The Main Mixing Console
The heart and soul of the system is a muchly modified Yamaha PM-1000 32 input console. John Windt, who worked very closely with Yamaha in modifying this console, took out four of the input modules and replaced them with four more output modules. He then replaced the four output assign buttons on each input strip with eight rotary send pots. This gave Rod 28 inputs and eight totally separate outputs, plus the two echo sends. It was necessary to re-wire the mother board to accept these last changes but it was done in such a way that it is still possible to put back the original four input strips if that should ever be desired. No rewiring would be necessary.
According to Rod, this was the second console of its type customized in this manner by Windt and is currently available as a standard modification through Windt Audio in Los Angeles. The eight rotary output pots are all color-coded in order to simplify the operation of the console as well as to help speed up the installation of the entire system.
The 4 x 4 output matrix familiar to all Yamaha PM-1000 users has been expanded to 8 x 4 to accommodate the additional four output buses but Rod is not using it as part of his monitor system. However, it is occasionally used to make reference tapes during the course of the show. The eight matrix masters were converted into eight auxiliary inputs and the “direct/PB” switch at the top of each output module was changed into a head phone cue switch to provide monitoring of each output bus individually.
The cue system of the console has been further modified by Rod for a louder output and cleaner signal by removing some terminating resistors in the cue circuitry and by bypassing the headphone amp. Other modifications he’s made to the console include making the echo sends appear on the cue bus; re-wiring them to be post fader so they could be used as monitor buses; and installing kill switches on each input channel. He doesn’t change levels a lot during the show but instead chooses to use the kill switches to bring signals in and out as needed. This helps keep the monitors clean sounding. Toni, for instance, uses only one of her three vocal mikes at a time and keeping the other two off prevents unwanted noise from cluttering up the monitors.
It was thought at the time that 28 inputs and eight outputs would be sufficient — famous last words, etc. It’s never been a real problem but there have been a couple of times when they could have used more inputs depending on the requirements of the lead-on act. However, it is usually more than adequate, and according to Rod, the board’s flexibility and size came in handy when they had Gene Cotton opening for them.
“He had a guitar-based band and we were able to use seven inputs for his group which we didn’t need for our part of the show,” he explains. “So we could give him the exact mix he wanted and then re-patch the mikes to different input modules for our part of the show. So everybody had exactly what they wanted.”
By making the system bigger — and in some people’s opinion more complicated — they’ve actually made it easier. To be sure, the system is involved but it has been designed by Rod and Daryl along simple workable principles and is set up in a logical straightforward manner. Complex, yes; complicated, no.
15 Independent Mixes
The system is now set up to handle 15 separate mixes — 10 being controlled from the main console and the remaining 5 through Daryl’s PM-1000-16. Referring to Figures 2 and 3 should clear up any confusion resulting from my forthcoming description of the routing of these 15 mixes.
The way it breaks down is something like this: When Toni sits at her piano she has two monitors connected in parallel which are fed off one bus of the main console. The three background singers have two speakers which are fed off another channel.
The horn players have the same setup. The drummer gets one mix from Rod which contains his kick drum, bass, vocals and piano. He also gets another mix directly from Daryl’s keyboards which goes to a separate monitor behind him. The bass player gets an independent mix from Rod, as does the percussionist. The second keyboard player has a small Bi-Amp model 8802 mixer which he uses as a keyboard mixer. The 8802 has instrument level inputs as well as balanced mike level inputs on each channel — a feature which eliminates the need for direct boxes for each keyboard.
This mixer in turn feeds the main monitor mixer which routes the signal back to the keyboard player as well as throughout the rest of the band. The bass guitar is taken direct into the monitors and PA although the bass player does use an amp on stage for his main monitor.
However, none of the electric keyboards have amps. They are all taken direct or submixed, sent to the monitor mixer and then fed back out to the various monitor speakers at the appropriate levels. The idea is to cut down on a lot of unnecessary and to some extent uncontrollable sound on stage. They have been using SESCOM passive direct boxes (model SM-lA) to interface the instruments with the various consoles, as well as an 8 input box custom made by Stanal Sound for Daryl.
