“When I took this gig six years ago I was on an analog console, a Midas H-3000,” he explains. “I had some guys sharing mixes because we didn’t have enough outputs. At that time it was a 13-piece band. We had two more singers. It was a really busy gig then.
“Then we went to the DiGiCo D5, I was able to automate a lot of the stuff I was doing for the band and it left me open to mix for Toby on the XL-3. His ear mix is a Front of House mix. He likes to hear all the solos get rode.
“He likes to hear all the instruments. He’s got all the backgrounds in his mix. It’s a Front of House mix that’s a little hotter than if I was mixing Front of House.
“The cool thing is with the band, I can snapshot the songs that I know they have changes in on the D5. It leaves the rest of my thoughts taking care of the cowboy. I’m running the XL-3 just like the Front of House console. I’m going straight off the left and right bus.”
“Basically, I’m dealing with the same stuff that Dirk is dealing with in keeping Toby’s mix up,” he continues. “There are a lot of guys to keep an eye on onstage. I mix with two hands, one on each desk. I love the sound of the DiGiCo – it can tend to be a little bland so I’m running dbx 376 tube mic pres on some of my primary instruments and vocals, just to give it a little dirt.
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“The D5 is super clean and I need to dirty them up a bit. That’s the only outboard I’m using with the D5. On Toby’s mix on the XL-3 I’m running a dbx 786 mic pre on his vocal and his acoustic. I got a big rack of dbx 160 SL stereo compressors. I love the dbx Blue Series stuff. I also have three Yamaha SPX2000s.”
Neal employs a Professional Wireless IAS system to handle the frequency coordination each day. “I have 37 pieces of wireless equipment. When I first took the gig, that was one of the biggest issues out here. They were having a lot of wireless problems.”
Everything Neal is using for wireless is Shure.
He elaborates, “Toby is Shure endorsed, but that is not the reason we use their products. I like them because I can trust them to stay on frequency. It’s really easy to blend their different bands together and come up with 37 pieces that work together.
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“Ryan Smith at Shure in Nashville takes excellent care of us. When we send things off to be serviced, they turn it around within 48 hours. That means the world to you when you’re out here.”