Stage Monitoring For Captain & Tennille At The MGM Grand In Las Vegas, Circa 1979

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Snake System

In the past, Rod had too many bad experiences using other people’s multicables and going through house patching systems, so now the group owns all its own snakes and never do a show without them. The snakes were built by Stanal Sound and are designed around a heavy duty gold plated pin conector manufactured by AMP. A similar system was pioneered by McCune Sound a few years earlier using a slightly larger AMP connector.

At about that time several other professional companies — among them, the Record Plant, Wally Heider Recording, Filmways Audio and A-1 Audio — followed McCune Sound’s lead and built their snake systems using the same connector and pin configuration. Stanal has constructed adapters to properly interface with this earlier system. So, today, remote recordings at live concerts that involve any of these companies are a lot easier to do since the snake systems are all the same. This is a good example of competitors cooperating with each other for the sake of compatibility and ease of doing a show.

It’s especially helpful in the situation where more than one sound company’s equipment is being used at the same time — a situation Captain and Tennille are often involved in. Their particular snake system makes the hookup in theaters that have a sound system installed by Stanal a lot quicker since all Rod has to do is connect to the existing cables.

Captain and Tennille use a 27-pair snake and a IS-pair. The 27-pair system incorporates a simple 1 in by 2 out splitter box which feeds signals to both the house and monitor mixers while the 15-pair goes directly out to the house console. The splitter is not active nor are there any transformers in it. Each input is simply hard wired to the two separate outputs although there are ground lift switches on each line that goes to Rodney. He reports there have not been any problems with hums or buzzes in the system as careful attention is paid to the AC grounds and the interconnected consoles are always from Yamaha.

In addition, the connections and cable routing from microphone or direct box to the two consoles are always the same — a factor which decreases the hum and buzz potential considerably. They do have some SESCOM transformer-type splitter boxes if they ever do get into a problem. A few of the instruments are actually split three ways. The kick drum, for instance, goes to Daryl’s monitor, to the main monitor console, and out to the house as well.

On Stage Intercom

After a while, most monitor mixers get quite adept at sign language and secret signals. A tug on the right earlobe could be a pre-determined signal to turn the monitor up while a left earlobe tug means to turn it down. You hardly ever see left tugs, however. Covering the ear with the hand is a sure sign of low monitor level while an index finger in the ear could either mean just the opposite or the same thing. I love to watch the movements a band goes through for the first couple of tunes. Well there is an easier way; unless, of course, you really enjoy having internationally known stars scream at you in front of 10,000 people.

Captain and Tennille solve the problem with a two-channel Clearom intercom with the base station located at the monitor console. One channel is for communication with the house mixer and the other channel allows Rod to communicate with various musicians onstage. The drummer has a station, the second keyboard player has one and Daryl has one. The other people generally have good eye contact with Rod and communication with them is not a problem.

Daryl’s system is quite interesting — it uses a Clearcom King Biscuit speaker box coupled to an AKG model D58-E close talking microphone. There is a switch on the mike but it is generally live all the time since it is of a noise-cancelling design and Rod doesn’t hear too much sound through it unless Daryl gets right on top of it. Clearcom telephone handsets are now used at the other stations instead of the standard headsets because they don’t require two hands to put on and they automatically shut off when the push-to-talk switch is released. If the drummer had a regular headset and forgot to turn the mike off, the system would be rendered useless due to the constant barrage of drum sound in all the headsets.

Daryl doesn’t have to pick anything up — all he has to do is go over to his mike and speak into it. Rodney can either see him do this and either picks up his handset or listens to Daryl on a regular headset if he happens to be wearing it at the time. Sometimes Rod uses a Shure SM12 combination headset/microphone which has the advantage of leaving one ear free at all times. Rod has installed a remote signal light on top of his console which is wired up to the Clearcom and alleviates the necessity of having to look over at the master station in the effects rack to see if someone needs his attention. A red and green light indicate either channel one or channel two.

The belt pack out at the house console has also been modified by wiring in a Mallory Sonalert, which puts out a high pitched beep to attract the mixer’s attention. There is a switch to defeat it if necessary. The drummer’s belt pack is fitted with a clip to attach it to the high hat microphone stand and thus keep it within easy reach.

A further aid to onstage communication is the talkback microphone, which is a standard feature on the Yamaha PM-1000. The signal from this mike can be routed to any of the outputs including the cue output. This enables Rodney to speak to any individual through the separate monitor buses without disturbing the rest of the musicians during a sound check. Of course, it also allows him to talk to anyone without a Clearcom during the show if necessary.

