Sound Company
House-supplied
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
- FOH Engineer/Tour Manager: Dave Dupuis
- Monitor Engineer: Chris Gray
Gear
FOH
- Console: House-supplied
- Outboard: Varies, but typically Drawmer DS404 Gates (for drums) and dbx 160A (instruments and vocals). For reverbs: TC Electronic M-One, Lexicon PCM 70 or 80 (plates), Yamaha SPX Series (drum reverbs). For delays: TC Electronic D2, Roland RE 201 Space Echo; Eventide Time Factor, Space, H9
- Processing/Plugins: Waves H9, C6 (when available).
MON
- Consoles: Behringer X32/Midas M32
- Wireless: Sennheiser G3, G4 (IEM & transmitters)
- Mics: Shure UR4D; Shure SM58 and sE V7 capsules (vocals); Shure KSM32, Shure SM57 (guitar amp mics); Heil PR40 (bass amp mics). Drums mics: Shure Beta 91, Shure Beta 52 (kick drum), Shure Beta 57, Audio-Technica ATM450 (snare), Sennheiser 904 or sE V beats (toms), Shure SM81 or Audio-Technica ATM450 (hi-hats), Shure KSM 32 (overheads)
Tour Details
Although best known for his 1980s hit, “Cars,” Gary Numan’s 40-plus-year musical journey includes a wide array of music beyond synth pop. For his 2023 tour, in support of his 19th album, Intruder, Numan is supported by Dave Dupuis at FOH and Chris Gray at monitors. Along with his FOH mixing duties, Dupuis wears many hats and brings along show files that work with house-provided consoles, noting a particular preference for Avid Venue desks. With a streamlined input list, he also relishes the chance to mix on analog consoles for the few old-school venues where those are still available.
More details from Steve Jennings:
It can be said that Gary Numan is a mixture of Synth-pop, Electronica, New Wave, Industrial Rock… what he really is a force on stage with a band that rocks! Known for the classic 80’s song “Cars” that reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart, but he is much more than that, changing musical directions and here 40 years later still exciting fans at his shows and bringing new music to the stage with his nineteenth studio album “Intruder” released in 2021. We got a chance to speak to FOH Engineer Dave Dupuis about mixing the tour.
Dave Dupuis says he is not touring with a console on this tour and rarely has in the past on “standard” tours with Gary Numan or others. In addition to FOH, he is also typically the Tour Manager, Production Manager, and on Numan tours facilitates meet and greets in the afternoon which can go over two hours… especially in the UK. “Time being a hot commodity, I typically use house consoles. Most acts I’m touring with are at the level that the console will be one of the major digital desks all of which I have files for. If not, one of those brands I’m well enough versed in to knock up a mix quickly. Sound is the fun part of my day, wrestling with a mixer for a few minutes to get a mix up is fun. If a venue or tour requires me to hire in full production, my desk of choice has always been AVID. I’m an old fan of the Profile mainly for ease of use and the playability of the faders. I’m a really active mixer and am used to that throw of the Digi faders.”
Dupuis says he’s still a big analog fan, saying Analog consoles are very far and few between but it’s always a pleasure to mix on. “I tip my hat to those venues keeping them going; First Ave in Minneapolis, The Fillmore and Bimbos 365 Club in San Francisco to name a few that I hit on my last couple of tours in the US. When I first started touring most venues were still using analog desks with the occasional venue transitioning to digital. Being the sound nerd and gear nut that I am, I was definitely open to digital when I first started seeing them, “comps and gates on every channel and no dodgy insert cables to worry about? I’m in!” That said the learning curve on some of the earlier digital desks was a little steep especially when you were walking into a venue for a one-off doing sound for the support band with 13 minutes to soundcheck and no one even at the venue really knew had to use them. Considering all the fly dates and festivals, as it stands today digital consoles are a godsend and they do sound good. Where a certain console might lack that’s what EQ is for and why they pay us the big bucks.”
With Gary Numan I keep the input list down to 32 channels in our normal rock set up, notes Dupuis. “This is largely because everyone is on IEM’s and it’s a requirement to tour with a monitor desk. Keeping it to 32 inputs allows us to carry one or the small format bang for your buck digital consoles for monitors. That means sometimes getting creative when we have special guests exceeding 32 inputs, but between our awesome stage team we always make it work.”
Dupuis says, because of the relatively low input list he admits he’s been fantasizing a lot about taking an analog desk out on tour lately for FOH. “With Gary I tend to keep things simple- a small rack with a handful of gates, comps, a couple good reverbs, a tap delay and potentially a few channels of EQ is all I need. Would love to see it happen but I think for now it is a fantasy, weight is always such a big issue on bus and trailer tours, another few road cases means we’d have to sacrifice some lights or other stuff.”
