LONDON – In support of his latest album, Commitment, Seal is undertaking a tour of Europe and North America, supported by a full complement of Sennheiser microphones and wireless PMs, including a Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld wireless transmitter with a Neumann KK 105-S capsule for the artist's vocals.
"Seal's vocals have a wonderful, full-bandwidth sound," said FOH engineer John Robbins, who also handled three tours for Steely Dan. "In addition to that, the wireless signal never drops out, even when I take it all the way to FOH to mess with it.
"I've been working with Seal for two years, and I've never had a wireless problem, nor have I ever had to break out the spare," added Robbins. "That can be said of all the other Sennheiser and Neumann mics on stage as well. We have one pack of these mics for touring in North America and a second identical set for touring in Europe. We have no backups, because these mics are so reliable, we've never needed them."
Sennheiser evolution series microphones, which are tailored to convey specific instruments with maximum effect, pick up all of Seal's instrumentation.
Seal's monitor engineer, Chris Lantz, was among the first engineers to use wireless personal monitors in the early 1990s with the Eagles.
"Sennheiser quickly took the technological lead and has been setting the pace ever since," he said. "We just switched over to the new ew 300 IEM G3 system, which, together with Sennheiser's Wireless Systems Manager (WSM) software, makes my job much less stressful."
In particular, Lantz called the frequency scan feature "easy and robust," and noted that "the ability to sync each unit automatically has reduced what used to be an hour-long set-up job to less than 10 minutes. The band loves the sound, too," he added. "They've compared it to listening to a CD."
Lantz uses a pair of Sennheiser e 914 microphones for audience capture to so Seal and his band can hear the energy of their fans.
Lantz credited Sennheiser's Global Relations support team. "They've taken the time to walk me through the concepts, the hardware, and the software so that all of the shows I do go off without a hitch," he said.
For more information, please visit www.sennheiserusa.com .