Side fill speakers are on yet another buss (lost count yet?) and are basically designed by Stanal Sound to combine two Altec 816s into one cabinet. The ports were moved from the bottom of the cabinet to the sides so that it became more of a squat, square shape instead of a tall narrow one. They were further modified to incorporate a 90-degree JBL 2350 horn, an Altec 288-16G driver and two of their beloved Yamaha woofers. When it was first assembled in this fashion it was flat from 125 Hz to 6 kHz with no EQ. These side fills cover the front part of the stage and provide an even monitoring field for Toni when she’s not sitting at the pianos. When Toni is playing the Wurlitzer electric piano she hears herself through a combination of side fills and one of Daryl’s monitors.
Daryl’s System
Daryl’s four monitor speakers are fed directly from the four output channels of his own Yamaha PM-1000-16. Two of these outputs are also used to feed both the house system and the main monitor console in the novel method described earlier.
Daryl uses four discrete monitors instead of simply combining all the signals and sending them to one speaker for several reasons, one of which is greater clarity. For example, Toni’s vocal doesn’t have to fight with the bass guitar for the woofer’s attention. Localization of sound with respect to feedback is another consideration — the idea being that it’s easier to isolate which microphones are feeding back if the signals come from different speaker positions. Also Daryl has better control — he can, for instance, bring up just the vocal master during a particular song in order to more easily listen to the harmonies if he so desires.
Microphones
Toni uses a total of three vocal mikes, all Beyer MS00 ribbons. One is located at the Yamaha grand piano, one at the Wurlitzer and the third one is used as a hand held mike down front. Beyer M-69 dynamics are used for the background vocal mikes and Rod has found them to give a combination of smooth sound, good low end and significant freedom from feedback. The manner in which the drums are miked differs slightly depending on the venue. On large concert dates all the drums are individually miked although only the kick, snare and high hat ever go through the monitors (Figure 4).
The toms have the bottom heads removed and are individually miked for the PA with Sennheiser 421s mounted on clips underneath the toms. The mike heads are placed inside the shell just far enough to provide some isolation from the other toms and cymbals. Beyer M201s are used both on the percussion and on the hi-hat while a Shure SM-57 picks up the snare. Overhead drum mikes are AKG 452s. The two congas are also miked with a 452 in the middle above the heads. Horns are all miked with Shure SM-58s.
A good deal of attention was placed on the kick drum miking since it plays such a large part in this particular system. It’s miked with a Sennheiser 441 which is fed directly into a UREI LA-4 limiter. One advantage of this unit is that it has a high gain position which boosts the output of the 441 enough to drive the circuitry without just limiting a lot of noise. Of course, having a pretty hot signal from the kick drum helps. I would hesitate to try this with a soft singing vocalist. The LA-4 tightens up the kick drum and saves a lot of headroom in the amps.
The limiter is usually set on a 12:1 ratio so there is actually some compression going on. It basically is set up to prevent the woofers in the monitors from kissing the grille cloth. This way they can get a little more level without the associated amplifier problems and blown woofers. The outer head of the kick is removed and the 441 is placed as close to the remaining head as possible. It’s positioned off to the side away from the beater area.
There are no other outboard devices used in the main monitoring system other than a TAPCO 4400 reverb unit for Toni which is used to create a little fuller sound onstage. A Master-Room reverb model MR Ill is used for the house PA and has proven to be perfectly suited for the job, says Rodney.
The piano uses a Helpinstill 110 pickup which is basically used just for the monitors. The isolation and freedom from feedback it provides is a welcome aid to the monitor mixer. An AKG 414 mike set for a unidirectional pattern over the second sound hole is the main source of piano sound for the house PA, although it can be mixed into the monitors if so desired. This also provides a backup for the piano in case either the pickup or microphone malfunction.
The Yamaha piano always travels with the group and is another example of their dedication to consistency. They also carry many spare instruments as well as a spare monitor mixer for Daryl. Figure 5 shows the entire microphone instrument setup, and speaker layout.
