On the evening of August 11, two teams from the ProSoundWeb Network joined forces to host “The FOH & Monitor Engineer Relationship” LIVE, the first-ever Front of the House Fridays live event. FofHF host Russ Long and Signal To Noise co-host Chris Leonard teamed up with FOH engineer Chris Taylor and monitor engineer Robert Bull to talk about mix strategies and how two sides of the same coin successfully come together. Here’s the recording of the live event:
The live event was presented on ProSoundWeb’s Facebook and YouTube channels, offering listeners what was an interesting and insightful conversation. Two more FotHF live webcasts are coming up on August 25 and September 1, both to be featured on the same PSW channels and kicking off at 8 pm U.S. Eastern time.
The FotHF podcast series is sponsored by Yamaha. Check out all episodes here.
After a stint running his own sound company, musician, mix engineer and sound system designer Chris Taylor decided to concentrate more on the artistic side of the touring industry. He began providing mixing and production skills to Contemporary Christian artists such as Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and DeGarmo and Key Band. During the next number of years he also mixed tours for artists such as Barbara Streisand, David Foster, Janet Jackson, Jewel, Kitaro, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more. Additional achievements include mixing for TV Award Shows as well as handling audio coordination and design. For his contributions to broadcast audio events, Chris received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Sound Mixing, and an Emmy contribution award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing.
Monitor engineer Robert Bull has toured for 23 years. He’s been on the other end of the snake for George Lucas Super Live Adventure, Trisha Yearwood, Amy Grant, Jewel, Linkin Park, Martina McBride and The Rolling Stones. When he got off the road, Bull settled into a position with Clair Global in Nashville where he’s been able to support many of his former clients and many young artists, including Chris Stapleton, Greta Van Fleet and Maren Morris. He still mixes when his artists need him.
FOTHF host Russ Long is a top touring and multi-platinum recording and mix engineer who’s worked in professional audio for more than 30 years. Following a decade as Steven Curtis Chapman’s FOH engineer, he has spent over 12 years mixing FOH for Amy Grant, and has also mixed numerous high-profile events such as the KLOVE Music awards, the Challenge America Musical Gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and Barbara Bush’s 90th birthday concert featuring Reba McEntire, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant. In addition, he’s been part of the audio team for numerous broadcast events such as the Grammy Awards, the CMA Awards, ABC’s “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” TV Special, and more. Russ is currently part of Yamaha’s console R&D team.
Signal To Noise co-host Chris Leonard is also the director of audio at IMS Technology Services, a production company headquartered in Garnet Valley, PA, where he’s served for the last decade. Prior to that, he worked with Maryland Sound as a touring monitor engineer and system tech for bands like Tears for Fears, Josh Groban, Don Henley, and Disturbed as well as national events like Times Square New Years Eve and Presidential Inaugurations.
Join the next FotHF/STN live conversations on August 25 and September 1 on ProSoundWeb/Facebook and ProSoundWeb/YouTube.
