JET Live Jet’s career has recently gone ballistic. Christopher Holder heads to Adelaide to talk to the engineers who ensure the band’s sound takes off.
’m not quite sure if it’s the compliment that a rock ‘n’ roll system engineer has been waiting all his life to hear or not, but it came the way of Drew Maynard Iduring a Jet gig at Adelaide’s Memorial Drive Tennis Centre in front of 10,000 enthusiastic South Australians. Midway through the show the designated EPA chap tapped Drew on the shoulder with his SPL meter and gave him his assess- ment of the ensuing rock ‘n’ roll mayhem… “And he said he’d never heard anything like it,” said a wide-eyed Drew screaming at me over the PA. “He was amazed… couldn’t believe the quality.” And with that, Drew stood looking at me for a couple of seconds with a mixture of incredulity, delight and what could have been a small amount of wounded pride, I’m not entirely sure. After the show I passed on the ‘good’ news to FOH engineer Johnny Haskett who wasn’t quite so equivocal, stating just a little bit sniffily that he was “nearly arrested” in Switzerland for an EPA-type transgression. Apparently the Swiss bureaucrat pointed to two heavily armed policemen and offered John one last chance to turn down the din or face a night banged up in a Swiss cell. “In fact, last time I was in Italy I spoke to the guy who was baby-sitting the system for that gig and he had been jailed for going 2dB over the limit in the San Siro stadium [in Milan]. They locked him up for three months!” Blimey… now that’s rock ‘n’ roll… none of this slap on the back stuff from ‘the suits’! Anyway, regardless of the street-cred implications of the EPA nod, general consensus would suggest that Jet’s much-anticipated sojourn to the City of Churches sounded excellent. And, after chatting to the sound guys and taking in the system and sound check, the quality can be attributed to a few key factors. First up, Johnston Audio’s Nexo Geo-T is undeniably proving itself to be a very high quality system, and when teamed up with Nexo’s directional subs, it’s a system that’s compact, easy to rig and can offer amazing thump, sizzle and clarity in equal measure. On the back-end, the Geo-T has joined forces with the Lake Contour – a system controller with converters that seem to be the equal of anything in the audiophile market and a real step up in the PA arena. That’s the gear, but naturally the band has the biggest influence on the sound, and it was interesting to hear how Jet’s level-headed approach to keeping the defining principles of its sound constant has meant the band’s never out of its comfort zone despite the fact that in the last 12 months dingy pub gigs have turned into arena shows. I talked to Monitor Engineer Mark Crawley, Front of House Engineer Johnny Haskett, and System Engineer Drew Maynard to learn more. Mark Crawley: It’s been an amazing journey. I’ve done the Big Day Out for a while now and for Jet to go from being one of the first bands on the bill to headlining the bill in one year is amazing. Christopher Holder: How has that extra crowd-pulling power manifest itself from a production point of view? Johnny Haskett: In the 18 months I’ve worked with Jet, this most recent Aus- tralian leg has been the first full production tour we’ve done. Until now we’ve never played more than three gigs in a row with the same PA. Now we’ve got a full crew and the budgets are getting better, we’re finally stamping our mark and generally getting what we want.
30 Jet's Nic Cester gets up close and personal with his Sennheiser e935 vocal mic. FOH Engineer, Johnny Haskett, flattens the desk and prepares to head home after the gig.
MC: As John says, this is the first time they’ve taken out a proper production, and the first time I’ve had a fairly free hand to say – this is what I want and this is what I like to use. Before that it was a case of taking what you were given and making it work. CH: Including the US work the two of you have done with Jet? JH: Especially in The States. America is a nightmare because a 3,000- to 4,000-capacity venue is still classed as a ‘club’ over there. Some of the systems are absolutely rotten. You’ve got 4,000 punters paying good money for a ticket and you’ve got something hung in the air that’s not even maintained. You spend all day with a phase checker before you can even push up some faders. CH: And have you been happy with the results of the better spec’ed systems? JH: Totally happy. I’ve used Nexo’s Alpha for a long time, so when we came back to Australia we called Bruce Johnston and used his Alpha system. This time around we’ve had a crack at the Geo-T. The first gig we used it on was in Melbourne a few nights ago and that system has come to Adelaide for this show. In the meantime we used an Alpha rig in Sydney and it was like: ‘Oh right… can we have the Geo-T back please?’! CH: The Geo-T looks quite petite, but it’s obviously got the ‘balls’ you need for a rock ‘n’ roll show like this? JH: It has. In fact, of the modern array-style systems out there it’s one of the few that’s still got a bit of bite. Most of the others (except JBL’s VerTec) are all a bit ‘soft’, you can’t really do rock ‘n’ roll with them – but the Geo-T has got a bit about it. And those cardioid subs are superb for this outdoor environment. I’ll definitely be going for this setup again.
