: L/R Hang: L-Acoustics K1; Side Hang: L-Acoustics K1
Outboard: Bricasti M7 and Quantec Yardstick reverbs, Line 6 Echo Pro,
SansAmp PSA-1, Roland Dimension D.
Plug-ins: Onboard console DSP, Sonnox Oxford EQ with GML option, Sonnox Inflator.
Recording: Avid Pro Tools loaded with a Universal Audio UAD-2 Quad card for processing.
MON
Consoles: (2) Solid State Logic Live (L500)
Mics: Audix, Sennheiser, Shure.
