Sound Company
Britannia Row Productions
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
- FOH Engineer: John “J3” Allen III
- Monitor Engineer: Josh Lemke
- Stage Manager/Tech: Evan Potter
- Tour & Production Manager: Jesse Mancillas
Gear
FOH
Console: Allen & Heath dLive S5000 w/Waves SoundGrid v3 card, DM64 MixRack, DX32 Expander w/PRIME i/o cards
In-console Effects/Plugins: MultiBD4 and DYNEQ4, Source Expander, Stereo Tap Delay; Comps: BUS, Opto, Mighty, 16T, 16VU, OptTronik, PeakLimiter76
Outboard Effects/Plugins: Analog Hardware: Manley VariMu Limiter, API 2500+ Compressor (w/Tunable Edison Short Fuse 10″ from Third Rail Electric), Buzz Audio SOC-M Optical Mastering Compressor, Q2 Audio Compex F765, JLM Audio LA500, Rupert Neve Primary Source Enhancer, Lake LM44 System Processor, APC UPS, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface for RTA, Earthworks M30 measurement mic, Lenovo tablet running Lake Controller and Smaart 9 software, Sonnet RackMacMini with 2020 Mac Mini M1 running Reaper for virtual soundcheck @96K and Live Professor 2 plugin host running snapshotted time-based FX including the following native plugins: Oxford Inflator, TR5 Sunset Sound Studios Reverb, Valhalla VintageVerb, Eventide SP2016 Reverb, Eventide H910 Harmonizer, Reel ADT2V Live, UAD Studio D Chorus, TC Electronic 2290 Delay, PSP 2445 Plate Reverb, Abbey Road Plates
Speakers: Typically house-provided. Festival preferences: Mains: (16) L-Acoustics K1 or d&b GSL12; Side Hangs: (12) L-Acoustics K2 or d&b KSL12; Stage Stacks: L-Acoustics ARCS; Floor Subs: (24) L-Acoustics KS28 or d&b SL-GSUB; Front Fills: L-Acoustics Kara II or d&b v8
MON
Console: Allen & Heath dLive S5000, DM64 MixRack
Speakers: Preferences – (6) L-Acoustics X15 HiQ or d&b M2 wedges, with additional flown L-Acoustics K2 or stacked ARCS for Luke Spiller’s side fills (vocals only)
IEM’s & Transmitters: Shure PSM1000, Shure PA821 Combiner, Shure P10R+ bodypacks, Helical Antenna
Event and Gear Details
FRONT of HOUSE caught British rock band The Struts on one of their more intimate shows, playing the famous Fillmore in San Francisco. Always energetic and fun on stage, the band bring back that great 70’s influenced rock vibe while keeping it up to date. They’re out in support of a great new studio album, Pretty Vicious that came out towards the end of 2023. We got a quick chat with the bands FOH Engineer, John “J3” Allen.
“Lead singer Luke Spiller is strictly old school, using wedges and sidefills on a hardwire sE V7 Chrome microphone,” notes John “J3” Allen. “For guitarist Adam Slack, we have a 3 amp/4 mic guitar setup using both an sE DCM8 and a Heil PR30 on a Solo Dallas SD50x head into Marshall 4×12, a TUL G12 on a Magnatone Super59 M80 head into Magnatone 4×12, and a sE/Hohner HarpBlaster on a Magnatone Starlite combo,” with an sE 4400a on Slacks’ pedalboard as an ambient stage mic for his in-ears. An sE8 is used on Jed Elliot’s Aguilar Bass cabinet. “For drummer Gethin Davies, we have a Sennheiser e901 for our Kick-In mic, combined with an sE V-Kick for kick-out. His snare top is a beyerdynamic M201, then on snare bottom, 2 racks, 16″ floor and cowbell are sE V-Beats. His 18″ floor tom is an sE V-Kick, cymbal mics are Sennheiser e614. Then audience mics for ears and record are Sennheiser MKH416.”
The band play various size venues. While usually using the in-house PA, Allen likes to see the following for a festival PA package: 16 x L-Acoustics K1 or d&b audiotechnik GSL12 for Main Hangs, 12 x L-Acoustics K2 or d&b audiotechnik KSL12 for Side Hangs, L-Acoustics ARCS for stage stacks, 24 L-Acoustics KS28 or d&b audiotechnik SL-GSUB for Floor Subs, L-Acoustics Kara II or d&b audiotechnik V8 for Front Fills, then 6 x L-Acoustics X15 HiQ or d&b audiotechnik M2 wedges. Adding some flown L-Acoustics K2’s or stacked ARCS for Luke’s Side Fills which are vocals only.
