FEATURE

& DAVE ARON – LIVE AT SUPAFEST

At this year’s Supafest at the Melbourne Show Grounds, AT caught up with an engineer with a fascinating career, both live and in the studio.

Text: Andy Stewart

AT !" I think I was the last person to walk through the gate But in 1995 when Snoop asked me to tour with him so that at Supafest. By the time I rocked up the security his gigs ‘could sound as good as his records’, I said ‘sure, guards at the front entrance were wandering aimlessly, head we can work that out, go on the road’. Hey, it was Snoop down, kicking small rocks along the gravel road, wishing Dogg – you don’t want to turn that gig down! It sounded they were anywhere else. !ere was garbage everywhere and fun, got me out of the studio and travelling around the nearly all the acts had come and gone. world, seeing places I’d never been before. At that young age, circumnavigating the globe with Snoop was amazing. I was still several hundred yards away from the main arena at this point but already I had a strong sense that this gig was And it’s still a lot of fun. Snoop and I have a very close going to be loud. Somewhere just over the rise all hell was working relationship these days. I ride with him to the gigs cutting loose – someone was playing a 60-foot kick drum – I don’t ride the crew bus – I get well paid and I don’t have (or so it seemed) and the crowd was responding as one giant to share rooms with other people. !at’s about as good as it acoustic white noise generator measuring up around 100dB. gets on the road. Somehow I had to hook up with Dave Aron – ’s PARALLELS & DIFFERENCES front of house (and studio) engineer – in amongst all this Andy Stewart: What are the parallels between your studio madness. I pushed through the countless heaving, sweaty, and FOH mixing work would you say? tattooed, weight-trained and cleavaged bodies and screamed down the ear canal of one of the security blokes at front of DA: I have a studio mindset when I’m mixing live, meaning house: “I’M LOOKING FOR DAVE ARON!” to which he that I like to have the gig sound as it would in a studio $rst looked bemused, then thoughtful, then politely stood to through some decent monitors. I’m always trying to one side without responding. eliminate the ambience of the room or venue to make it seem as though I’m in a studio. Having said that, this doesn’t At front of house I quickly spotted a guy looking into mean my technique is the same as if I was in the studio. It’s the crowd in similar bemusement. ‘!at must be Dave’ I quite di"erent even though the results are much the same. thought. I took a chance… “Dave?” Live you’re dealing with open mics and a lot of other things “ANDY, HEY… THANKS FOR COMING MAN, NICE TO you don’t have to contend with in the studio. For example, I MEET YOU!” Dave yelled mercilessly down my right ear do a lot of additive EQ when I’m in the studio, and use less canal. “MAN THAT’S A CRAZY CROWD OUT THERE,” compression, whereas live I tend to use more compression I yelled back, as I put all my crap down and heaved a sigh of and subtractive EQ, and then turn the whole thing up. relief. AS: Why so? From that point on my ears endured more punishment than DA: When you’re in the studio you’re trying to bring out the a Welsh rugby scrum. Glancing around the mix position best