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Home , Hordern Pavilion, Liam Gallagher

FEATURE

LIVE SOUND MONITOR In the first of a series of regular columns, AT races around the traps to get a taste of the Summer season concert and festival madness.

Text: Cat Strom

OASIS It’s 6pm at ’s Hordern Pavilion and in three hours time those British bad boys of rock will take to the stage to perform a second sold- out show at this venue. But now they are being interviewed – separately. In fact, very separately. One brother is being grilled by the dimmers side of stage while the other is ensconced in seating far away. And this is how it is on tour with the bickering Gallagher brothers. If they spend too much time together acrimony blows the tour apart. However, this works fine for the crew members as it means tour legs are short – no more than six weeks, interspersed by a couple of weeks off. This has allowed the band’s front of house engineer Bruce Johnston to return home to Melbourne from various corners of the world to spend time with his family and run his business, Johnston Audio. The tour is scheduled to last 12 months, circling the world twice in the process. Of course every sound engineer wants his home gigs to run as smoothly as possible, but Bruce’s first night at the Hordern was a rough ride. Liam Gallagher’s microphone failed during the opening song; although some critics suggested that he was in such bad form they were praying it would pack up again. A very tired-looking Bruce had come to the conclusion that the Hordern Pavilion was not a good venue for line array systems. He’d had to cut his Nexo Geo T line array system in half to fit into the venue. The normal rig for included 32 Nexo Geo T line array tops, 16 Nexo CD18 subs, and 32 Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers. Added to this were 10 Turbosound dual 15-inch wedges and six Nexo PS15 wedges and, for sidefill, eight Turbosound Flashlight tops and 12 Flashlight subs. “I’ve done a lot of gigs in here with a conventional PA and it rocks a lot harder,” Bruce said. “I don’t think you can get enough line array in here, as your line can’t be long enough. As a result you just don’t have the ‘fatness’ and I think you pay the price. Oasis is a band that needs to be in either a really large venue or a very small one – mid-sized ones like the Hordern just don’t work.” The Nexo Geo T is Bruce’s preferred PA and he has used it extensively on this tour, except in America where he had trouble sourcing the King Nexo Geo T and used an L-Acoustics V-DOSC Bob :

