I have been a musician all my life. I studied classi

So Ken, how did you get into the music
business and become a FOH engineer?
I have been a musician all my life. I studied
classical piano beginning at the age of three
years old. When I was in high school I had
started to play guitar because I figured out
that guitar players got the girls. The punk
band I was in won a „battle of the bands“
contest. The prize was a weekend in the recording studio in Los Angeles. When we went
to the sessions, I spent the entire time watching what the engineer was doing, and not
caring at all about my guitar playing. I said „I
want to do what THAT guy is doing.“ Later
that same year I was awarded a scholarship
to the prestigious Berklee College of Music
in Boston. There I studied Music Production
and Engineering and graduated in 1991.
While I was still in Boston I was working at
a local studio and eventually worked my way
up to become the head engineer there. After
I graduated I had already had quite a bit of
experience in the studio, and moved to Los
Angeles. I spent my first four years in Los
Angeles working as a producer and recording
engineer in the LA music scene. One of the
bands that I was working with in the studio
fired their FOH guy, and asked if I could mix
their live show. Previous to that moment I
had never mixed ANYTHING live. I fell deeply
in love with the instant gratification of mixing
a live show and have never looked back. My
world has come full circle in recent years as
I am getting bands now asking me to mix
some of their studio projects.
What are some of the bands you’ve done
sound for over the years?
Kiss, Kid Rock, Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne,
Rob Zombie, Smashing Pumpkins, Ted Nugent, System of A Down, Limp Bizkit, Linkin
Park, Courtney Love, Seal, Guns and Roses,
Slash, Lisa Marie Presley, etc..........
How were you introduced to Palmer
products?
Actually - Brad Maddix (Rush‘s FOH engineer) introduced me to them except he
doesn‘t know it. My good friend Robert Long
(production manager for Disturbed) did a tour
with Brad, and when Robert came back from
that tour and said - „you have got to try these
speaker DI‘s that Brad was using - they are
amazing!!!!!)
Which Palmer product(s) have you
used?
I have tried the PDI-03 and the PDI-09. I primarily use the PDI-09 on all my guitars today.
PDI03
What do you like about using Palmer?
Any special characteristics you can
point out?
What you put in, you get out. I have done several instances of the „pepsi challenge“ between
mics and Palmers with artists, and asked them
to tell me which one is the mic, and which is
the DI. 4 out of 5 times they get it wrong.
Would you recommend the PDI-09 in
lieu of a microphone for small club applications? What sort of benefit might a
person achieve using a PDI-09 versus a
microphone on their cab?
Absolutely. I believe whole heartedly that the
PDI-09 is a viable alternative to a microphone
in a club situation. Gain before feedback is
the primary benefit there.
PDI09
(you mentioned using the PDI-09) In your
applications, you prefer to mix the PDI09 with your mic of choice (AT4050?).
How do you set this up? Adjusting pan
and what not?
Believe it or not, my primary guitar sounds are
coming from the PDI-09. I use the AT4050 to
get the air movement that I don‘t get from a
DI. So generally I lo pass the 4050 so that
I get the chunk out of the speakers that the
DI just can‘t physically provide. Today with
digital consoles I put a .5 to 1 ms delay on the
palmer channel versus the mic to make up for
the phasing/latency that happens when you
combine an electric signal with an acoustic
to electric transducer.
Has there been a favorite band to work
for among these?
The one that paid me the most..... just kidding.... Slash (by far). One of the worlds best
guitar players and an amazing friend to boot.
January 2011