of a lot of sounds whereas live, turning things up tends while Nelly played a bad AC/DC cover, I immediately to reveal stu" I want to remove. Consequently, I’m usually spotted a glowing decibel speedo that was proudly ‘taking the garbage out’ with subtractive EQ, and then measuring the gig at 119dB (C-weighted). “BLOODY HELL! turning the sound up to compensate. Instead of increasing IT’S LOUD!” I joked to Dave. “IS THE EPA GUY BOUND the high-mids and highs to make a sound cut through as I AND GAGGED IN THE TOILET OR SOMETHING?” might do in the studio, live I’ll take out low-mids and lows. MIXED EMOTIONS Quite o#en there’s a lot of ugly low-mids coming o" stage. To Dave Aron has been mixing live and in the studio since the me a lot of that information almost hurts your ears live and early ’80s, engineering and mixing countless multi-platinum clouds things in a gaudy way. selling albums for artists such as U2, Price, Dr Dré, , 2-Pac and the man of this particular hour, Snoop AS: By low-mids are you generally talking about frequencies Dogg. Dave $rst hooked up with Snoop back in ’92 when below around 900Hz, or more like 600? he was only a pup. Dave had been working at the famous DA: I’m talking about say around 630 – 800Hz. Lower than Larrabee Studios in LA with several other acts when the two that too sometimes; it depends on the room of course. I did some recording sessions together and quickly hit it o". $nd a lot of problems at 400 and 500Hz too. So I suppose Since then Dave has worked on several of Snoop’s albums, I’m talking about anywhere from 800Hz all the way down and mixed hundreds of his live shows. to about 160. I’m always ducking and sweeping the EQ so It’s still unusual to come across an engineer that’s been so I can $nd exactly where the problem lies and what makes successful in two disciplines. I knew Dave was a studio it sweeter when I dip it. For instance, with the kick drum I engineer at heart but he looked super relaxed at front of tend to take out anywhere between 400 and 600Hz – I’m just house, blasé even. A#er the show I asked him how he’d gonna pull that right on out. When I take those frequencies managed to become so comfortable with both roles: out I get a much more polished result. Dave Aron: Actually, when I $rst hooked up with Snoop HIP-HOP SUBS Dogg I thought the live side of my engineering life was AS: Has hip-hop got an overall EQ, stylistically speaking, over. I’d done a lot of live mixing when I was in college would you say? mainly because it was easier to do that than get a job in a big DA: No, I don’t think so. Although I sometimes $nd these studio. I $gured it had been fun and I’d loved the immediate hip-hop gigs a little heavy in the subs department. At a rap grati$cation of live sound but I really liked the long lasting gig like this, everyone seems to think it’s very important rewards of the recording industry too. I always like to hear to have a ton of sub and consequently a lot of times the stu" I’ve recorded or mixed on the radio, see my name in PA doesn’t have enough highs and mids to cater to the the credits, hold the album in my hand – like we all do – clarity I’m a#er. O#en they think hip-hop has gotta have an because when the concert’s over, it’s over. overload of bass – and it’s true, it does – but it still has to be