For Those About to Rock… FOH engineer, Johnny Haskett, calls the Jet experience ‘blood ‘n’ guts rock ‘n’ roll’ and he’s got a point. A Jet gig Monitor Engineer, Mark Crawley, sees the funny side of things during sound check. doesn’t have too many pretensions about it – nothing too fancy, just high-energy rock delivered with passion and aggression. Want a good vocal lift in the chorus? Then sing louder. About to embark on a guitar solo after the verse? Then kick the mic stand over. Had enough of your water bottle after a few swigs? Then chuck it into the mosh pit. Fancy a smoke mid performance? Light up. All pretty simple really… or so it would seem to the casual observer. Mark Crawley: Jet’s a rock ‘n’ roll band that’s been brought up on the sound of pub gigs and rehearsal rooms, so you need the capability to deliver that kind of feel on stage for them. Now that the stages are bigger and the audiences are a lot bigger I think it’s important to retain that small pub and rehearsal room vibe. Obviously they’re both very loud, enclosed environments and you can never emulate that vibe completely but that’s the aim. CH: So it’s unlikely we’ll see a Jet gig any time soon where the guys are in different postcodes on a stage the size of Omaha? MC: No. They like to keep that rehearsal room feel by sticking quite close. They’re only about eight feet apart from each other regardless of the size of the stage. CH: How does that impact on the monitor mixes you’re setting up for them? MC: Well, for example, Nic [Cester, lead singer/guitarist] has almost none of the band in his wedge because he’s getting it all from the bass and guitar backline, and the drum kit is right behind him. His mix is almost entirely his vocal, some keys, and his acoustic guitar when he picks that up. CH: It seems like the guys know what keeps them tight and they’re trying to stick to what they know? MC: They’re smart operators, no doubt about it. For example, Chris [Cester, the drummer] pointed something out to me the other night. There’s a particular song which builds with just a hi-hat and Cam playing guitar – chugging away. Anyway, Chris could hear that Cam was slipping out of time. So Chris signalled to me to turn up his hi-hat in Cam’s wedge during the song. Which I did and Cam went back in time. I love that. I thought that was ace. He’s telling me what he needed, because he knew. They’re not idiots, they know what they want on stage. CH: And that no-nonsense approach obviously flows into your approach at FOH, John? John Haskell: It’s blood and guts rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not overly effected. I use a couple of Yamaha SPX990s for early reflections on the vocals and drums and on the slower songs I dial in some rich plate off the [Lexicon] PCM80. Apart from that I’ve got the good ol’ TC 2290 for some delay every now and then – a few slap backs. That’s it. CH: Having a strict rock ‘n’ roll ethic is fine but if you don’t have a lead singer that doesn’t mind screaming then you’re in a bit of strife… MC: Nic sings extremely loudly – he’s a monitor guy’s dream. JH: Nic, on a bad day, has probably got 5dB on a lot of singers on a good day. We’ve got a deal with Sennheiser and we’re using the E935 mic for vocals and that’s got extra gain as well. I’ve never lost his vocal once, not even when he’s been close to losing his voice. It’s been great. CH: Sounds like the Sennheiser E935 is a bit of a gem? MC: It’s got a very natural and transparent sound. It doesn’t have all that EQ already set into the mic – extra top end or a scoop in the low mids. When I EQ the wedges I don’t have to go mad, I’m not fighting the mic’s innate response. CH: Given you’ve got a Sennheiser deal, you weren’t tempted by the KMS105 from (sister company) Neumann? MC: They’re a beautiful mic and sound amazing, but they’re a very sensitive condenser and anything that’s going on on stage, that mic will pick it up. For beautiful vocalists with a delicate, light delivery they’re particularly suitable, and for quiet stages, jazz bands etc. I have no doubt it’s probably the best mic to have, but it’s not suitable for us. We’ve used the 935 and haven’t looked back. It’s a flat mic. You can get an extra 3 or 4dB of gain out of them without feedback. Just incredible. CH: How important is that extra vocal level when you’re aiming to deliver up- front rock? JH: You only have to hear what’s coming off the stage to know the answer to that question. The backline, monitors, drumfill, sidefill… it’s a loud stage and if I had a (Above) System Engineer, Drew Maynard, (top) poor singer my day would be over. I’ve done loud rock bands, but with really poor some of his tools, including the much lauded Lake vocalists, and you might as well just give up. You turn the vocal mic off and it’s like Contour system controller. the whole PA has been turned off – that’s how much you need to ramp up the gain of the vocal mic and that’s how much it’s picking up the stage sound.
