Radiohead Live

Radiohead can lay claims to being the ‘biggest band in the world’, and AT’s Andy Stewart would tend to agree. He spoke to the tour’s FOH and monitor engineers to hear how it was done.

verywhere I go at the moment I meet people who ‘don’t Sydney show where I spoke to Radiohead’s front of house get Radiohead anymore’. Once fans of the band, these engineer Jim Warren – who’s been mixing the band live for Epeople claim that Radiohead’s ‘gone weird’ and that their over a decade – and foldback engineer Graham Lees, who last last few albums are a bit ‘obscure’. Up until last week I was visited Australia with Massive Attack. Amid the chaos and din beginning to think that I was the only one who hadn’t ditched of soundcheck, and with tension mounting as the crowd outside Radiohead for something ‘cheerier’ or ‘more accessible’. But threatened to storm the place, I managed to chat with Jim and the lines of teenagers freezing their arses off on the pavement Graham to find out what’s involved in producing the sound for outside the Sydney Entertainment Centre recently proved that Radiohead live. Radiohead remain one of the biggest bands in the world, and for good reason. Chart Challenge Playing to packed houses in Sydney and Melbourne, Andy Stewart: So Jim, you’ve worked with Radiohead for Radiohead performed an extraordinary combination of songs years. Are they still challenging your engineering skills? from several of their recent albums with a grace and intensity Jim Warren: Yeah, they are. They’re always coming up with that is truly rare. I was lucky enough to make it to the second different and interesting sounds, some of which I can’t always

32 could possibly be what they were after. When I did, I realised that, ‘Hey, the piano sound on the album is really close to what this mad piano sound would be like if I just left it alone’, instead of thinking ‘What the f**k… who’s ruining my piano sound?’ and trying to work out how to ‘repair’ it. But one great thing about Radiohead is that they’re not just into copying the album. The philosophy is that the music should develop when you play it live to give each performance its own personality. I probably only refer back once or twice to the albums – I listen for things like particular vocal effects that I’ll mimic live – but I rarely refer to the recordings after that. AS: I s’pose in some ways that’s the whole philosophy of a band like Radiohead in the first place; the music obviously has its own life at the moment it’s recorded and if it was performed exactly the same way a year later, it’d probably feel a bit fake. JW: Yeah. And I think the idea of trying to replicate the albums would mean that you’re on really safe ground and that’s just not where Radiohead wants to be. If they’re going to play live for nine months they want it to be exciting – for their own sakes as well as their audience’s. For instance, Jonny Greenwood’s got an FM radio on stage with him that he uses during songs to import bits of random audio, which he flies in through his effects pedals and Roland Space Echo. If he wanted to reproduce what’s on the album he’d just sample it, but that's not in the spirit in which it was conceived – apart from being dead boring. As it is, sometimes the radio’s disastrous and all you get is interference or, worse, something dull and uninteresting. Yet on other nights you’ll get the most amazing random sound bites flying into the middle of the mix and everybody just gets vibed up and thinks ‘How lucky are we?’. Taking chances like that is what Radiohead is all about; live as well as in the studio.

Digital FOH mixing AS: This is the first time you’ve hit the road with Radiohead armed with a digital console. Why have you made that switch and how has it performed so far? JW: We were simply running out of inputs on our old Sound- craft Series 5. I’d reached the point where I actually had to take channels away; things that were previously DI’d and miked, I’d started reducing to a single mic channel instead, just to fit every- thing on the deck. AS: How many channels was the Series 5? JW: It had 56 inputs: 48 plus four stereo. And it was either a case of getting a 16- or 24-channel sidecar for it – which would have get my head around. Certainly if I’m having trouble dealing with been very hard to source for hire – or moving over to another a sound, I’ll let them know. If they think it’s because I haven’t got console. So I thought, rather than trying to hire such an unusual it, they’ll explain what they’re after. Conversely, if I think they’ve setup in three different countries, maybe now was the time to concocted a sound that’s impossible to deal with, they’ll change it. give the Digico D5 a try. The short tour we’re on at the moment We have a good rapport like that. But sometimes I just won’t get it – although it involves gigs in Japan, Australia and America – is and they’ll say ‘No, we really want it to sound like this’. only nine shows… perfect for trying out a new system. AS: Can you give me an example of that situation? AS: Presumably you familiarised yourself with the D5 before JW: One perfect example is Sit Down, Stand Up where Thom you hit the road with it? Yorke’s piano is actually being fed to me via Graham’s monitor JW: We had a pretty decent amount of rehearsal time, and I’ve desk, back through Ed O’Brien’s effects pedals on stage, and out used other digital consoles over the years so it wasn’t an overly of his guitar amps. It’s a bloody mad sound live as well as on the daunting prospect. We had about five days with it during produc- album, and I had real problems coming to terms with it. This was tion rehearsals here in Sydney – three days before the band got one of those times when I had to refer to the album, because I just here and then two days with the band in action. couldn’t believe that the sound I was receiving at front of house AS: Has this switch been on the cards for long?