AT 68 Photo Bruce Johnston John Lemon

The School Sound Spectacular in full swing

MÖTLEY CRÜE SCHOOLS, WIGGLES & CAROLS “ I mix them straight up Front-of-house engineer and ex-pat Aussie Jon Norwest Productions are busy gearing up for Lemon, a veteran of tours with such musical the big gig this year (Commonwealth Games and loud… as that’s how heavyweights as Oasis, , , anyone?), but in the meantime it’s still business as they sound best” , and , recently returned usual. An EAW PA and a two Yamaha PM1Ds to his homeland with the reunited Mötley Crüe. were used by FOH engineer Tony Moffat on the Schools Spectacular held at the Sydney Accompanying Jon was his trusty Metric Halo Entertainment Centre. The Schools Spectacular system in its place. The return tour of America Mobile I/O rig running SpectraFoo analysis is a nationally-televised event that brings together will be in theatres where Bruce will use a Nexo software. According to Jon, the setup is fully 2500 students from NSW public schools. There Alpha system. complementary with his preferred digital mixing are three performances in total, all of which take console and digital loudspeaker processors, “The Geo T system is quite different to any up the whole floor and stage space of the Sydney allowing him to optimise the sound system in of the other line arrays as it has cardioid Entertainment Centre. The PA system was each venue on the tour in a matter of minutes. functionality,” Bruce said. “The system cancels predominately EAW KF860 with some EAW most of the low/mid out the back and gives 80 “I use SpectraFoo every day for lining-up the KF730 cabinets flown for end zone coverage. percent less sound onstage. This has the great system,” says Jon. “When you use line arrays you The microphone set up was a sight to behold effect of making the stage incredibly clear and have that problem of lining up the bass stack on – over 200 channels all up, including 30 Shure U gives me the ability to mix as loud as I want the ground to the flown speakers and the side Series radio mics. Two Yamaha PM5Ds took care without any interaction with the monitor hangs. I’ve been a SpectraFoo user for a long of monitors duties steered by Gary Hall. system.” time now, so for me it’s very fast. I’ll time-align Also spotted at the SEC were Matthew Ling and the bass stacks and the flown part of the system For the Oasis tour Bruce decided to take the Ian Shapcott (pictured) during the recent national first, using music and SpectraFoo’s transfer plunge into the digital domain and bought tour by The Wiggles. ‘Shappie’ worked front of function. That literally takes only two minutes. himself a Digico D5 console. “I think that every house on a Midas H3000 and reportedly loved the From there, I’ll noise the system using the engineer needs knowledge of digital consoles tour for the fact he’s in bed by 8pm every night. Spectragram page and find any room anomalies. because in five years everything will be digital,” An EAW KF730 system was used for FOH he declared. “The band agreed to hire my D5 for “I try to keep everything in the digital domain. sound, with additional KF730s flown as sidefill the tour and so it enables us to fit all the opening I come out of the console [a Digico D5] into the for monitors. Norwest increased their stock of acts on it and it takes up less room so we can sell Metric Halo Mobile I/O 2882+DSP and then EAW KF730 to 48 in total in order to meet this more seats.” out of that into my Macintosh laptop running tour’s requirements as a dozen were committed Bruce explained that it took him a few months SpectraFoo. I also have a mic for the room going to the Rockwiz television shoot in Melbourne. Ian to get used to the sound of the D5, which he through the Mobile I/O.” told us that his 2005 highlight was mixing FOH described as ‘brutally clear’ in the top-end. Jon says of SpectraFoo, “It’s a really useful tool. for the Australian leg of The tour thanks to the band’s regular engineer being “Oasis is about big guitar sounds and volume – a You can do it all by ear but it takes longer, and denied a visa after he overstayed his welcome on a ‘meat and potatoes’ band with no fancy effects. I there’s some uncertainty. When you know the previous tour. mix them straight-up and loud… that’s how they software is responding correctly and there are sound best. However, I do run a couple of Amek no reflections – and obviously there is a bit of Norwest also provided the audio for Sydney’s 9098 vocal preamps for Liam and Noel and a experience involved with setting everything up Carols in the Domain with an EAW KF760 couple of dbx 160X compressors for the drums correctly – the software speeds the whole process system for main clusters and EAW KF860 because I like their sound. up. I can pretty easily tune the system in the cabinets in the delay towers. Lurking at FOH was space of 15 to 20 minutes in most arenas.” Tony Moffat with a Yamaha PM1D and monitors Bruce’s effects rack also included a Yamaha were taken care of by Gary Hall with a Yamaha SPX900 and an Al Smart C2 compressor, Jands Production Services provided the audio PM5D. Norwest also supplied their Audio OB while his drive rack packed another Al Smart gear for the tour, including the Clair Bros i4 line truck kitted out with two Yamaha DM2000 C2 compressor, two Lake Contour speaker array which only arrived back in the country the consoles along with TC and Neve outboard gear, controllers, a wireless tablet PC system, a DAT night before the first gig. Jands’ crew included with a Yamaha PM5D added specifically for the player and a CD player. Andrew Mitchell, Nick Giameos and Cameron Elias. event to cater for the orchestra. Aaron Mason Monitor engineer Ian Newton was using a was Norwest’s Project Manager. Not only did Yamaha PM1D console with a couple of Summit Jands Production Services: www.jps.com.au he ensure that Norwest met the clients’ needs TLA100 compressors, three TC 2290 delays, and at all times, but halved setup times compared to three Drawmer 201 gates. previous years. This was Norwest’s sixth year Johnson Audio: johnstonaudioservices.com providing services for Carols in the Domain. Norwest Productions: www.norwestproductions.com

AT 69 – TASMANIA Tasmania’s biggest music event, the Falls Festival, again transformed Marion Bay into a pulsating sea of colour and activity. The line up this year included The Dandy Warhols, Ozomatli, The , , , , The Zutons and more. Production Works was once again relied upon to provide complete production to both stages and the 13,000-plus fans. This year the Tassie leg of the Falls Festival had a new sound system: Production Works supplied 30 Electrovoice XLC-127+ enclosures and 16 X-Line sub bass cabinets to the main stage. Top left: Shay McCusker and Steve Xerri (yellow hair) “We certainly considered other line array systems cable up the Electro Voice XLC array before it’s flown. on the market but we have a good relationship Top right: Master of with EV that we established with X-Array and, monitors, John (Hendo) providing the product did the business (which Henderson sets up the it does), we were very happy to deal with them monitors desk. again,” said Tony Miller, managing director of Bottom: Phill Webb (from Apac Audio) fine-tuning Production Works. the speaker processing for The EV XLC system arrived at Production works Production Works’ new XLC compact line array. only a few days before the festival and there was not time to rig the system, patch it, test the amplifiers or take any other measures that would make a PA owner feel more comfortable. “However we received many compliments about the PA from the visiting front of house guys, which was great, as this was the first time we’d used the system and we were still learning the ropes,” added Tony. “Fortunately the PA comes with Line Array Prediction Software which allowed us to enter all the venue co-ordinates for the site – such as the lay of the land – and then the software effectively told us how to hang the speakers. “The rigging allows you to have 1-degree adjustments so you can rig the system on the ground and then use a chain motor to pull it up like a caterpillar. It then automatically hangs the way it’s supposed to, which saved many hours of work. Adjusting the array on a laptop prior to the gig is much more preferable to the hours of labour you have to spend setting up a conventional system!” As well as supplying the complete package to the main valley stage, this year, for the first time, Production Works supplied sound and lighting to the Field Stage using Production Works’ Dynacord Cobra compact line array system complete with Midas Verona Consoles – the system performed admirably. Production Works: www.productionworks.com.au