AT !" I like bling!: Snoop Dogg’s new Telefunken wireless mic stole the show at Supafest, taking mic bling to a whole new level.

even all the way up to the top-end. earlier in the night. I had to break out my in-ear and therefore who to turn up when they’re monitors – sans cables – which do a good job of rapping. Snoop’s gigs on the other hand are very I hate hearing mixes where it’s just too subby. A knocking the sound down to more modest levels, controlled, although a lot of credit for that must lot of times I actually have to turn the subs down but at that point of the show it was pretty much go to the band and Snoop Dogg himself. so that I can get more volume out of the PA. "at all over in terms of !delity… generally gives the system back a lot of its clarity AS: Yeah, they seem incredibly tight. and headroom. You still get the bottom-end, just DA: Ha! I thought that was about normal volume DA: Snoop is dominant and all the other guys without the boominess. for us – a comfortable mixing level. I don’t like to know how to work their mics and be right under go too much louder than that but I certainly don’t I high-pass !lter the low end of the PA up to him – that’s why I think it sounds less chaotic. like it to get any quieter. If it’s less than that I’m maybe 40, 50 or even 60Hz sometimes. "is Add to that the fact that I remove some of the usually dissatis!ed. allows me to turn the whole system up more boominess from the PA and it amounts to a and ironically get more bottom-end out of it. AS: So 116dB (C-weighted) is normal for you? signi!cant di$erence. Unlike some, I’m lucky in You might think you’d get more power leaving that I’ve actually got signals I can work with and DA: Pretty much. Don’t forget though that with those super-low frequencies in but really it’s mix properly! the mix position elevated on a riser like it was just adding more boom and garbage. It’s not as tonight – and everybody else on the ground – REAL DRUMS tight sounding either, and I like a tight low end. you’re going to get much more clarity and subs. AS: And you had real drum sounds up there Basically, if you amplify 30Hz it’s not gonna do So in some ways that dB !gure was slightly tonight I noticed. Were you triggering stu$ as much of anything except eat up your amp power misleading. "at’s why I kept stepping down into well to augment the real kit? and all your speaker space. the crowd – to hear what it really sounded like at DA: We are triggering other sounds – the AS: What instruments penetrate right down ground level. drummer has a pad up there that he plays a lot of into the sub-harmonics of your mix a#er you’ve I have to adjust what I’m hearing sometimes to claps and wind chimes sounds with. But the kick !ltered the system like that? Just kick and bass? cater to what the audience needs. "ere might be is all acoustic and the snare is all real snare. "ere DA: It depends. We do a lot of DJ gigs with more bass at my mix position than I’d prefer but I aren’t any triggers adding to their tones. "ere Snoop, and others with the full band. If I’m doing have to tolerate that to give the audience the right are two mics on the bass drum that I o#en blend a DJ gig I’m going to try and get as much out of mix. I !nd myself in that situation a lot! together: one gives me the attack and the other that DJ system as I can. I will maybe !lter up to NO DOGG’S BREAKFAST provides the thump and sustain. I also double- 40 or 50Hz sometimes – depending on the song mic the snares – of which there’s o#en three. AS: I was amazed how re!ned it sounded even. Some songs have so much bottom end tonight I have to say – before I put the plugs in. AS: What mics are you using? in them that I have to !lter them quite heavily. Apologies! One of the best lives mixes I’ve ever Because every record they’re spinning was mixed DA: We usually use an AKG D112 on the outside heard. I guess, because it was a festival gig, I was at a di$erent studio, sometimes I !nd those gigs of the bass drum and a Shure Beta 91 – the %at expecting it to sound pretty chaotic up there. Was are more like a live mastering session. I know boundary mic – in the bottom of the drum. I any of the music pre-recorded tonight? certain songs are going to need some high-end use the 112 a lot live because it’s got a nice attack pulled out otherwise it’s going to sound really DA: No, but I can sympathise with your to it and I’ve been using it since the ’80s, so you brittle but then the next song needs all that put expectations. As you infer, most rap shows I kinda get used to shit don’t you. I don’t rely on it back in. hear sound very chaotic and I don’t like that at 100 percent though, and I don’t always blend the all. "ey’re mostly all bass – really boomy with a two mics either. Sometimes I just end up using SHEER VOLUME bunch of guys yelling on stage. You never really the one that sounds best on the night. Snares, I Sitting backstage with Dave a#er the show – with hear the lead guy because there are so many generally mic top and bottom, and in terms of post-concert festival mayhem all around us – I others trying to !ll the space. And sometimes the mix I might distinguish one snare from the remarked on how loud the concert had seemed the sound engineer doesn’t know the music others by adding a little more reverb.

