Wembly Weekend Part 2

Part 2 By Mark Frink Part 1 By Andy WoodA triumvirate of pro audio’s fourth estate descended on Wembley Stadium the first weekend in July to visit with Metallica’s FOH engineer “Big Mick” Hughes and see his Midas XL8 digital console. Having mixed over 1,600 shows for Metallica since joining them at Front of House 23 years ago, Hughes is truly the Hagrid of Heavy Metal.

On Saturday, July 7th, Wembley was the site of one of the eight Live Earth concerts around the world held over a 24-hour period, beginning with Aussie Stadium in Sydney and timed to spread West throughout the day, ending with a free concert for an estimated 400,000 on the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. In London, it was a rare weekend of summer sunshine that also saw the Tour de France start there for the first time.

Wembley crowds were estimated at 70,000 for Live Earth and over 65,000 on Sunday for Metallica’s concert, but with parking lots charging 25 pounds and accessed by winding industrial roads, the prudent commute to Wembley is via the Tube on the Metropolitan Line. A reformed Genesis kicked off Live Earth after an all-star drum ensemble pounded out SOS, but the stadium was still half-empty at half past one.

Performances by The Beastie Boys, Black-Eyed Peas, The Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Madonna – who closed the show – plus 15 others all playing 3- or 4-song mini-sets, including a surprise performance by Spinal Tap of “Stonehenge”, their new single, “Warmer Than Hell”, and “Big Bottomed Girl”, where they were joined by a dozen other bass players on the bill. Preceding them was Metallica, who played their own concert the following day using essentially the same loudspeaker system.

Sound services in the UK were provided by Britania Row, who provided a similar system the week prior for Wembley’s star-studded Concert for Diana. The main system was comprised of two pairs of 16-box EV X-Line arrays – one for the long throw down the center, the other for sidestadium coverage – with a dozen double- 18 subs flown in a column between. Ground-stacked in front of the stage were four evenly spaced piles of a dozen subs each. About 250 feet back, spot towers also supported 20-box Outline Butterfly line-arrays used as left and right delay systems, and a 10-box array hung from the center tower. Ten-box Butterfly arrays were also flown to cover the extreme sides of the stadium.

For Live Earth, an off-center mix position house-left, about 150 feet from the stage, was loaded with a half-dozen DiGiCo digital consoles, including two main D5 desks at the front of the mix position serving each side of the revolving stage, an offline desk for checking and tweaking files, plus Madonna’s D5. The following day’s Metallica concert was mixed from a house-right position equipped with Big Mick’s Midas XL8 console. A DiGiCo D1 production console feeding four Dolby Lake Processors was used both days, manned by system engineer Sherif el Barbari. A Yamaha PM-5D was employed for Metallica support acts Mastodon, H.I.M and Machine Head.

Hughes’ modest outboard rack is fitted with a 3U Midas DL451 for local analog and digital I/O. The only outboard effect utilized is a Korg DRV- 3000 for a particular repeat that also pitch-shifts in “Master of Puppets”, while all other effects are internal. A Waves MAXX BCL is connected via AES digital. Also in the rack is a Klark Teknik DN 9331 Helix Rapide with 31 motorized-faders for controlling the XL8’s onboard graphic EQs. Playback includes a Sony CDP-11 for “Long Way to The Top” and other walk-in music, and a 360 Systems Instant Replay atop the rack for Metallica’s “Ecstasy of Gold” intro track.Hughes describes himself as an old analog guy who has used Midas since the Pro 1, and his switch from using a Midas XL4 for over a decade to the new XL8 as a “leap of faith. When you’ve been on one console for 11 years, it’s alien to use anything else.” Wembley comes in the middle of a 12- show run of European festivals that has two sets of leap-frogging gear, christened the Black and the Blue.

He comments that using 10 different inputs for vocalist James Hetfield is made easier by copying-and-pasting, and by the fact that he no longer must have 10 matched outboard compressors just for those vocal channels. He enjoys the four different types of onboard compression, and especially the fact that settings for each type are kept when he scroll through the four types. Ergonomically, Hughes mentions that the desk’s five XGA screens are at a good focal distance, even for older eyes and are nearly vertical, making them easy to see, even in full daylight. The ability for multiple engineers to work independently in each of the console’s three input bays permits Midas’ Richard Ferriday to assist at one end of the console without getting in the way of Hughes’ mixing. In fact, each input has its own channel strip, making the XL8 one of the few true multi-operator digital consoles.

He also notes that the console’s use of both analog gain and digital trim allows the channel’s preamp to be saturated without clipping. When asked about the sound of the desk, Hughes points out that the networked mic-pres on stage shorten microphone cable lengths and eliminate the capacitanceloading of analog snakes that affects the tonality of even the best analog consoles. Because of this, the XL8 sounds as good as or better than the XL4 and he notes that he has “never hear the guitars sound as good.” This led me to investigate further.

Many know that Hughes is an original ambassador for employing Audio-Technica’s AT4050 large diaphragm condenser on guitar cabinets: A Roland JC120 Jazz Chorus combo amp inside an isolation road-case is mic’ed with two 4050s and paned in stereo. Hughes now also champions Audio- Technica’s dual-element AE 2500 – originally conceived for kick-drum applications – but he experimented with an early prototype on guitar cabinets. The 2500s are positioned in the center of one of the speakers of a 4 x 12 Mesa cabinet, also in a sealed road case for isolation. James Hetfield uses two of these Mesa setups plus a JC120, and Kirk Hammett has one also.
If Big Mick says the XL8 sounds better than an XL4 for guitars, he knows of which he speaks. He’s owned his own XL4 for many years, which co-incidentally was at the Hammersmith Apollo that weekend at FOH for Steely Dan. On stage, Metallica’s monitor engineer (and Thunder Audio VP) Paul Owen, mixes monitors on a Midas XL4, primarily using Meyer’s new MJF-212 double twelve wedges. While most engineers have jumped on the digital bandwagon, many prominent XL4 users have been patiently waiting for their next Midas. It’s here.Mark Frink is Associate Editor for Live Sound International.