The integrated approach provided further advantages. The drummer (Reinhardt Melz) is usually outfitted with a Roland M-48 personal mixer, allowing him to tailor his mix; the same with two backup singers who normally don’t tour with the band.
“Reinhardt has that near him so he can do a bit of a blend himself,” Greco says. “On the M-380 there are enough auxes to set up for everybody, and that never changes, but for some time we’ve struggled with Reinhardt’s mix. We used to bring a little Mackie mixer along for him, to which I’d stem out a stereo drum mix, a stereo band mix, count-ins and click, but the M-48 is a better solution.”
In addition, a Roland R-88 recorder/mixer (8 channels) was synched to the R1000s for ambient audience capture. It was fed by a stereo pair of Audix M1280 miniature cardioid condenser microphones in front of the audience and two AKG C 414 condensers at the rear of the theater for a “near and far” blend of ambience and audience reaction.
“Because we were going to mix this in 5.1 as well, I wanted a separate system, and the mic setup allowed us to get a lot of clarity in terms of audience reaction instead of just the wash of the room,” Moon says.
To Carry Or Not…
In terms of other gear taken on tour, Ross Vannelli prefers to travel light, carrying an M-380 and specifying an M-480 as a preferred choice at each stop. As was the case at the Saban Theatre, the house PA is utilized at most stops, supplemented when needed to account for dead spots. He adds that the Roland gear assimilated quite well with the system at the Saban.
Preferences on the group’s tour rider include Radial DIs for guitars and keys, and Shure PSM 900, PSM 1000 or Sennheiser ew G3 wireless monitoring systems (working with carried 1964 Ears 8-driver earpieces). Gino, however, travels with his own system, an AKG WMS4500, in tandem with his Ultimate Ears UE 7 earpieces.
For microphones, Vannelli and Greco bring the bare minimum. For drums at the Saban it was a Shure Beta 52A for kick out and Beta 91A for kick in, although Ross has recently taken to subbing out the “kick in” Beta with a Sennheiser e 901 boundary condenser. Snare top, bottom and toms all get beyerdynamic TG D58c condensers.
On horns it was Beta 98s across the board, the same with SM58s on backing vocals. All mics are hardwired except for those used by the sax player, who goes wireless with a Shure Beta 98 on his tenor and an Applied Microphone Technology (AMT) TA 2 on his soprano sax.
Gino has now switched to a Shure KSM9 condenser for his lead vocals, after hearing the bleed encountered with his previous mic on the Saban recordings. The KSM9’s hypercardioid pattern helps in eliminating that problem.
Ultimately, the use of the Roland package, Moon says, proved to make the biggest difference during the show and later in the studio. “From a production standpoint, it’s pretty seamless integration between monitors, FOH and recording. That’s one of the reasons Ross always tries to get an M-480 for front of house. We already have that investment in monitor world. The band always has long sound checks because the show is complex, and spending hours trying to get a 15-year-old console working just uses up so much time.”
Ross Vannelli summarizes, succinctly: “It streamlines everything.”
Based in Toronto, Kevin Young is a freelance music and tech writer, professional musician and composer.