Redundancies And Backups
This recurring aspect of Captain and Tennille’s monitor system impressed me a great deal. Spares, backups and instant alternative course of action are all part of the philosophy of a good monitor system. Pulling out the soldering iron on stage in the middle of a set is considered bad form. It upstages the musicians and you can never find an empty AC socket anyway.
Daryl recently started playing bass guitar on a few tunes which necessitated the additon of another mixer since he had long since run out of available inputs. So a Yamaha PM-180 was pressed into service. Daryl uses two Leslie organ speakers located offstage which are miked top and bottom with Shure SM-58s and these two signals are then fed to his mixer where they are combined and sent to the main monitor mixer. Two Leslies are not needed from a power standpoint since they are re amplified anyway; but the interaction of the various speakers all rotating at slightly different speeds provide a fuller, richer sound. Also, again we have the backup factor. If one Leslie fails, the other one will still supply the necessary effect.
The microphone cables are made by Neumann and are all of various colors to match the color coding on the console output buses. If you have ten or so cables bundled together and there is a problem in the red channel, it helps to be able to immediately pick out that color cable from the rest and trace it.
All monitors are marked so that they always go to the same location on stage and are always connected to the same amplifier with the same cable. This simplifies trouble shooting considerably by preventing a particular problem from turning up at a different location every time the stage is set up, due to the same piece of faulty equipment being in a different place each time.
Another built-in safeguard of Rod’s console setup is the fact that he sets all input faders at the same position — around eight on the linear scale. This is the position Yamaha recommends for optimum signal-to-noise. The various signals are actually mixed via the eight individual rotary pots atthe top of each input. Therefore, if someone comes and plays with the console there is less likelihood that they’ll seriously foul anything up — the feeling being that the eight small knobs at the top of the strip are not as accessible and fun to play with as the faders are. If these faders are touched Rod will notice it immediatley, reset them back, and then check the rest of the board for any other changes.
All speaker cables are color-coded with strips of colored tape which are then sealed with clear heat shrink to keep them from unravelling or getting dirty. Connections to the speaker cabinets are made by three-wire Hubbell Twist-Lok connectors which provide a very positive, polarity correct connection — no phone plugs here, folks. Stagehands can’t confuse them with AC plugs, mic cables or guitar cords, as they can with other connectors, and they are about as foolproof as the man who wires them. Available from most electrical supply houses, they come in almost limitless sizes and styles.
The one used by Captain and Tennille is especially handy in that it is a right angle connector, thus allowing the cable to lie alongside the speaker cabinet instead of sticking straight out of it. This makes for a neater appearance and fewer tripping accidents. Color coding even extends to the banana plug connectors on the back of the amplifiers. These amps are mounted in self-contained shippable racks which have a simple yet extremely useful feature: small music stand lamps mounted in the back. No more flashlights in the teeth for Rodney.
Housed in the amp racks are Yamaha 2200s (200 watts per channel into 8 ohms) and Yamaha 2100s (95 watts per channel into 8 ohms). One of the nice things about using Yamaha for monitor amps is the fact that they have meters on them which help keep track of the signal flow through the system. With 10 outputs from the main board alone, it helps to have a visual indication that signals are getting to all the amplifiers, especially since it is possible to only listen to one of the outputs at any one time.
At Rod’s position there are two power amp racks and one effects rack which houses two Pioneer CTF919 cassette decks, the Clearcom CS200K base station, the TAPCO 4400 reverb, a spare power amp, and a Crown D-60 which is used to power the headphones at the console (Figure 6). Daryl has his own rack which houses two Yamaha P2200s, two P2100s and a UREI 1176 limiter which can be connected to any of his outputs. The rack also contains a spare Yamaha amp.
Many of the major components of Captain and Tennille’s monitor system are manufactured by Yamaha — a factor Rodney feels plays a large part in the dependability and consistently high quality performance of the system as a whole. The excellent backup, cooperation, and continuous support they have received from Yamaha has made Rod a firm believer in the company and their products.