Hometown Heroes: Soundcheck? You Must be Kidding
VH1’s Bands On The Run Walks the Fantasy/Reality
Edge
VH1 is the latest network to serve a “reality-based”, voyeur-television
series with their one hour, thirteen week series, Bands On The Run
(BoTR), which first broadcast, via cable, twice weekly on April 1,
2001. In case you missed it, BOtR chronicles the lives of four
diverse unsigned bands from Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and New York.
A cross between Survivor, Real World and Road Rules (with
a dose of Temptation Island thrown in), BoTR is a competition,
where unsigned bands compete for a grand prize of US$50,000 cash, US$100,000
Guitar Center shopping spree. Additional benefits include heavy rotation
of the winner’s video on VH1 and a showcase gig for some major record
label A&R twerps.
UNSIGNED & OUT THERE
Over the five-week production of the show, the bands were on camera 24
hours a day as they traveled to eleven American cities to play thirteen
venues, all the while trying to “out scheme” and “out market” each other
in order to score the most points. In each city, these bands shamelessly
promote themselves, sell merchandise, hock CD’s and hope to attract more
patrons to their gigs than their competitors, who are all playing that
same night in the same town.
After the fifth and tenth gig, the least favored bands, (i.e. those who
have sold the least of everything from tickets to T-shirts) are dropped
from competition. The two remaining bands competed in the final “Battle
of the Bands”, which was recorded in late December 2000.
Aside from VH1 loaning each band a van to transport gear, the bands received
US$20 daily for each band member, a phone card, fuel, two hotel rooms
per band per city, and two-way pagers. No cell phones, credit cards, or
spare change was allowed.
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The climax of each show is when the bands perform. On-the-fly production
techniques were required to capture the best possible sound from
bands that were setting up their own gear, sometimes in ten to twenty
minutes or less. |
Glenn waxed eloquent in technical terms, “The sound on the pilot sucked
and,” he stressed laughing. “I was not involved with the pilot!” Continuing
on his eloquent spiel, Glenn notes, “We learned from the pilot that the
equipment required to capture the bands with some level of fidelity would
have to travel with us and be the best equipment on the market. We could
not take anymore chances of using what was on-hand, from club-to-club.”
ROAD KIT FOR QUICK FITS
What VH1 needed for the production of the series were easy haul, multi-channel
digital mixing consoles with high-quality mic pre-amps, powerful DSP’s
for dynamics processing and effects, 24 channels of direct digital output
to archive plus snapshot memories for complete consistency, and eight
analog buses to send to the house mixer.
As production for the series commenced in Chicago in late November 2000,
Glenn had acquired four Mackie d8b consoles to capture all of the live
performance audio. Four Mackie 1402 VLZ Pro compact mixers, with XDR Mic-Pres,
were used primarily as additional mic preamps for the d8b consoles and
as for submixers for when the bands performed random gigs. Eight SRM450
Active Loudspeakers were added as hi-fi fold-back, although the SRM450s
wound up pulling double duty as FOH speakers in many venues.
After the show wrapped, Technical Producer Glenn Gaines and Technical
Manager Sean Kelly explains to LSMAG! how all aspects of mixing
to recording live audio for BoTR came together. Gaines points out. “Set-up
was the most time consuming aspect of the job with only myself and one
other person setting up each venue. If we had to roll in racks of processing,
mic pre’s, compressors, gates and loudspeaker cabinets, we’d have had
to move the gear in a 40ft(12.2m) semi and wouldn’t have been able to
complete any of these shows in the time allowed.
Except for the Tascam DA88s, it was just a matter of me bringing in one
lightweight unit (d8b). After that, it was just insert a floppy disc,
punch up whatever band we were mixing and we were ready to record. Because
the d8b sets universal parameters, we were essentially ready to record
in ten minutes. Often, we would have to wait for the bands to set-up.”
RIGGED FOR SPEED
“Essentially,” explains Gaines, “The (Mackie) d8b replaced all of the
outboard compressors, gates, pre-amps and effects. Each board came with
two DSPs and two stereo effects processors. Because of the high quality
of the d8b pre-amps, we only added a Mackie 1402VLZ Pro compact mixer
to each d8b as an outboard mic preamp to augment the twelve mic pre-amps
on d8b.
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“We didn’t want varying audio quality from channel to channel by
using an assortment of mic preamps, so the 1402 VLZ Pro’s XDR preamps
assured consistent audio inputs. Secondly, the 1402s were used by
the bands for smaller ‘promo’ gigs at campuses, frat or coffee houses;
wherever they needed to perform apart from the main venue gig each
evening.” Set-up and soundcheck had to be fast, we couldn’t screw around tweaking ‘mystery monitors’ for hours. Eight Mackie SRM450 Active loudspeakers were quickly added to the BoTR inventory list. Gaines notes, “We used the SRM450s in every conceivable way in every conceivable application; side fills, front-of-house sound, monitors, in clubs to campuses, to coffee houses, to a balcony performance on Bourbon Street.” |
Gaines laughs as he reminisces, “On the Bourbon Street balcony, dead center
of the street we used four SRM450s.