33 Front of house engineer Jim Warren (centre) with a couple of colleagues shortly before the punters arrived.

JW: I had a day with it about two years ago, which is back when the seeds for this changeover were sown. I’ve been mixing Radiohead for a long time now and the mix is really intense: there’s a hell of a lot going on during the show. And for a while now I’ve known the day was fast approaching where we would have to consider the switch to a digital console. So in anticipation of that happening, I’ve been trying to analyse what I do over the last couple of years: how much I actually change things; what I do and don’t touch, that sort of thing. AS: How do you perform this self-analysis? JW: You just try and pay attention to the process, and be aware of what you don’t change as well as what you do. Realise that after the first week of a tour you haven’t touched a pan pot except for that one song where you use it to make the keyboards go backwards and forwards. Realise that, although everything is at your fingertips, not everything is required to be. Most things just get set and left, while other things are constantly being changed. AS: So has working with the new console been an easy or a frustrating experience? JW: It’s been pretty good. One of the great advantages of the D5 is that it doubles as a multitrack recording system. The 56 inputs that come from the stage-box get split: one lot serves front of house, the other feeds a hard disk recorder. What this means is that when the band finishes rehearsal, you can just change a couple of cables over and start rehearsal all over again – using the recorded version to fine tune the snapshots – which is a fantastic aspect of the digital console. When you change to a different desk, of course, you have to learn a completely different sequence of events. So for that 20 second period in the middle of a song where everything goes nuts and there’s half a dozen things to change in a particular order, accurately and quickly, the recorder can play back that part of the song over and over until the series of manoeuvres can be learnt and fine-tuned. Obviously you can’t do that with the band – ‘excuse me, could you guys just play that transition for half an hour while I work out how to do this?’ AS: Does this ‘surrogate’ band coming from the hard disk actually sound enough like the original or is there literally no difference? JW: It sounds exactly the same. When it comes from the stage box it’s coming down a fibre-optic cable as a stream of digital information, and that’s what’s coming off the hard drive as well. So what you’re hearing is two identical digital versions of the same event. AS: You obviously have no qualms or fear of the digital board then? JW: No. I do studio work as well so I’m used to interacting with a digital user interface. I’ve still got concerns about the reliability of digital gear, but perhaps no more than my concerns about the reliability of any gear. We’ve had the digital desk freeze up on us completely, but we’ve standards – 57s, 58s. My preferred kick drum mic is a also had a Summit tube compressor Beyer M88 but there are three or four other mics that go down in the middle of a gig. And will do that job perfectly adequately. If you do want to yesterday, an XTA 31-band stereo get a few condensers, just get the standard AKG 451s graphic EQ that was inserted across because there’s not a lot of difference between them. the main system malfunctioned, such But every now and then you come across one that that if you pulled down the 100Hz sounds a bit different, like the Shure KSM141, which fader, it brought down the entire level I use on Jonny’s guitar amp. Compared with the 451, by 15dB. So in terms of reliability, they’re really bright: a bit stridently bright for some we’ve had problems with a bit of things. But it’s horses for courses; when I need a really digital gear, a bit of tube gear, and a bright mic I reach for the 141. I prefer to resolve tonal bit of solid-state analogue gear. The problems that way rather than by using EQ. When I digital stuff is no more or less reliable was mixing on the Series 5, half the channels didn’t than anything else really. even have the EQ switched in. It’s the same now with the D5. Microphone placement and microphone Tricks of the trade choices provide a better outcome – I know it’s a bit of AS: Have you got any unusual a purist’s thing to say, but I prefer to work that way. It approaches to instrument setups? also gives me the advantage of having a ‘second’ EQ JW: There are probably two aspects set: the first is just the pure mic tone (no EQ) and the to this question, especially in terms second is an alternative tone for moments that require of microphone choices. The first a different shape or bite. I use this type of setup on aspect is just the practicality of the the main vocal channel and on one of the guitars for setup. There’s a lot of stuff moving certain songs. Thom [Yorke] occasionally sounds like about during a Radiohead concert, he’s singing through a sock so I have a little ‘brighten- so I try and keep things as tidy as ing’ EQ that I pop in when he sings that way. It means possible – that way there’s nothing I’m able to flip-flop between two different EQs without to trip over. The guitar amps have taking up yet another channel of the console. got little gooseneck stands that sit AS: Can you tell me more about the vocal chain? under them, which frees up the space JW: I use a box called the XTA d2, which is a dynamic and keeps everything nice and clean. equaliser, and a tube Summit DCL-200 for the com- The upright piano has a tiny little pression. The d2 has a three-band dynamic EQ on omni-pattern lavalier mic hanging in board, which allows you to expand or compress. The it. Because it gets pushed backwards top-end band takes care of the de-essing and I use the and forwards on and off the stage bottom-end band to expand the low end a bit. When all the time, it wouldn’t matter how Thom backs away from his mic there’s sometimes a well you secured a big condenser rumble down the line, and the d2 just gently expands mic inside that thing, there’d always that out, and as soon as he’s back on his mic, it opens be a chance of it rattling about and up again. In the greater scheme of things it probably moving during the gig. Whereas the isn’t doing very much but the de-esser certainly works lavalier just hangs on a piece of gaffa well – better than anything else I’ve used. tape stuck under the lid, and because AS: What about reverb, what are you using at front it’s got no weight of its own it doesn’t of house? work up any momentum. Even if JW: I’m not a great fan of reverb myself, especially you shove the piano backwards and doing gigs in large venues like this. Most of the places forwards time after time, it just sits we play in have plenty of reverb of their own. there and wiggles; it never goes AS: But of all the bands in the last decade Radiohead anywhere. It’s minuscule, but it gives is one of the few left that goes for a lush and wet me a great top-end piano sound. sound, wouldn’t you say? There’s also a plate mic [PZM] on JW: Yeah that’s true, they like using reverb a lot of the back of the piano. The one we’re the time, but the idea of stacking reverb on top of the Top: The L-Acoustics V-DOSC system using at the moment is a schoeps, venue’s own naturally occurring decay can be a very supplied by JPS was Radiohead's PA of which gives me all the thump and messy process. There are odd songs, like Exit Music, choice and sounded superb on the night. Above: Thom Yorke's foldback wedges are bump that I need. where there’s a five-second reverb on Thom’s voice, from Firehouse Productions in New York. AS: So do you prefer to use specialist and you can certainly hear that! condenser mics on the instruments or AS: So what reverbs are you using? standard dynamics? JW: I’m using a TC Electronics M-One, which is kind JW: If you’re ever thinking of setting up a PA company of the budget TC Electronic box… it sounds good. I would recommend you fill your boxes with old And TC’s D-Two delay is great as well, although I must