AT 70 RUSSELL CROWE SHANNON NOLL Oscar-winning actor and part-time muso Russell Townsville-based Wild Gravity has supplied Crowe, has been out treading the boards around both lighting and audio for the current Shannon Australia with his new band The Ordinary Noll tour. Wild Gravity’s director Noel Anthony Fear of God (TOFOG)… not to be confused decided to dust off his travelling bags and with his old outfit Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts accompany the tour as front of house guru. (TOFOG). Naturally he brought along his latest acquisition: a Digico D1 console. In fact, the tour carries two Russell has some older band mates from the D1 consoles and Noel believes this is the first original TOFOG in the band, as well as some tour to do so in Australia. new faces in the lineup including ‘Bones’ Hillman on bass (ex-) and Alan A Nexo Geo S line array system was powered by Doyle (from Canadian outfit Great Big Sea) on Camco 6 amplifiers, while lab.Gruppen FP6400 vocals/guitar. amps powered monitors. All new racks were supplied for the tour by Tuffa Cases in Sydney. Central Coast-based production company, Entertainment Installations, headed up by Neale Wild Gravity: www.wildgravity.com.au Mace, supplied the audio and lighting for the band. The touring PA featured their Martin Audio Wavefront (running stereo, four-way) with four WSX subs and three W8C mid/highs per side. QSC PL2 amps were used throughout and system processing came via the Martin Audio DX-1. At FOH was a Midas Verona 400, Klark-Teknik DN360 EQ, dbx FOH and insert compressors, and dbx gates. Effects processing entailed two TC M2000 reverbs and two TC D2 delays. Russell’s engineer Bruno DeOliver was very happy with the end results and the small footprint occupied by the FOH setup suited the smaller-capacity venues. The band relied heavily on Shure PSM600 in-ear monitoring, however, there was a complement of EV XW15 wedges on the road just in case. Monitors were mixed on a Crest XRM and a dbx IEM unit was used for the first time on this tour with great results. Also out with the monitor rig was a new ‘Monitor Mate’ – a custom selector unit for easy monitoring of multiple Shure PSM units. The Monitor Mate is built at Entertainment Installations by a local tech for this application and, according to Neale, is a great device. Entertainment Installations: www.entertainment installations.com.au

AT 71 Jason Vrobel.

Green Day performing at the Sydney Cricket Cround.

GREEN DAY “the thick, warm pre’s provided by the Midas are Jands Production Services had a busy end of the perfect for these guys,” he said. year with L-Acoustics V-DOSC systems out with Hilary Duff and The , while Joe Other control gear includes BSS DPR402 Cocker opted for a JBL Vertec system. Mötley compressors, a BSS DPR901 Dynamic EQ, Crüe utilised a Clair Bros i4 system as did the Avalon VT737 tube compressor/preamps, massive concerts staged by Green Day. Summit TLA100 tube compressors, Summit DCL 200 two-channel tube compressors, At the Sydney Cricket Ground, the Green Day Empirical Labs EL8 Distressors, Drawmer i4 system comprised 12 x i4 2.5’ cabinets, 12 x i4 DS201 gates, a Lexicon 480L digital reverb, TC 5’ cabinets, 20 x i4 10’ cabinets, 40 x i4B low-end M5000 dual-engine reverbs, a TC 2290 digital cabinets and 8 x Clair Bros P2 cabinets. Added delay and a Yamaha SPX 990. to this were 48 x JPS JBL 18-inch subs and 42 x JBL Vertec 4889 cabinets. The PA was driven by Kevin likes to use the tube compressors for the 16 x Clair Bros Crest amplifier racks, and a total kick and snare outputs as he finds that they keep of 40 x Crown MA5002VZ amplifiers. the sound ‘fat’ in large arenas such as the SCG. Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s vocal lines System engineer Jason Vrobel tuned the Clair have the Distressor limiter inserted on them. Bros PA with the aid of a Clair iO system controller which offers control right down Monitors were mixed by Beau Alexander on a to a component-by-component basis in the i4 Yamaha PM1D with Clair Bros wedges. boxes. Once the PA was set up, Jason used Jands Crew: Greg Rosman, Andrew Mitchell, the iO wireless controller to remotely tune Nick Giameos, Cameron Elias, Richard Vass, the sound in the venue. Completing the FOH Michael Burdett, Paul Schofield, Mark Wilson, drive rack were a BSS FCS960 stereo EQ, Andy McKeown. BSS FCS926 Varicurve Parametric EQs, BSS FDS366 Omnidrives and a BSS FPC900i remote Jands Production Services: www.jps.com.au interface. If you’d like your production company’s work Green Day’s long-time FOH engineer, Kevin included in the next Live Sound Monitor get in Lemoine, used a Midas Heritage 3000 console: touch with Cat Strom on [email protected]

AT 72