New York-based psychedelic rock outfit MGMT are at the core a duo comprised of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. But live, they are one of those bands that are expansive, touring 6-piece outfit.
Behind the controls at monitor world for the past seven months has been Fabian Quiroga, back on his DiGiCo SD8 console since his departure earlier in the year from a lengthy stint with The Black Keys. The SD8 was provided by Eighth Day Sound’s UK shop.
“After doing a few small tours with the band’s previous console, I knew I had to go back to my DiGiCo board,” he states. “When I came into this camp, management wanted the transition of a new monitor engineer to be as smooth as possible and they asked if I could use the former board. Ugh, no. So for this European leg of the tour, I’ve gotten my SD8 back out with me and it has already made a huge difference.
“Mixing monitors on a SD console is just so easy and enjoyable. With this band, I have to be quite heavy with snapshots since there are so many electronic and acoustic elements and each of the six the guys play different instruments all through the set.”
For this run, MGMT’s Andrew handles vocals in addition to guitar, keyboards, and even a huge 70 lbs cowbell! Other frontman Ben does double duty on keys, plus some additional samplers and effects units. Both are complimented by guitar, bass, drums, and another player on guitar and keys—all of which sing, with the exception of the bassist.
“I believe we have a total of 46 inputs,” he says, “not including my stage talk backs. Plus, the whole band is on ears with the new Ultimate Ears UE Personal Reference Monitors and Sennheiser G3 belt packs, with the exception of the bass player, who is on a d&b audiotechnik M2 system (sometimes two if the stage space allows it). I also give the drummer a d&b Q-sub to give him a little more feel.
“I use a designated reverb for each of their vocals and a couple room verbs for the drums in order to recreate the room we are playing at in their ears. I also use a couple delays for a keyboard in order to recreate the effect used on the lead synth for the song ‘Kids’ from their first album. As I said before, I try to be very minimal when it comes to effects (even though I am using over ten onboard FX). I rely heavily on my onboard effects and my audience mics positioning in order to recreate the room.”
One of his favorite, go-to features on the SD8 is the Macros, which he can’t rave enough about. “I use them anywhere, from mute groups for my inputs and outs, delay tap tempo, or simply to bring up my spill groups with the different copies of the channels I have designated to each member of the band.”
“This is the smallest tour I have done in my life and I love it. (I know that playing 10,000+ people is not small). However it has been a new experience for me. I love working with the band and I love how welcoming they are to my opinion and comments I bring to the table. The whole crew is super laid-back yet very professional, so I’ve felt extremely welcomed ever since I joined. And I’m blessed to have Steve Revitte as my counterpart at FOH. Although I don’t have an A2 for this gig, my load-outs take about 30 minutes tops and carrying all ears makes it that much easy.