High pass filters are Dupuis’ best friend he says. “I high pass anything that isn’t needed and then just use creative EQ’ing so I can push what I need to get the volume and impact without hurting the ears of the audience. Depending on the system I’m mixing, during the gig I’m often adjusting the high pass on keyboard channels and other low end sources to keep enough low end in the mix but not so much to confuse the punch.
“My goal and personal inspiration since I was a kid listening to music and playing in bands has been to create a massive wall of sound to engulf the room so the audience member can be ‘in” the sound, in the room, while hanging onto their hats when it gets a little wild. In accomplishing that every sound source needs to find its place, be loud and impactful but not hurtful. As I mentioned before I am very much an active mixer, I always have a finger on the main vocal fader while constantly riding faders on channels and DCA’s, mixing what is needed out of the instrumentation keeping the vocals in the sweet spot. To make sure that vocals can always be heard at louder volumes I always ring out the house with the main affected vocal first before anything else and often leave it hot on stage while checking other lines and build my mix around that EQ curve.
“Mixing, it’s all about the ears. Don’t be bothered how wild your EQ curve may look on the screen; it’s about how it sounds. In terms of the L/R graph or EQ, never be afraid to use it if you need to, even if it’s the “perfectly tuned” room the house person says, it wasn’t tuned for your mix! Use the L/R EQ to tame the problems in the room out and/or use it to your advantage.”
Dupuis is not touring with plugins at the moment with Numan, just the standard things that come with the different digital consoles. “I’m not carrying a console, so I don’t bother with plug-ins and finicky authorizations or fx engines on house desks, variables I don’t have time or want to deal with. If I were carrying a digital console, I would throw the Waves H9 Delay in my rack as well as a C6 and maybe a few of the CLA comps and something to add harmonic distortion. It would be amazing to tour with a UAD (Universal Audio) set up live. I’ve been in bed with Universal Audio’s digital products at my studio since they came out and love them all. That said, when not touring with a console and limited time in the day the stock comps, gates, verbs and delays in most digital consoles do a great job especially if you know what you’re looking for. Spending a few moments EQ’ing the returns and messing with FX parameters to get what you’re looking for goes a long way.”
The rig is only as good as the system tech, notes Dupuis- says he’s been lucky most of the time to have a good team. “Last year at Wembley and other bigger shows in the UK we had a D&B rig all around and it was truly awesome. A few years back I had a Martin rig that went around with us for some shows, also awesome and articulate.”
Dupuis has been with Gary Numan now for 10 years this fall, and says time flies, especially when you tour as much as he does. “Before and also while I have been with Gary I’ve gone out to do FOH for Dhani Harrison, DIIV, Silversun Pickups, Swervedriver, The Duke Spirit, Peter Murphy…and the list goes on.” Dupuis also produces and tours with his own bands, usually singing and playing guitar. “Currently my band is called Nightmare Air before that Film School. Being constantly active on both sides of the stage has been a huge asset over the years, understanding what and how it’s like to perform on all the varying types of stages and rooms gives massive insight on how to make the artist you’re working with comfortable and able to perform at their best.”
For Numan’s vocals, Dupuis is using a Shure wireless UR4D transmitter and handhelds. “For that first 8 years with Gary I had a stock 58 capsule on ther, which I loved and was forgiving for Gary’s wild show and stage moves where he isn’t always directly on the mic. Last year our monitor engineer Chris Gray brought a SE V7 to rehearsal and we A/B it to the 58 and it sounded basically the same for our application. The V7 has a black grill with red accents which match the colors of the album and Gary’s stage look so it was a no brainer to give it a shot and it has since remained.”
When Dupuis started working with the Numan’s camp, he got annoyed at how much it was costing to rent wireless gear, so he put together an IEM fly rig with 8 mixes of Sennheiser G3’s and a collapsible Helical Antenna, the RF Venue CP Beam. “After 100’s of shows the G3’s are now being upgraded by G4’s. For the beating they get those packs have had worthy lives.”
Dupuis says it’s all about the crew and managing a staff, carrying a positive attitude and mutual respect. “Stuff goes wrong on tour ALL THE TIME. When you’re traveling non-stop around the world, problems and issues are inevitable. With good attitudes, professional experience and hopefully friendship all odds can be overcome. First and formost above all is to keep in tune with your personal mental well-being and try to take a moment to think about it each day. Aim to enjoy your work and remember how you ended up on tour in the first place. When your mind goes sour so does the energy, the vibe of the team around you and also your mix!”
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