AT !" SNOOP’S VOCAL just depends on the venue. I’m also constantly AS: What mic does Snoop sing into these days? checking whether the system tech has things DA: Funny you should ask that because I only too compressed. If I can’t get any bottom end or got a new mic for him three weeks ago. We volume out of the PA, or if I can hear the system used to use a blinged-out Sennheiser, which breathing and pumping, I always say something was cool, but that was starting to need replacing – back it o# or give it a faster release time. I’m big so we swapped if for this new Telefunken. It’s on releasing compression. basically a Shure wireless mic with a Telefunken If I use any kind of bus compressor I !nd I’m M80 capsule replacing the 58. I love it: it’s got a usually mixing it back in with the uncompressed higher output and much greater !delity. It’s still a signals – that works for me sometimes. For dynamic mic but it has a lot of feedback rejection instance I might slam a compressor with a on the back end… it’s very directional. bunch of drums, then mix that back in with the AS: What’s Snoop’s voice like to work with? uncompressed signal, but I’m not gonna rely on that for my entire drum sound. It’s not what I’m DA: He’s got an awesome voice. He raps low but looking for sonically. I can usually get the sound I he knows how to push from the diaphragm and want by treating individual channels. project his sound. He’s got a hell of an ‘s’ on him though. I usually haave to run a de-esser across I don’t put too much individual compression on it, which ideally is a dbx 902; that’s the king. Snoop’s vocal either, or much on the bass. But You can’t beat it. Digitally, a lot of times Snoop’s then again, sometimes I do. "at’s the whole signal chain will have an 1176 plug-in and an thing about this live gig. You can never say ‘I SSL channel strip to give it that pristine sound always do this’ or ‘I never do that’ because the and then I’ll follow that up with a Waves C4 day I say it, the next day I’m doing it, you know? multiband compressor so I can smooth out any "ere’s always something di#erent happening at frequencies that threaten to get too strident. the next venue – that I do know! "at’s half the fun of it. With Snoop’s voice I generally go for a direct, in-your-face sound, so I don’t put a lot of reverb I like the dynamics in our show. "at’s one of on him… or anything else for that matter. I like its strengths and I don’t wanna choke it. As a a very in-your-face sound. I always use echoes general rule I !nd I’m usually loosening things and reverbs sparingly – as you may have heard up. "ings sound too constrained to my ear when tonight – manually riding them in and out you have things too compressed. I don’t like that instead of leaving them static in the mix. It gives sound. me the dry punch I need and the spacey contrast I like multiband compression a lot, maybe at speci!c points. "at’s one of the di#erences even more than regular compression because with live mixing. You don’t need ambient reverbs they’re reactive to tone not just overall gain, of any kind in most venues. like the Waves C4. For instance, I like to boost a lot of presence into Snoop’s vocal but I don’t DRIVING THE MIX-BUS want it to sound shrill and harsh when he hits AS: What about overall mix-bus compression or the mic hard, so I set up the C4 to catch those EQ. Do you use any of that, and if so, what? frequencies when they need controlling. And DA: I EQ and compress everything on the I have a disclosure to make here: I’m a Waves individual channels, so no, there’s nothing on the representative, so I do a lot of beta testing for main bus. I don’t like compressors on the mix bus them and use a lot of their plug-ins. unless we’re in a club situation, but again it really

DAVE ARON’S NEW HOLLYWOOD STUDIO By the time this magazine goes to I also had neighbour problems and got other guys doing it for me right press Dave Aron should be moving zoning problems with the city – they now, but man it’s tough. into his new studio facility in were always messing with me for The main studio is gonna have a Hollywood. He claims to be ‘the only having a studio in the house. So last secondhand SSL #$%# in it that’s guy in America’ building a new studio year I decided it was time to get in beautiful condition. I love those at the moment, and he may not be a real commercial facility up and boards – that’s what I’ve mixed all far wrong. Dave is a passionate man running once and for all. I was tired my classics albums on. It’s going to driven by the dream to have his own of doing everything renegade-style have a customised centre section commercial space, and with a strong and I really needed a place where with a Smart AV Tango console in it client list that includes the likes of other engineers could work, so so you’re not working on one side Snoop Dogg he can justify the outlay. that even when I’m out on the road of the console all the time like most Dave Aron: I know it’s crazy to touring, the gear can be working and people are when they combine a big be opening up a studio right now paying its way. analogue board with computers. when everybody else seems to be One thing I know is that by the time When I moved to L.A. &$ years ago I closing down, but this is what I do, the new studio is finished, I’ll have a never dreamed I’d be able to afford a and I’m not gonna short change really comfortable place to work and console like this. It’s incredible really. myself. I had my studio at home I’ll have fulfilled one of my dreams: AS: When do you think the studios for a while, which was awesome in to make a bomb studio that’s will be ready? some respects, but it wasn’t making geared to me, looks like me, and enough money because I just didn’t aesthetically, is me. DA: My back two rooms should be ready by the time I get home. feel comfortable bringing clients Of course I’m also stressing out like Bootsy Collins into my house bigtime right now trying to get this AS: Which is when? to record. shit done while I’m on the road! I’ve DA: Tomorrow, I hope!

AT !" I dare not touch it!: Dave Aron at the helm.

