Sound Company
Worley Sound
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
- FOH Engineer: John “J3” Allen
- Monitor Engineer: Zachary Bair
- Tour Manager: Zach Fulton
- Production & Stage Manager/Backline Tech: Dwight Stannard
- Lighting Director: Carlos Katsurayama
Gear
FOH
- Console: DiGiCo Quantum 225 Pulse
- In-console Effects/Plugins: DiGiCo Mustard Comps, EQ and Gates, Spice Rack Naga 6 and Chilli 6, SD DynEQ, SD De-esser
- Outboard Plugins: (Live Professor Plugin Host via Soundgrid) Oxford Inflator, FrontDAW, SSL Vintage Drive, SSL X-EQ2, IK Sunset Sound Reverb, Valhalla VintageVerb, Eventide SP2016, WaveAlchemy GLOW, Eventide H910 Harmonizer, Reel ADT2V Live, UAD Studio D Chorus, TC Electronic 2290 Delay, PSP 2445 Plate, Abbey Road Plates
- Outboard Rack Effects: DiGiCo SD-Nano Rack, Rupert Neve R10 500 Rack, Radial Workhorse 500 Rack, (2) Q2 Audio F765, (2) RN535, (2) JLM LA500A, (2) Tonelux TX5C, Serpent SB4001 —500 Series Compressors, TheBrat EQ, Rupert Neve 545 PSE, Rupert Neve 5045 PSE, Buzz Audio SOC-M Mastering Compressor
- FOH Processing: Reaper 7 DAW for virtual soundcheck and show archiving via Soundgrid Network, Mac-hosted LiveProfessor VST Plugin Host via Soundgrid Network, Lake LM44 System Controller with Lake Controller Software, Earthworks M30 mic + Smaart v9 for RTA and SPL measurement, IK Multimedia iLoud MTM Nearfields
- Speakers: The band is mainly using house P.A.’s. Preferred speaker setup – Main Hangs: (6) d&b KSL12 or J12, Side Hangs: (6) d&b KSL8 or J-8, Subs: (8) d&b SL-GSUB or d&b J-INFRA, Front Fills: d&b V8, Side Fills: d&b V8 over VSUB, Wedges: (4) d&b M4
MON
- Console: DiGiCo Quantum 225 Pulse
- In-Console Effects/Plugins: Hall and Plate Reverbs, Naga 6. No Mustard Processing
- Outboard Rack Effects/Plugins: Rupert Neve 5045
- Stage Rack: DiGiCo SD Rack running 32 Bit Input and Output Cards + AES cards
- MON Processing: ProTools Ultimate for virtual soundcheck, Wireless Workbench 7, Shure AD600
- IEMs/Transmitters/Receivers: PSM1000’s with P10R+ packs, Shure ULXD4D, JH Audio Roxanne, Westone ES60
- Vocal Mics: sE Electronics V7 and V7 Chrome
Mastering the Mix
For FRONT of HOUSE’s “Showtime,” photojournalist Steve Jennings caught up with The Struts audio engineers John “J3” Allen (FOH) and Zachary Bair (Monitors), to get a few words about the tour. The band is led by Luke Spiller (vocals, piano), Adam Slack (guitars), Jed Elliott (bass) and Gethin Davies (drums), on tour supporting their fourth studio album Pretty Vicious.
FOH Engineer John “J3” Allen has been mixing for The Struts for nine years now, having been in music since the mid-1980s as a touring guitarist, singer and songwriter, it’s greatly informed how he mixes, as did 10 years as a house engineer and double that as a recording engineer/producer.
For Allen, he says the switch from analog to digital gear was a huge change, basically having to relearn things about how consoles and audio systems operate if you came up analog. “Suddenly everything is on a screen, in a menu, in a preference setting, probably not attached to a dedicated knob or fader. While I am still surrounded by screens at FOH I have minimized as much as possible, how distracting they are to my job as a mixer. For years I found myself digging into plugin parameters, staring at meters, tweaking things in my rack, and realized I’m not paying attention to the band.”
After using everything under the sun, Allen says he has removed all outboard plugin processing from his channels, groups and outputs, for reliability, latency and attention-stealing reasons. “It has cleaned up my mix considerably, as well as simplified my life! All group dynamics are done in my analog 500 Rack or on the console itself. My only plugins are time-based FX running in Live Professor, organized in snapshots per-song and triggered from the Quantum 225’s Snapshots via Midi over a Widimaster Wireless Midi Interface into my M2 Mac.”
