Solid & Consistent
On stage, monitor engineers Phill “Sidephill” Robinson (Chesney) and Brain “Opie” Baxley (the band) both utilize Midas PRO9 consoles. Robinson delivers his mix to Chesney’s Shure PSM1000 personal monitoring system, while Baxley serves the band’s Sennheiser in-ear mixes along with a few NEXO 45-N12 line monitors.
Chesney’s distinct vocal is captured by a Shure SKM9HS capsule on an Axient AXT200 wireless transmitter. The upgrade to the Axient system came about on last year’s tour, where Chesney started each show on a second stage out in the audience, roughly 200 feet in front of the PA, and then was transported to the main stage on a flying metal chair.
At front of house, signal from both PRO9s there goes digitally to two Yamaha DME64 digital mix engines outfitted with 16 channels of Lake Mesa EQ for zone control. Four inputs of Lake are set up for left, right, sub and fill, with 12 outputs running to house left and right, out fill, ground subs, and so on.
Audinate Dante networking takes signal to the NUAR drive racks on stage. The DME64s are also used to switch the two PRO9 consoles as well as the Avid VENUE Profile favored by Eric Church front of house engineer Brent Sparks.
The sound team performs meticulous system tuning prior to each show, working a zone grid to capture input that’s interpreted with an assist from Rational Acoustics Smaart. Mills runs the NEXO NeMo remote monitoring app on his iPad that provides control over the NXAMP network, providing him with access to key system factors before and during a show from anywhere in the venue. Rabold also does tuning via a tablet equipped with the Lake app.
“Once John and his crew have verified the rig and its components, he hands it over to me,” Rabold says. “I get his input on why things are the way they are that day, and if there’s anything out of the ordinary. I have a very specific curve I want to achieve every day, and I can honestly say we get that. I don’t want to have to recreate the wheel every day in terms of my mix.
“I like to tune my own system. At the end of the day I’m being paid to deliver a certain level of sound quality to the audience,” he adds. “The better acquainted I am with the sonic characteristics of the room and the system, the better and faster I can confidently react to what’s given to me on a daily basis.
“I’ve been blessed with incredible system engineers for most of my career, and we’ve got a great one on this tour.”
For his part, Mills and his team have been quite pleased with the performance of the new rig. “It’s beautiful – musical, solid, and consistent throughout the coverage area, night after night,” he concludes. “The front row and the back row do really sound the same. The vocal is gorgeous everywhere, and there’s great separation of instruments. And Chris does such a great mix, bringing out and then blending just the right elements.”
Keith Clark is editor in chief of ProSoundWeb and Live Sound International.