Looper has been mixing TP & HB on Avid consoles since taking the monitor engineer role, and has a pretty deep understanding of the VENUE line. His personal preference is the Profile, which provides more general purpose interface (GPI) facilities working in tandem with Events pages. However, the D-Show is equipped with two rows of encoders that he’s found quite useful.
“Whatever the model, it’s great to walk up to a console I know so well and do my job, without having to come up to speed on different workflows and feature sets,” he says. “The integration of our consoles is a real advantage, as is the integration of Pro Tools, which is handy for virtual sound checks as well as for tracking. Every single thing that’s played on this tour is tracked.”
Full Circle
The other big change this time out is a switch to complete MADI distribution of line level signals, with each single going directly from its console preamp to the digital realm.
“As with going with a new house system, this approach is a bit risky but has really paid off,” Scovill says. “Ryan indicates we’re getting the best-sounding tracks recorded to date, and that quality is also making a different at front of house. Simply, there couldn’t be a more pure signal path.”
A good deal of assessment was undertaken before this direction was determined. Scovill looked at alternative approaches as well as tested a variety of preamps to deliver the audio via MADI to the consoles.
“At the end of the day, the VENUE preamps did quite well, and then there were advantages of being able to interface the VENUE systems as the MADI delivery mechanism,” he says. “It kind of become a no-brainer at some point, stick with VENUE, we know what this is, the last three records have been recorded with VENUE preamps and mixed completely ‘in the box’.”
It’s an extension of the studio recording process, which centers around The Clubhouse, the band’s long-time Los Angeles recording space. The way they record at the facility mirrors the way they work live, with the band arranged in the same places they occupy on stage, except with Petty facing them and provided with added isolation. The console is the same, so are the microphones, wedges and IEMs, as on the concert stage.
“People at a show see and hear the band just as they are in the studio,” says Looper, who does the live monitor mixes for these sessions, with VENUE providing pre-amp and digitally converted to Ulyate’s Pro Tools recording system. “There aren’t many bands that are this old school about it. It’s all about the vibe, and staying fresh. When Tom brings a new song in, they work on it for up to an hour or so, and that’s it. Time to track it.”
Ulyate’s live recording efforts have paid off in numerous ways over the course of several tours, including the tracks for the Live Anthology album that came out a few years ago, numerous special releases, capturing fresh takes on older favorites, and more. As a result, the catalog is both wide and deep, managed and archived by Ulyate.
And it’s at this point where the circle is complete, with Scovill’s original respect for the band’s recordings being a primary reason for signing on with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers more than two decades ago. That special sound is shared with audiences of tens of thousands in the live realm, and then captured again with unique, exciting musical twists. And the band played on…
Check out our Photo Gallery for a wide range of images from the tour, and the Fenway Park show in particular.
Keith Clark is editor in chief of ProSoundWeb and Live Sound International.