“When the band appeared for soundcheck, some businesses three blocks away
complained that it was too loud. People seven blocks away said that they
heard the music and decided to come to hear what was going on. I got a
chance to go down the street - before the cops shut us down - to make
sure the sound wasn’t distorting or too loud, and it sounded very impressive!
“Often, the band performed through a complete, quality house system, but
there were even more situations where we were confronted with severely
inadequate sound systems. In these cases, we set-up the entire Mackie
PA system using the SRM450s as our front-of-house and monitor speakers.
The d8b mixed monitors, FOH, sent a two-channel broadcast mix to the DAT
recorder and individual mixdown tracks went to two Tascam DA88s.”
FINE FEATURES
Gaines and Kelly found that the EQ and dynamics on the Mackie d8b rivaled
any board that they had previously worked with; analogue or digital. Gaines
notes “The compression dynamics are very smooth; flawless. The fact that
I had four channels of sweepable EQ became invaluable to us, especially
in the monitor mix.
“When I’d have to do the monitor and front-of-house mix on the one d8b,
we’d be able to send the vocals, bass, kick drum, whatever, through to
two of the aux’s and then back into inputs on the board. That way I could
EQ monitor mixes separately and cut down feedback problems that could
be associated by doing things that way. The gates were beautiful, basically
sonically transparent, very smooth - smooth as most analogue gates that
I’ve worked with.”
The Mackie gear arrived in Chicago prior to five weeks of production that
would take the crew and bands through half of the United States. When
asked if there was a great concern about a significant learning curve
with little, or no, time to get accustomed to the gear, Gaines states,
“The learning curve of the d8b was a like a rocket. The manual is very
straightforward, - if you decided you need it - but the d8b is laid out
in such a straightforward manner. It took about an hour to find my way
around the board.”
DOUBLE DUTY PRODUCTION
“We were all working double duty and production contracted mixers, as
well as multi-track engineers and music engineers,” Gaines notes. “No
one had the luxury to sit down for two hours with a d8b to learn the board
when they first arrived. At our first venue, all of the engineers were
up and running after I did a half-hour tutorial. I did give each engineer
a Quick Start Guide, as well as the manual, but most of them didn’t have
much time to look them over.
Both Gaines and Sean agree, the d8b’s Graphic User Interface (GUI), significantly
enhanced the ease of the console’s operation. Gaines notes, “Plugging
a computer monitor directly into the d8b opens up worlds of possibilities
in mixing. As with any digital board, just learning what button to push
is a matter of experience. “Once I had gone over the GUI a couple of times,
it became our best friend. Rather than having to squint and see what number
the sweep pot is on, the EQ settings, dynamics processing and DSPs are
clearly and graphically displayed on the GUI.
With the compressor, for instance, you can see how much compression is
being applied to the mix. In addition to how it sounds, having a visual
representation was another great tool to aid us in mixing. With the GUI
it’s the same as having an analog compressor console sitting right in
front of you. The GUI makes the d8b very easy to use.
Gaines continues, “The snapshot capability of the d8b was equally useful.
I would have loved to have had a day in a rehearsal studio with the bands
to go over their songs and find some rough mixes. Since time was a luxury
we did not have, we went right into production, mixing each band blind.
“So using the d8b’s file storage for snapshots and automation was invaluable.
If we felt we had a strong mix, we’d just punch snapshot, store, enter
and make a note of it. In only a few days, we had complete snapshots of
each band’s playlists, so soundchecks quickly became just a matter of
pressing a button.”
Based on his experience with the D8B on BoTR, Gains has also used
the console on his next project for VH1 sister station, MTV’s Fanatics
Undercover. “It’s a hidden camera show that will start airing in the
very near future.
This assortment of Shure microphones was used in the making of VH1’s Bands On The Run television program.
(18X) SM58
(18X) SM57
(8X) A56D (drum mount)
(10X) SM81
(1X) VP88
(1X) C110 (cable)
(4X) DMK57-52 (drum mic kit)
(2X) UP4 (broadcast/cameras)
(1X) U24D/Beta 87C
(1X) PSM 400 (wireless Earworn Monitors)
Paul Meserve is one of LSMAG!s premiere Southern Californian correspondents and a frontline video editor.
July/August 2001 Live Sound International