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.

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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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