Allen uses virtual soundcheck in Reaper for many reasons but says it’s unbeatable for tweaking FX when you aren’t mixing the show, and easily updated on the fly. “Soundcheck intensity and show intensity are wildly different and our singer doesn’t soundcheck, saving that energy for the almost two-hour show. A huge reason to pre-program FX is that I barely ever look at them again, unless the band plays a song without click, then I can time up my TC 2290 delay settings manually [I am a proud owner of a real one since the 90s]. I’m pretty sneaky with it but I make heavy use of the 2290 for delay on guitar and lead vocal [a holdover from my club days] is running the same delay for guitar and lead vocal, and I have the Q225’s Macros programmed to toggle the aux send from either channel if I only want one or the other, or both. The 2290 return is on its own Control Group fader, and I ride it all night. Which I pretty much do with everything. Nothing in my mix is automated other than the time-based FX, so I am hand mixing 12 Control Groups like a maniac, which is the real fun of it.” Allen says he is definitely not a “static” mixer.
“There are some absolutely wild dynamic swings during the show, sometimes going as far as turning the PA off with just Luke singing, or Luke in front of the P.A. with the Neve 5045 turned way down for sing-alongs. Calling The Struts show ‘guitar heavy’ would be an understatement. I employ some tricks to reproduce Adam Slack’s great tones, starting with a great rig. Three amps with four microphones that are panned into 2 stereo pairs that I then manually mute throughout the show for dynamics and to resize the guitar in the mix. Phase is crucial and we spend time getting that right.”
“For mics, we have an sE DSM8 and Heil PR30 on the Marshall 4×12, TUL G12 on the Magnatone 4×12 and a sE/Hohner HarpBlaster on the tiny Magnatone Starlighter. Fat Pair, Fat Mono and Honky as well. Those mics hit a group where they drive the 2290 Delay and Reel ADT2V [for chorus], as well as hit 2 JLM500A Opto Comps as a stereo pair. I will push guitar solos and really the whole band, hard in dynamic sections while keeping Luke Spiller above the fray. Luke is truly the best and most consistently “on” singer I have ever mixed and certainly makes my job easy! Mics by sE Electronics cover the whole drum-kit and bass cab, with sE V7s on all vocals. I find the V7 to be the best sounding and most reliable dynamic vocal mic I have ever used, and I’ve used them all! Every decision I make regarding gear or system control is designed to keep my attention on the band and my mix, where it should be.”
Allen also credited Worley Sound out of Nashville for its support. “Tom Worley is fantastic,” he noted.
Monitor Engineer Zach Bair is mixing the tour on a Quantum 225 w/ pulse, using in console reverbs, with Hall reverbs for the guitars and drums. “Guitarist Adam Slack would add reverb in sometimes with certain effects, then I would ride that reverb send if it got too washy. It’s always depended on the venue, as we want to get clarity in those reflective rooms.” For the band vocals, Bair uses three plate reverbs in-console for each singer. “Keeping it somewhere between 65-80% wet with a 2 second delay. We have three channels of vocals for lead vocalist Luke Spiller, his main, piano mic and spare. I run all three of these into a group and set the output of the group to a local output to hit my Neve 5045. I have his return channel going into a Naga 6 dynamic EQ to tame low mids and accentuate high mids where his voice really sits. This, in tandem with the 5045, gives everyone on stage a clear and clean image of his vocal. I have our electric piano hitting two channels of the Naga 6 dynamic EQ to tame the low mids a bit and give it a more natural feeling.”
Bair’s outboard Neve 5045 is used solely in Luke’s vocal processing chain, adjusting the threshold and depth settings based on the size of the venue and stage. “I use wireless workbench 7 for all coordination- running PSM1000’s with P10R+ packs, and (3) PA301 covers for hot venues or outdoor shows. Adam’s guitars and Jed Elliott’s bass are on four channels total of Shure ULXD4D that lives in guitar world stage right. I brought along a Shure AD600 as well. It was a little overkill for our situation, but it made RF coordination for our PSM’s and for our guitars, as well as a few PSM channels for our opening act, Barns Courtney very easy and quick.”