36 admit, I have a PDF file of the D-Two’s manual open on my or gesture is offered in their general direction. But at the top, computer more often than not. It’s not a very intuitive box but surprisingly, is the foldback engineer – The Guru – the person it can do amazing things. On Everything in its Right Place, the D- that the band members wave to, even in the middle of their songs Two’s playing back a delayed ping-pong version of Thom’s voice sometimes. Monitor engineers are huge. I managed to speak to – forwards then backwards, then backwards and forwards. It’s a the ‘guru’ of the Radiohead concert, Graham Lees, who didn’t nice box. seem to get the joke when I told him of my theory… AS: What about the guitars? Andy Stewart: Are there any special tricks you have up your JW: There are enough bloody effects on those guitars coming sleeve for Radiohead's foldback sound? from the stage without me putting any more on them. I don’t do much to them really. I make a couple of them a bit bigger and wider, by producing a false stereo image: using the mic and DI as a fake left and right. I compress the hell out of the DI and EQ it differently, which effectively sucks up all the delays and produces a squashed, deep and distorted sort of reverb behind it. But other than that the guitars are pretty straightforward.

Mixing the On-Stage Sound If you could rank people at a concert in order of popularity I reckon it would run something like this: the lowest ranked – The Loathed – would have to be the police (they’re always at the bottom, regardless of the circumstances); then there’s security – The Frustrating – necessary, but most people wish they weren’t there in the first place; next come the general public – The Unavoidable – who get in your way and are always too tall when they stand in front of you. But then we take a quantum leap up to the band members themselves – The Highly Sought After – at Monitors engineer Graham Lees at the Midas XL3 consoles during whom fans scream and wave the moment a hand movement soundcheck at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Graham Lees: Not especially. I do have a lot of equipment on which makes my life much easier. stage admittedly, but a lot of the channels on the two Midas AS: Presumably the in-ears stop everyone wanting to turn their consoles are for specific songs. There are 56 channels on the levels up and up. I suppose the benefit is that each person can deck feeding a combination of in-ear monitors (IEMs) and monitor at his own level without it affecting everyone else… wedges. Thom [Yorke] and Ed [O’Brien] both use in-ears, but GL: That’s right, and the benefit is that everything is very, very they use them in a way that’s a little different. They’re not moni- controllable on stage because of the low levels – the possibil- toring very loudly and the IEMs are partly being used to reduce ity of feedback is almost nil, so I can use the equipment at its the on-stage volume. Thom and Ed also have wedges in front optimum. I’m also using these fantastic wedges from Firehouse of them, as do the rest of the band, so I’m feeding them a com- Productions in New York, which I personally feel are the best bination of wedges and in-ear monitoring. For example, Thom’s wedges ever developed. I can run them almost flat – the XTA hearing all the drums and guitars through his wedges and he’s hearing the acoustic guitar and voice through his in-ears for clarity and pitching as much as anything else. This combination keeps things fairly live so he doesn’t feel too cut off from the environment around him. AS: So the feed to Thom’s in-ear mix only includes half the sounds? There’s no drums or guitars at all in his in-ears, is that right? GL: That’s right. AS: Does this combination have any drawbacks? It instinc- tively feels like that approach might be fraught with phase and spatial problems? GL: Not really, no. Initially I thought we’d have to start employing delays and such-like but we just kept it very simple and it works. In my experience most of the problems with moni- toring are caused by excessive levels, but Radiohead’s stage levels are quite low – there are no ferocious levels out there, graphic EQs I have AS: Was that a messy process or a fascinating one? across them are GL: Well, it took quite a while: we were in rehearsal almost superfluous for a month doing that. But it’s