Rune Slot, live sound engineer for Danish rock band D-A-D, has turned to DPA Microphones to deliver the loud, punchy sound for which the band is famous.
Slot has been on tour with D-A-D for most of this year, taking in countries such as China and the US as well as plenty of places in Europe.
To mic drummer Laust Sonne’s snare drum, Slot uses a combination of a DPA d:dicate 2011C twin diaphragm cardioid microphones and DPA d:vote 4099 instrument microphones, with the former positioned above the snare and the latter below.
The d:votes are also used to mike the toms, high hat and cymbals, with reinforcement provided by a DPA d:dicate 4011 compact cardioid microphone positioned underneath the cymbals.
He also uses the 2011Cs to pick up Jacob Binzer’s lead guitar. The musician has two cabinets that give a great combination of clean and dirty sound so Slot positioned the 2011C mics about 12cm from each of the speakers.
“D-A-D’s music is not jazz, it’s very rock-and-roll, so I experimented with a number of different condenser microphones before settling for DPA,” saus Slot. “They are fantastic – awesome really – and it’s great to have high-end microphones supplying the inputs to the desk.
“D-A-D is incredibly loud, so for this tour I wanted to use high-end microphones that could really capture the band’s noise and energy. The DPA mics that we have chosen are great and do the job perfectly.”
Vocals are another area where DPA has come up trumps. Not only has Slot equipped lead singer Jesper Binzer with a DPA d:facto vocal microphone with Wisycom wireless adapter, but he is also using the mic for backup vocals as Sonne, Jacob Binzer and Stig Pedersen all use wired versions of the d:facto.
“The mic helps me to stay in control without having to go primal,” says Jesper Binzer.
Slot adds that with a loud band like D-A-D, lead vocals need to be clearly heard in the mix and initially he thought this might not be feasible with a condenser microphone capsule.
“It is a really great sounding capsule that truly grasps all the spirit and energy of Jesper’s performance,” adds Slot. “Even when he sings from the side, it grabs the sound and pulls it into the mix.
“I didn’t need to worry because the d:facto is of such good quality that it is more than capable of giving me the sound I want. I was really surprised when I tried it for the first time because, usually with condenser microphones, you get feedback issues, especially in the high frequency range. But with the d:facto, this just wasn’t a problem. It does what it is supposed to do and there is very little of bleed from the rest of the band, even though the band plays insanely loud.
“These microphones are really good at isolating the vocals and they are also happy to take plenty of punishment. The guys like to ‘eat’ their mics, but the d:factos cope with that brilliantly and still deliver a very punchy sound.”
Originally known as Disneyland After Dark, D-A-D formed in the early 1980s and, apart from one change when Sonne replaced former drummer Peter Lundholm Jensen, it has retained its original line-up.
Its international breakthrough came in 1989 when it signed to Warner Bros in the USA. At that point the band was forced to change its name to D-A-D to avoid an impending lawsuit from the Walt Disney Company.
