the full article as seen in Live Sound International Magazine

INSTALLATION | CONCERT | THEATER | CORPORATE AV | WORSHIP | CLUB | RECORDING
T H E J O URN A L F OR L I VE EVEN T TECH N OL OG Y P ROF ESSIO NALS
August
2014
July 2009
| www.prosoundweb.com| $10
| $10
| www.prosoundweb.com
I
N
T
E
R
N
A
T
I
O
N
A
L
AMPLE
DYNAMICS
Inside the touring system
for Ray LaMontagne
PLUS:
UNUSUAL MICROPHONE APPLICATIONS
FOCUS ON WIRELESS FREQUENCY COORDINATION
REAL WORLD GEAR: COMPACT DIGITAL CONSOLES
:: Ray LaMontagne::
Ample
Dynamics
����� Sound reinforcement for
����� Ray LaMontagne’s Supernova tour.
by Live Sound Staff, photos by Vic Wagner
R
ecently we had the pleasure of connecting with Jon Lemon,
a noted, seasoned mix engineer who has handled front-of-house
mix duties for numerous top artists, among them Beck, Janet
Jackson, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, as well as
his current client, American singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne
and the Supernova tour.
Lemon’s working with system tech Kyle Walsh and monitor engineer Ed Ehrbar, who share their thoughts here on the systems they’re utilizing to reinforce the
live performances on the current shed tour by the Grammy-winning LaMontagne
and his talented band.
LSI: How did you connect with this artist and tour?
Jon Lemon: This is our first tour together, and it came about in kind of a funny “it’s
a small industry” way. I was meeting James Gordon (managing director of DiGiCo),
who happened to be with my friend Kevin Madigan, who was front of house for
Ray on his last tour. Because he is with CSN, Kevin suggested to Ray’s tour manager (Daniel Herbst) that I’d be a good replacement. It ended up that I knew Ray’s
manager, Michael McDonald, too, so it all just kind of worked out.
At the time, Ray wasn’t tied to any specific sound company. Since I had a good
working relationship with Eighth Day Sound (Cleveland and the UK), and the produc-
14
Live Sound International August 2014
tion manager Mark Jones had also worked
with Eighth Day extensively, we were in
complete agreement that they would be a
good fit for the tour, and it has been.
You’re using Adamson Systems
Energia for your main arrays.
Is that another situation where
you have a long history with the
company?
Lemon: I’ve always respected Adamson’s philosophy as a company and have
enjoyed using the Y18s over the years.
However, I was completely prepared
to go out with another well-known
rig that I’d used before and was happy
with. But when I met with the folks at
Eighth Day, we started talking about
the Energia system – I had expressed
interest in using it last year but it wasn’t
fully complete. They’d just added some
of the newer boxes (E12 12-inch fullrange modules and E218 18-inch subwoofers) and felt it was a really powerful
system that would provide the flexibility
this tour needs (currently out in sheds,
www.ProSoundWeb.com
LaMontagne will be playing in theater
venues this fall).
Since I’d used the E15 system with
The Smashing Pumpkins last year on
several occasions in France and had
a good experience, I thought it was
worth checking out the finished item.
So Eighth Day flew a system for evaluation and I played with it in the shop for
a few days. As it turns out, it’s probably
one of the best PAs I’ve ever heard.
What were you looking for from
the rig?
Lemon: I knew the E15s were fine – as
I said, I’d used them before – but I was
curious about the E12s and the E218
subs. So I put them through their paces,
first playing some program material that
I know well. What I really wanted was to
check out how even the E12 was through
the full bandwidth. It was great and it
also couples seamlessly with the E15 as
an underhung for close into the stage.
What a great product. As far as the
E218s are concerned, I knew Ray would
never need super heavy bass, so I was
confident these would more than do the
www.ProSoundWeb.com job. For my first listen we ground stacked
them and they sounded great, more than
enough low end for our purposes.
From there I pulled up some live
programming through the console to
see how much headroom was left. Ray
is very dynamic on stage – his performance ranges from whispering and light
strumming to a heavy rock sound. Headroom is essential. Driven with the Lab.
gruppen amplifiers (16 PLM 20000Qs
stacked eight per side) – which I’m a
huge fan of – it was no problem.
It was obvious that the system was
going to be terrific and a great PA for
our needs. We went to rehearse in Portland, Maine, and had Ben Cabot from
Adamson on hand. Colin Studybaker
from Lab.gruppen was also on site making sure the amps and the Lake LM 44s
were running currently with the new
presets. Both Adamson and Lab.gruppen were very supportive of our efforts so
I felt comfortable from the get-go.
What’s the typical load-in process on this tour?
Kyle Walsh: Depending on the riggers,
Above, a classic summer tour view
with Jon Lemon at front of house for
Ray LaMontagne. On the previous
page and below we see LaMontagne
and band mates in concert.
we can be in and up within about two
hours. At each venue, I come in and
shoot the room/mark points, and then
go back to the bus and put all of the
information into the Adamson Blueprint AV software. It creates specifics
for handing the system and we’re good
to go. Mike and I (Mike Veres is the
monitor tech with Eighth Day and an
integral part of the setup team) dump
the truck and organize and set angles
as the gear comes in. By the time we
get “hands,” the points are up and we’re
August 2014
Live Sound International
15
:: Ray LaMontagne::
in a few places. It all transitions very
easily and sounds terrific no matter
what configuration we put together.
The sound team in “deep thought mode” at one of the tour’s DiGiCo SD10 consoles. Clockwise from top left: Monitor tech Mike Veres, front of house engineer Jon
Lemon, system tech Kyle Walsh, and monitor engineer Ed Ehrbar.
ready to fly the arrays.