the only way to do it now, that’s how good because the guys play so many different instruments, they are. and the songs are so varied from one to the next, that AS: Is this ‘split’ mix no static monitors setup could possibly accommodate that you’re feeding them. When you’re working with so many channels, Thom and Ed consis- one of the important things is to avoid getting bogged tent throughout the down at soundcheck. So, for instance, Jim Warren has gig? chosen mics that work hand in glove with the sounds, GL: No. For certain so neither of us have to do much in the way of EQ’ing. songs I put everything When you push up the faders the tone of our sounds is in Thom’s in-ears pretty close – we attempt to keep the channel EQ as because he’s moving flat as possible. So if we need a bit more top end on the around the stage away guitar, for example, we’re more likely to change micro- from the wedges. phones than go diving into the EQ. There are different And the monitors setup also provides sends times throughout between the band members as well, which is unusual. the gig where that’s For example, on certain songs like Sit Down, Stand likely to happen, so Up I’m sending the piano to the guitar effects, and for those songs I on Everything in its Right Place I’m feeding Thom’s switch to a different lead vocal into another effects box on stage so that mix, which we’re both Jonny [Greenwood] can modify it on-the-fly. Jonny’s aware of in advance. sampler is recording and playing back ‘live’ samples of Thom knows when Thom’s voice as they occur via the foldback system. If I’m switching over so something goes wrong with the foldback, Jonny won’t there are never any have anything to sample. So that type of thing is a rude surprises. slightly unusual role for monitors to play. AS: Radiohead is AS: There’s a lot of guff spun about Radiohead – who hardly what you they are and what they think. Are they an easy group would describe as a of guys to work with live? ‘conventional’ band GL: They are. They’re great communicators and in many ways. How they’re very knowledgeable about the gear. Anything has the band’s on- to do with monitors is all about communication really: stage setup evolved? and they have the technical vocabulary to explain to Has the system been me exactly what they want. We just sit down and talk built collaboratively? about the best way of approaching things. At times it GL: We’ve all had can get a little complicated as different songs add to a say in how the the list of specific monitoring tasks I’m required to system’s evolved. perform, but it’s my job to cater to the band’s needs and We set up just over each song’s peculiarities. It’s an organic process, and it Top: Outboard gear used for vocals included the a year ago in their grows all the time. XTA D2 Dynamic EQs, Summit DCL-200 stereo valve own private studio in compressor/limiters and a Behringer Tube Composer. Oxfordshire, where Above: Other outboard included TC M-Ones and D- Post Script Twos, Yamaha SPX 900s, Roland SDE-3000A and the band rehearses Just for the record, Radiohead’s performance on the SDE-330 delays, a Line 6 Pod and a Tech21 Sans and records its night I saw them was one of the best concerts I’ve seen Amp. albums. We sat down in the last decade. My hat goes off to the band them- at that time and just selves, who are without doubt one of the great touring built the system up slowly and organically. We started acts in the world today, and to Jim and Graham, and with the basic drums, guitars and bass channels and their crews, who produced a show that sounded quite went from there, developing the system as we went superb. It’s a rare thing for me to go to a concert and – making choices about everything from wedges to not wear earplugs these days, but the combination microphones. As the band introduced a new song to of the smoothness of the JPS-supplied V-DOSC Line the potential set – they can choose from nearly 70 – I’d array, the quality of the mixing and the brilliance of introduce a new channel here and there to accommo- the band made the wearing of earplugs unnecessary, date the song’s needs, rather than create an inflexible except between songs where the sound of the crowd system that would make performing the songs difficult was positively ear-shattering! in the live situation.

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