System Engineer Drew Maynard shows us his Contour Christopher Holder: I notice you’re using the plug in eight inputs and have eight outputs be ready. So not only can you get a flat system Lake Contour to drive the Geo-T rig. Is that a for front fill, stereo outfills – whatever we with optimisation, you can go for somebody’s recent addition? needed, it was there. The other thing about the ear once you’ve seen what they’re looking for! Drew Maynard: We got it a week and a Soundweb is that it’s really user friendly. The CH: Sounds like your assessment of the half ago. Previously we’ve been using the Lake Contour is harder to come to grips with Contour is: ‘great but could be even better’? – but it sounds absolutely amazing! BSS Soundweb, basically as a matrix device DM: In a nutshell, yeah. I’m hoping that they’re – getting audio to the delays, the infills etc CH: What are you hearing? going to do something with some more I/O. – and not much else. After having the Geo-T DM: Apart from the superior A/D conversion When we go to use outfills in arenas I like to for a while we realised that, sound quality- there’s absolutely no phasing on any of the EQ give the engineers the option of going stereo wise, the Soundweb was the lowest common – regardless of how severe the EQ is. The Mesa if they like, but right now we have to go with denominator in the signal chain. What it did filter is a revelation as well. Normally if someone mono outfills and frontfills, just to get around was fantastic and the control it offered was is going to pull three or four frequencies out the six-output constraint. great… but the A/D conversion wasn’t the next to each other on a graphic, you can now CH: What’s the latest entry in the Geo-T report best and that’s the main reason for going with use the Lake’s Mesa filter. the Contour. card since we last spoke to you [Issue 34, I’m finding that by using Lake’s Contour with Powderfinger Live]? CH: So you’re hearing the difference? [SIA] Smaart we’re getting more and more DM: I’m finding that the Geo-T is almost DM: It’s been like night and day – no com- accurate readings. The first run we had with disconcerting for engineers. Because they’re parison whatsoever. Saying that, the Contour the Contour was with Faithless. During perfor- used to a certain amount of distortion or lack is a two-in/six-out device so as far as I/O goes mances I started saving the Smaart plots such of clarity they push it up until their ears start we’re much more limited now. Previously I that the transfer was looking like the guy’s mix. emulating that distortion. But after two or three could plug in two consoles and a DJ rig… In The next day he could come in and I could shows they love it. fact, we’ve had festival setups where you could semi-duplicate his sound and rough it in… and
34 We Have Lift-Off I leave things as flat as possible. Drums are the only On more than a few occasions I’ve heard top-line FOH things that need EQ. Otherwise I have very little engineers likening the job of driving a 50,000W PA to on vocals, and virtually nothing on guitar. To get that of a fighter pilot – the adrenalin buzz of sitting atop some extra tone out of the guitars we double mic such awesome power is extraordinary. With the band the cabs – using a Sennheiser 609 and a 903. It’s the Jet, the metaphor seems especially apt. Neither Mark same approach that I used 10 years ago, only with a nor John is flitting about their consoles pulling radical Sennheiser 409 and a Shure 57 – the two feeds are fader moves, or leafing through scene changes. It’s all blended and then mixed in mono. about preparation – getting the PA tuned, and getting CH: Sounds like the microphone deal has worked for the mics in the right spots – and once the band walks you all. on stage it’s more a matter of ensuring the ‘aircraft’ is MC: They’re really well designed. I’ve never had one operating at optimum capacity and not going into a break down on me. And these mics have taken some 10G tailspin! punishment – drumkits are knocked over, guitars are Mark Crawley: As far as monitors go, it’s all about being loud and clear. I hardly use compression, I EQ “It’s blood and guts rock ‘n’ roll. as little as possible… nothing too flashy. In the end it’s all about gain structure. You’ve got to get your gain It’s not overly effected” just right. Once the gain is set, then you can get things sitting really nicely. If you’ve got your gain structure thrown around, mic stands are kicked over – but we’ve out of whack you’re going to have problems down the not had a single problem. signal chain. We use the clip-on 604 mics on toms and they’re CH: Are you pushing hard to squeeze every last dB working well; the 602 on bass guitar and the kick drum out of the system to get the level required? give me what I need; we’ve got a 903 on snare, and MC: Not really. I leave myself a bit of headroom. It’s a as John mentioned, the 609/903 combination on the loud system, and the band gives me plenty of volume, guitars. so I’ve never really struggled – just turn it up and there CH: Any mic placement tips for aspiring rock ‘n’ roll it is. engineers? I’m using Nexo PS15 monitors powered by Camco MC: My only advice would be: if you don’t like Vortex 6s. They sound great. It might be a passive the sound you’re getting from a mic, then move it. wedge but they’re being driven by 3,000W a channel. Every gig is different – different room, different amp, speakers, whatever – so don’t get too locked into a way of doing things. You’ve got to be prepared to get out there and move things around, and if it doesn’t sound any good then just move them back. CH: I guess it’s about having the right mix of confidence and humility – confidence to back yourself if you think things could be better and the humility to accept feedback and know when you’re wrong? MC: Sure. You can’t afford to have an attitude. One day you might be doing monitors for one of the biggest bands in the world and the next week you might be rigging monitors for one of the smallest bands in town. Just because I’m monitor engineer (Left) A typical guitar cab miking setup using a Sennheiser 903 and 609 combination. (Right) On drums for Jet doesn’t mean I’m not rigging you can spot a clip-on 604 on toms and a 903 on snare. monitors for a smaller pub band when I’m not working for Jet. After Obviously they don’t require that much grunt, but it all, that’s where we learn our trade. If you have the gives you the headroom you need and the Nexo con- best gear all the time and everything was laid on all troller ensures you’ve got the protection you need. the time, then we’d lose out, because you wouldn’t CH: Similar deal with you John? Are you keeping learn to think laterally, troubleshoot properly and just things simple when it comes to compression and EQ? practise your skills. John Haskell: There’s very little EQ on the board.
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