After that, we place fills and subs,
and then run snakes. Jon steps in to build
front of house around his DiGiCo SD10
console, followed by my alignment and
tuning. I utilize (Rational Acoustics)
Smaart v7 to assist the tuning process,
making adjustments on the Lake filtering in the Lab.gruppen amplifiers via a
tablet interface. So it’s usually a pretty
easy morning, depending on the rigging.
Load-out is even easier, able to be
done in an hour depending on the
push. Not having to zero the boxes
while loading is a real time saver – you
can land it with one person if need be.
How’s the new Blueprint AV
software working out?
Walsh: It’s great, pretty much set and
forget. I worked with Ben (Cabot)
in the beginning and we knocked
everything out. We have a few presets
that we use and the software is very
straightforward.
16
Live Sound International August 2014
Jon mentioned that the system
needs to have some degree of
flexibility – can you provide
some specifics?
Walsh: Some of the venues have
weight restrictions. Fortunately it’s
easy to reconfigure the system. I’ve
flown all E12s, all E15s, or a mixture
of both, and even ground-stacked them
Jon, you’ve mixed many tours
with DiGiCo consoles, correct?
Lemon: Yes, I had one of the f irst
D5s back in the day and haven’t really
mixed on any other console since. I
think the DiGiCo boards, in general, have a really good, almost analog
sound – they have since the beginning.
As a company, they’re extremely receptive to suggestions from engineers like
me, which in turn leads to the consoles
being very user friendly.
I tend to choose the specific console
model based upon the reality of what I’m
going to use. Sure, tons of channels are
great, but if you don’t need them, go with
something smaller. I love the SD7 and all
its features, but the SD10 is exactly the
same in audio quality and has more than
enough features for the needs of this particular tour. So I have an SD10 at front
of house and 192 racks on stage enabling
us to run at 96k, and it’s equipped to run
SoundGrid-compatible Waves plugins that provide me with an even wider
assortment of tools for the mix.
So you’re a fan of plug-ins?
Lemon: Absolutely. I love them. The
more you get into SoundGrid, the more
A perspective of the Adamson Energia arrays and subwoofers at a stop on the
Supernova tour.
www.ProSoundWeb.com
:: Ray LaMontagne::
example, I have two group buses for
drums, a normal one and another for
parallel compression (with an SSL
compressor), so I’ll use the Waves NLS
(non-linear summer) plug-in to drive
that. I actually apply the NLS on all
of the bus/groups in my mix – it gives
me a real analog feel.
Main system power and processing
by Lab.gruppen and Lake.
you can create specific nuances for the
mix. The CLA-76 compressor/limiter
really suits Ray’s vocals, so I use that
along with the Rennaisance DeEsser
and C6 for plosives and sculpting.
There are four other vocalists on stage –
really good singers – and I use the same
chain for them, too. From there the four
vocals go into a group that’s tweaked
with the CLA-3A limiter and C6 multiband dynamic compressor, which produces a very cohesive vocal sound.
I set up a lot of group busing; for
Are you carrying outboard gear?
Lemon: Yes. I always have a Waves
MaxxBCL (bass enhancement, compression and level maximization) at
the top of my rack. I haven’t done a gig
without this piece of gear for as long as
it’s existed. Granted, I can get a plug-in
to handle the same thing, but I just love
having those knobs available to grab at.
There’s also an Avalon VT-737sp channel strip that allows me to quickly EQ
or compress Ray’s vocal if needed, and
again, there’s just something nice about
having the box right there. And, there’s
a Summit TLA100A (tube leveling
amplifier) for bass – this is on the bass
group (electric and upright), so I wanted
something simple, effective and flexible.
Because Ray is performing old and
new songs (two distinctly different
vocal styles) on this tour, I need to step
up the reverb on certain passages, so
I’m carrying three Bricasti M7 stereo
reverb processors MIDI’d up to the SD
10. I use one exclusively for backing
vocals and another for drums. They’re
really impressive pieces of gear. And
that pretty much does the trick.
TG M88 and a Shure SM91 on kick,
two Telefunken M80s on the snares
with Sennheiser eb 414s underneath,
Neumann 184s for hi-hat and cymbals,
and Shure VP88 stereo condensers over
the kit and drummer. On guitars there’s
a mix of a Shure SM57, a Neumann
TLM 103 and a Telefunken M80.
What’s standing out in your
mind on the tour at this point?
Lemon: The only unusual thing is how
bloody consistent the PA is night after
night. I find that surprising. I’ve used a
lot of big-name systems, and this is very
sophisticated. Other than that I’m just
very lucky – I’m working with great people and a terrific sounding band, which
makes it even easier to make them sound
good. I wouldn’t change a thing. n
Assembling an Energia array comprised of E15 and new E12 modules.
Jon Lemon at the ready for sound check.
Ed, you’ve also got an SD10 for
monitors, correct?
Ed Ehrbar: Yes, I like the SD10 because
it’s sonically the same as the SD7, which
is usually my console of choice, but the
SD10 is suiting my needs on this tour
completely. I’ve been able to pare down
the size of the console budget without
sacrificing any quality. Waves also has
come a long way, and the ease of using
the various plug-ins on DiGiCo consoles has greatly improved.
What’s happening on stage?
Ehrbar: We’ve got d&b audiotechnik
M2 wedges for the performers and a
couple Sennheiser G3 IEM mixes for
the techs. This show is very straightforward with great music and great players.
You don’t really need much more.
Lemon: All of the vocals are handled with Sennheiser e 935 dynamic
microphones, with drums captured by
a selection of classics – beyerdynamic
18
Live Sound International August 2014
www.ProSoundWeb.com
www.ProSoundWeb.com August 2014
Live Sound International
19