AS: So you’re really using the multi-bands me and say, ‘Wow, I loved the way you had the used to a Ferrari in a little Honda and you’ll to control the tone of the mix more than the drums sounding tonight man, they were killer!’. I have the thing redlining all night. You’re never dynamics in some respects, which is very much a want guitarists to come up to me at the same gig really gonna win that way. If you’ve got plenty of studio mentality. and say, ‘Man those guitars sounded awesome power and headroom, and the smarts to control tonight’. !at’s what I’m going for. I hate the the PA without applying mountains of crude DA: Exactly. !ey catch the ugliness. attitude that says, ‘Well it’s a live gig, it’s alright if compression, you’re the winner. !at’s exactly what I like about multi-band it has this or that shortcoming’. I want to appeal compression. AS: What about panning? to every person in the audience, not give them THE STUDIO MENTALITY one type of generic sound. DA: I do pan a lot but it really depends on the AS: Can you tell me a bit more about what taking venue. When I’m at !e House of Blues in L.A. I’m always tweaking the mix until it comes alive – a ‘studio mentality’ out on the road with you for instance I have stu" panned all over the place that’s the point where it suddenly becomes studio means in a practical sense? like an album. But with DJ-based Snoop gigs I quality. #nd I only get enough punch out of the system DA: It means I’m used to being in the studio, AS: Is most of this tweaking essentially about EQ if it’s panned at around nine and three o’clock, or making mixes sound exactly how I want them once the gig’s in full swing? sometimes even ten and two. It also just depends to and I like my live gigs to sound that way too. on how I’m feeling on the night. Sometimes I’ll I like to hear every nuance in a live mix: every DA: A lot of it is EQ; a lot of it is balancing the do an audiophile mix, sometimes I’ll do a more little thing that Snoop’s doing with his voice; the gain structure. I try to keep my faders at nominal in-your-face, kick-ass, raw, hard mix. It really grace notes Carlos is playing on the snare; the levels as much as I can and deal with the ‘head depends on the venue and whether there’s a dB little keyboard parts and the percussion stu", amps’ – as they’re called nowadays – to balance restriction – things like that. which I’ll pan here and there. I want to hear a things out. But likewise I’m more than happy whole spectrum of sound coming at me, not just to have the keyboards down at –20 if necessary. If you have a ridiculously low decibel restriction a bunch of instruments piled up in the centre I’m not scared to move a fader! !e thing is I – and they’re very strict about it – that’s when I’ll sounding like a glori#ed line check. I #nd a lot need a lot of headroom because I hate running typically pull out a real audiophile mix, where I of sound guys do that. !ey bring sounds up to everything hot. I like everything to be cruising. have things panned all over the place, and more where you can hear them, but that’s not really a I’m always telling system engineers to ‘open it up bottom-end to make it feel like you’re sitting in mix is it? please’, and then let me bring it back down to a your living room listening to a record. manageable level where I can control it. I try and create a big picture with the sound. SPEAKER POSITION !at to me is what I mean by a ‘studio mentality’. I like a system that’s got a ton of headroom where AS: You’re big on speaker placement I I’ve been in the studio so much that I can’t really elements are discrete and distinct. To me it’s understand. hear music any other way. I don’t like to hear the equivalent of a racing driver in a Formula DA: … and I always say this about it: a good live it and go, ‘oh that sounds live’. I don’t like that One car. You’ve got to be skilled to drive it when mix is all about the speaker position. If you’ve got kind of comment at all. I want people to go away it’s that powerful and wide open, but if you’re that right you’ve got 90% of the game won. If the from these gigs going, ‘Oh fuck, it sounded like good you’re gonna win the race. It’s the same speakers aren’t positioned properly – if I walk in we were in my living room or the studio’. I want with a great engineer on a great system. !e and see a stacked PA, right away I’m like, ‘oh boy, drummers from the audience to come up to opposite is also true: put a great driver who’s this might be a problem’. Shit, give me a Peavey