Mixing Approach

Rodney Pearson’s approach to mixing monitors can best be described as a passive one — most of the action taking place during set-up and sound checks. There are exceptions, of course, but generally very little mixing is done during the course of the show. One thing Rod had seen to be a problem back when he was mixing the house system for other groups was the prevailing attitude whereby someone new was put on the monitors and then eventually moved up to the house mix position — providing he lasted that long.

Rod felt that these aspiring house mixers “seemed to think that they were going to mix the monitors and play around with the levels a lot. I have found from my experience that the less you do the better it turns out to be.” If a situation does come up where someone wants something changed, Rod generally tries to find some other way of handling the problem before changing the mix. The difficulty may have been due to someone not using a mike properly during a particular song and sometimes just a word concerning this will take care of the situation. It’s necessary for performers to have a reference. If you take away their frame of reference by turning monitors up and down it becomes more difficult for them to determine if they are loud enough or not.

So Captain and Tennille try to maintain an accurate frame of reference at all times. Consistency in monitors is very important, especially on a string of one nighters where something has to stay the same show after show. It’s difficult enough for the house mixer to have to adjust to all the various changing conditions. And, since the sound of the monitor system, especially one of this size, does get out into the house any change in the monitor mix can be heard to some extent. This can throw off the house sound mixer when he’s least expecting it. He ends up reacting to and compensating for whatever the monitor mixer is doing.

In small halls, Rod will sometimes back off on the overall monitor level to prevent interferring with the house sound. Everyone in the group is very understanding of this — it is discussed at the sound check and adjustments are made at this time.

With most groups, just turning down the monitors in an attempt to lower the overall stage level doesn’t always work due to the live guitar amps on stage which the artist has total control over. And telling all the musician to turn down isn’t always successful since they all have their own concept of what “down” means. When the balance between instruments changes the mixer finds he has to readjust all his levels. And then, of course, the musicians re-balance depending on what they then hear through their monitors. Ad infinitum.

With Captain and Tennille’s system, however, where just about everything goes direct and is then fed back to the musician through his own monitor, the situation is much more controllable. The overall level can be lowered while still maintaining the relative balance between instruments. Seasoned monitor mixers will immediately recognize the benefits of such a system. Imagine giving everyone in the group just the amount of lead guitar they want instead of fighting with and compensating for the killer-watt output of the guitarist’s amp on stage. House mixers no longer have the problem of a loud localized sound source destroying the mix for the first 20 rows.

The hard part, of course, is getting the guitarist to trade in his pre-CBS Twin Reverb for a direct box. And rightly so — that sound is extremely important to the guitarist and is quite difficult to electronically recreate to his satisfaction. Most amp heads made nowadays however, have extra gain stages that approximate the sound and sustain of an overdriven amp and speaker quite well. They also tend to have direct outputs designed to feed console inputs directly at line level. Hopefully, more sound techs will explore these possibilities — I think the benefits are well worth the effort.

One of the biggest advantages of this technique is immediately apparent in theaters-in-the-round that use rotating circular stages in the middle of the audience. A stack of amps onstage becomes a focused sound barage that sweeps across the audience and totally destroys the mix that the audience hears. The house mixer finds himself choosing between mixing for the people that face the amps or for those who are momentarily on the back side of them — a decision made extremely difficult by a constantly rotating stage. A much more even mix results when the instruments are taken direct and all amplified sounds eminate from uniformly hung speakers above the stage.

As complex as the system is, it had to be designed to go together quickly and flawlessly if it was to work at its full poten tial. Much thought was put into the packaging and hookup procedures and the result is a remarkably quick installation. Since the stage setup is the same for each show, it’s possible to bunch a lot of the cable together that always go to the same location on stage. This is another advantage to custom designing a system — if you were renting a different system for each show all these individual cable lengths would have to be figured out each time.

In this case, however, all eight speaker lines that go to the back of the stage are laid out and connected the first time and are then tie-wrapped together into one neat bundle. This makes for a more efficient and accurate installation and as a result sound checks are quite quick and fairly predictable — generally lasting only two or three numbers.

In one instance they went from the Tennessee State Fair, which was an outdoor show with a loud PA, to an indoor arena with typical arena acoustics. The monitor system was set up and when the group arrived for the sound check they were happy right away. No adjustments had to be made at all, not even to any individual mixes. Rod says the system is so predictable and consistant that, given a time problem, it is possible to set up and do a show without a sound check. He’s confident that the system will be pretty accurate to start with, and only minor tweeking during the first song will be necessary.

