Q. How did you get started in the business?
John Kerns: I played in bands when I was young. We owned our own small PA and then I moved to California and started doing studio stuff for a little while. I just sort of lucked into the live thing.
Q. How long have you worked on A-level tours like No Doubt, doing big stadium shows?
JK: Since 1986 or 87 for arena/shed type tours. This is my fourth tour with No Doubt, and I’ve also worked with Sum 41, Avril Lavigne, Rogue Traders, Bruce Springsteen, Shania Twain, and Stevie Nicks, among others.
What have been the biggest advantages of moving from analog to digital (consoles)?
Obviously, the ability to recall everything is the first and foremost advantage, especially with all the traveling and waiting around we do.
Though it actually wasn’t until three or four years ago that I ran into digital desks that I really liked. That’s what facilitated the actual jump over to digital.
How do you approach mixing from a creative standpoint?
I really just try to reproduce the band, but in a live setting. Obviously, there are certain bands that have [elements] on songs or records that I try to make come across live.
But all of the bands are so different. Mixing No Doubt versus Sum 41 vs. an Australian band I work with –they are all different acts, so I approach them all differently.
Yet, I still want everyone out there in the crowd to say, ‘Wow, you know that band was great. They played great. They sounded good.’ They don’t have to say that the band sounded exactly like the record.
I don’t think people really come to just hear the CD played really loud. They want a unique sound that you can only get by physically being there.
How does the ability to recall a whole show on the fly affect the way you mix?
It really hasn’t affected the way I mix at all. It certainly has affected all the traveling and all the one-offs. For Sum 41, we did shows all over the world, and it was usually on budget.
So being able to take just three rack spaces and a USB key is a lot easier than flying a bunch of hardware over there. It’s a lot easier than it ever used to be.
You are using a (Digidesign) VENUE system now on your shows. Do you recall what the learning curve was on the first show you mixed on it?
It was easy. It’s the easiest of all the digital consoles I’ve used. It’s laid out just like an analog console, except you are working on one channel at a time instead of a bunch.
I didn’t delve into plug-ins too much to start. Everything on the console surface itself is totally usable and allows me to work the way I have always worked.
How’s the reliability of the VENUE?
It’s been great. In my entire experience, I’ve had one minor hiccup, and I’m not even sure it was related to the VENUE. I believe it was due to some conflicting authorizations.
Has your soundcheck process improved?
VENUE saves me a ton of time in sound checks. There are a lot fewer things that you have to worry about. You don’t have to worry about whether a cable is working or not. You don’t have to rely on whoever your local system guy is. And when you travel it is so easy. Everything is in one package.
What plug-ins do you use?
For reverbs, I like the TC (Electronic) stuff. I like the TL Space. I use CraneSong Phoenix, and use a bunch of McDSP stuff. I find it’s really good. I also use Analog Channel and Channel G, and a lot of it is to try to emulate old pieces of gear.
Though if I had to do a show with just the surface stuff and not a single plug-in–other than reverbs and delays– with keys and compressors, we’d still have something there.
Some engineers go back and look at a list of what plug-ins were used on different records or what analog gear was used on records, and they’ll try to recreate that. Is that your approach?
I certainly don’t want to take anything away from that at all, but that’s not my gig. To mold them isn’t my gig.
When you look at the stage you see what everybody is playing; you can hear what everybody is playing. I don’t know if organic is the right word, but my approach is pretty straightforward.
Have you delved into the recording capabilities (of VENUE) at all?
Yes, that’s how we record our show. We just use the recordings for sound check the next day.
For the uninitiated, can you explain what virtual sound check is and how it works?
Basically, you are just recording your previous show straight off the preamp heads and when you switch over your console into HDX mode the next day, you can play back.
As long as your input and output assignments are all correct, you’re playing back through your actual channels with a real dynamic performance from the band.
Short of leakage into any vocal mics, you are about as close as you can be to exactly what your band played or what your stock sound should be at the start of your sound check.
How do the bands react to the kind of new workflow that virtual sound check enables?
Bands dig it. They love it. Because they can come in and instead of me asking them to stick around and play three or four things, they can come in and run half a song and as long as they’re good, you know, as long as their mixes are good, we’re set. It makes life easier on everybody.
I think when you get up to this level, everyone is pretty open to new technology and they probably all know more about Pro Tools than I do. They can probably teach me things.
Can you talk about how VENUE works in a festival environment?
It works great. In analog world, you have 60 or 70 inputs, you are still dialing knobs, looking at pieces of paper to see what you had on the last show. VENUE is a lifesaver.
It’s not the be-all-save-all, however. You’ve still got to use your head about it. If you come in and you have 300 different plug-ins that you use, you better make sure that they are in the console because you are not going to have time to load them.
It won’t do your job for you, but it will make it a lot easier.
This is one of your final nights and a hometown gig in Los Angeles. Does that feel like a special experience for the band?
It may be for the band. It’s just another show for me. I have the same approach to every show.
You can’t not give it your all just because you aren’t doing a show in a good market. It’s the same show.
But it is a line of thinking, definitely a prevalent line of thinking. You always get the ‘Ah, LA, it’s a big show.’
But I think to myself, ‘Oh, really…did three more trucks show up? It looks like the same stuff to me!’ It doesn’t matter whether we are doing a club gig in EL Paso or doing four nights here in their hometown.
The whole crew is the same way. No matter what show we are doing, everyone brings their A game every time. If they don’t want to do it every day, then why do it?
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