AT !" board, I don’t care. It’s not going to make my what you had at soundcheck. !ere’s no 90dB !e other night I walked in and discovered a mix – it’s just not. !e other thing that’s critically noise "oor to overcome so what’s the point? I Midas Pro 6. I was stoked! It was the #rst time important is you want to have good amps, and like to be prepared for the gig but I don’t rely I’d worked on one of those – it was awesome. enough power. on soundcheck to be everything it’s going to be It sounded so good – heavy duty. !at’s a great that night. A lot of this game is about making it board! !at’s the whole game to me. Forget about the happen on the night, staying relaxed and sticking compression, forget about the board, if I have a One board I’ve really been liking lately is the with it. set of correctly "own speakers and some kick-ass Soundcra% Vi6. !ose are nice. I really like their amps I could do a whole gig with no reverbs, no If I were doing monitors I certainly couldn’t sound. !e new Digicos are nice too. But as I say, e$ects, no compression and a cheap-arsed board. operate like that – no way. !ere’s far too much I never know what I’m gonna get that night. So !e rest of this shit is really kind of incidental, a preparation. But at front of house I’ve only as you can imagine it’s hard to have presets when luxury at that point. got one mix to deal with and I know what my you don’t even know what board you’re gonna be priorities are. As soon as the show starts I know using! I just dial up the mix and it is what it is. WHEN TO TURN UP it’s gonna start with some sort of DJ intro and I’m AS: So do you go to all your gigs early then and AS: !at’s a pretty refreshing – almost anarchic – gonna have that up. And then the DJ’s gonna talk get involved in setups or are you mostly reliant on perspective, I’ve gotta say. so I know I gotta have his mic up. I know Snoop’s system techs? gonna come out next and I make sure his voice is DA: Well it is. For me it works. A lot of guys are DA: I rely a lot on system techs… and a lot on heard as soon as he says his #rst words. really anal and obsess over preparations, but just chance! that’s just not me, you know? I don’t say they’re AS: How do you determine that for sure? wrong for working the way they do. !ere’s a AS: So you’re not rocking up 12 noon going, ‘Hey DA: Well I hear him saying little things before guy who mixes for Tool, who I met at a gig, who that’s not right, you gotta change that?’ the actual verse comes in. If he doesn’t say showed up at eight in the morning and worked DA: No, because, as I said earlier, I’ve got a real anything then my heart always skips a couple of with the system techs all day. He had the whole comfortable position here where I ride in Snoop’s beats hoping it’s gonna be there. But once I hear thing sounding really nice and he was there bus and it’s fun. We play video games the whole him saying some hype stu$ like, ‘Hey what’s up till the end of the night! !at’s dedication. By way – it’s a laugh a minute. Snoop leaves a lot everybody?’, I know it’s gonna be right. Once showtime it sounded awesome! I can appreciate later than the crew you see, so sometimes I don’t that’s established, I’m all good. !en I start that whole approach; it’s just not for me that’s all. even make it to soundcheck. working on other stu$. I’m an on-the-"y kinda guy. AS: Seriously? I’ll go right away to the kick, make sure I can AS: I guess it’s good to know your strengths. DA: Yep. If I get there beforehand then cool, that’s hear that nice and solid. Make sure I can hear the !ere’s no point trying to be ‘anal guy’ when a bonus. But I always know I’ve got the #rst song snare hitting right where I want it. Next I make you’re just not. sure the bass is #lling in everything. !en the to get it together and I mostly trust the system DA: Exactly. In truth, I’m trying to get in and keys – they’re gonna be there – they always are! techs to get it right. I really don’t have time to go out of soundcheck as fast as possible, I’m not in at noon and sit there all day and play with the And that’s pretty much the essence of the whole gonna lie to you! I never leave before I feel it’s system. I don’t like long sound checks anyway, mix. By the second song I’m just tweaking. ready but once it is I’m outta there! I know and besides, it never comes out sounding the AS: Do you have song presets on the digital I’m gonna be able to fix whatever I need to same as when you le% it at soundcheck anyway. consoles at all? fix that night so there’s just no point hangin’ Once the venue #lls up with bodies it’s always around. That approach comes back and bites DA: No, never. Usually we don’t get the same di$erent. !ere’s all this noise in the room for you occasionally, I’ll admit, but most of the board two nights in a row. Hell, usually I never starters. You always think you’ve got it loud time it’s cool. And it makes the gig exciting even know what board I’m gonna be looking at enough... but it never is! People are making so for me. I need that little extra juice, that bolt until I get there. It could be a Yamaha PDM5, much noise that the clarity is almost halved from of adrenalin. it could be Digidesign Pro#le… whatever.

AT !"