Visually Attractive

The speakers are designed to look like part of the set instead of being dirty black boxes covered with shipping labels. The cabinets are painted white with dark grey foam grill cloths and are transported in individual shipping cases. There are no handles or recessed latches visible. They blend in perfectly with the black and white set which comes complete with a portable white floor and white grand piano.

You’ll also notice from the performance photos that there are no monitors down front to block sightlines. This is an extremely important consideration in places like Las Vegas where people sitting up next to the stage pay $30 or so for the privilege of being close to a real, live performer and not a loud wooden box, however attractive. In Captain and Tennille’s case, monitoring up front is handled by the side fill speakers.

Cable grouping also contributes to the clean lines. This concept of setup and appearance was developed for the Vegas-style showroom and is carried over on tour whether the venues be the aters-in-theround or state fairs. It takes a little more time and attention originally but the hours saved setting up on the road make it all worthwhile.

The system has been operating for over 18 months without any major hitches. The only real problem resulted from the time Daryl attempted to recreate the sound of an earthquake with his synthesizers. Needless to say, a few woofers decided they’d rather quit than fight, so the UREI 1176 limiter was brought in to help keep the woofer cones within their specified excursion range.

Rumbo Recorders

As I mentioned earlier, this entire system was set up for rehearsal sessions inside the comfortably spacious studio at Daryl and Toni’s new Rumbo Recorders facilities. The room was so large and well-designed that there was actually enough room left in the studio for over 100 packing and shipping cases with lots of room to walk around. A large cleverly designed artificial skylight overhead helps contribute to the bright open effect of the room.

Located about 25 minutes from downtown Los Angeles at 20215 Saticoy, in Canoga Park, the studio is yet another example of Captain and Tennille’s noncompromising dedication to quality. Daryl and Toni wish to stress that the facility was not built for their exclusive personal use but was designed as a top-of-the-line studio available to anyone who picks up the phone and calls.

Built by Rudi Breuer, the overall design was a result of the cooperative input of all involved: Daryl, Toni, Rodney, engineer Roger Young, and of course, Rudi himself. “This was one of the more-or-less ideal jobs I’ve ever done,’’ Rudi explained. “It was determined that the only way to go was first class. It may prove to be more expensive to build that way but the end result is worth it.”

Of the many unique features of this facility, the first to catch my eye was the sunken drum booth. As can be seen from the photo on the front of this issue (shown directly below), the booth is totally glassed in and the drums are all sitting under the level of the main studio floor where extensive sub-floor trapping prevents the drums from leaking into the main room. (Sketches of this design were shown in the April 1979 R-e/p, Riordan, J., The Rudi Breuer Approach, page 45, Volume 10, Number 2.) The slanting glass walls are all non -parallel and close enough together to prevent any smearing slap-back or echo. The space actually sounds a lot bigger than it is and reports are that it gives a nice open live sound to the drums.

This was the first of several such sunken drum booths Rudi is building. Besides the drum pit there are three separate isolation rooms adjoining the main studio and are all quite visible from the large control room. All the rooms are floating on separate concrete slabs of differing thicknesses to cut down on sound transmission and sympathetic vibrations between areas.

The studio acoustics have been made variable to adjust to a client’s preferences. Pivoting wall panels are hard on one side and absorbent on the other. There is no permanent flat ceiling surface — instead ceiling traps of various densities and construction are individually covered with material to match the decor and are hung in such a way that they can be moved around to different positions or removed altogether to provide a totally variable acoustic environment.

They have just taken delivery of a new 52 input x 48 out Neve Model 8088 console fitted with NECAM faders. This is the largest complete Neve recording console in the United States at the moment and is specifically designed for dual 24-track recording. A separate monitor section was specified with the board, a system they feel is quicker to operate than the in-line system. From their extensive experience with monitor systems in general, they know that if things don’t happen quickly, even in a “relaxed” studio situation, they often don’t happen at all.

In addition, again based on their road experience and in keeping with the current trend toward separate headphone mixes in the studio, Rumbo will be offering nine separate cue mix channels, with all musicians controllable from the studio. The two 24-track recorders are Studer A800s and the control room monitors are UREI 813 Time Aligned units.

The studio will, of course, offer all the standard goody boxes Oh yes, one more thing. The hot tub is eight feet in diameter — at last there will room for the roadies!

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