Who Said Mixing Seven Violins Was Going To Be Easy?
Catching up with Brian Teed and Barrage
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Life on the road can be a challenge when mixing a band like Barrage, with an unconventional front line of seven violins. Mixer Brian Teed lives in the United States, although Barrage is a Canadian group. |
He utilizes techniques drawn from his audio education at Middle Tennessee
State, subsequent work for Disney in Orlando, where he dealt with many
different types of music, and the methodologies of previous Barrage mixers.
I was curious about various aspects of how it is all done, and Brian provided
thorough answers, touching on RF solutions, how he uses the Yamaha digital
DM2000 and why flying 19 people as well as instruments and gear is much
more complicated than just loading them onto a truck and couple buses.
Chris Kathman: Obviously, the front line of multiple violins sets
Barrage apart from your average rock band. Do the different players have
different preamps and pickups, or do they all use the same type?
Brian Teed: Each of our violins is on a custom made LR Baggs pickup.
I’ve been with Barrage since August of 2002; so much of the gear we currently
use has been thoroughly researched prior to my working with the band.
Dave Bond, their engineer for years, and the producers of the show put
many a long hour with many a different pickup to arrive at what we use
today.
LR Baggs manufactures the bridge of the instrument with the attached pickup.
It is then run through a small 9-volt powered preamp and finally into
the Sony WRT805B transmitter. The entire setup is basically Velcro-ed
to a custom made harness that attaches to the bottom of the violin. It’s
a pretty stable system. The show is highly choreographed so the entire
wireless setup takes quite the beating.
C.K.: Tell us a little bit about your experiences with the whole
wireless aspect of the show. Any nightmare experiences, or particular
gear that you have found to be reliable, and would highly recommend?
B.T.: Throughout the years, they have predominately used Shure
UHF wireless systems. They’ve done really well; however, this past February,
Barrage had decided to purchase most of its gear. Of course, cost factored
in greatly as well as other factors such as weight and durability. We
acquired three Sony MB806A’s, for a total of 18 channels. (Each receiver
unit can hold up to six modules)
The 805B body pack takes a single AA battery and lasts for typically 10
hours or so. Another great feature is the timer in the unit that will
tell you how long each battery has been used. With daily use at around
three hours, we get three days from each AA. It’s saved us quite a bit
on batteries.
As another bonus, the 805B has a plastic chassis. Combined with the single
AA, it greatly reduced the weight of each violin. I never once had to
change frequencies. They were solid from Vancouver to New York. The only
problem I experienced was the antenna snapping out on a couple of them.
A little lock tight fixed those problems.
We have seven violins on stage and a spare mic’ed up on stage left. As
well, each violin player has another 805B for a headset mic. We also have
a spare headset mic transmitter waiting in the wings. Our percussionist
also wears a headset mic and the last wireless channel is a Sony handheld
for our vocal tune.
I chose the Countryman headset mic. We had to put Sony connectors on the
Countryman headsets, which have given us a little trouble. The ground
post snapped off several connectors. In addition we had to send back two
mics as there were internal connection problems we couldn’t fix. The Countryman
units do sound really great though. It’s tough to find a durable, low
profile, great sounding headset mic for less than $300.
We needed our acoustic guitar and bass to be wireless as well but we didn’t
want to incur the cost of another six channels of Sony. The Sennheiser
300 series was the choice. They are pretty good for the price. I had to
search for clean frequencies often, however. We will eventually update
those, I’m sure.
C.K.: Are some or all of the members of Barrage on wireless in-ears?
B.T.: All of our musicians are on the Sennheiser 300 series. To
save money and frequency space, each band member gets a mono mix. We have
12 mixes set up plus a stereo mix for the monitor engineer (naturally)
and a spare unit.
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PRETTY MUCH CAKE |
With the use of scenes, Aux/Matrix mode, and cursor/ shuttle action, life
has become way too easy. Andy Broughton is currently sharing audio duties
with me. He has been with the band for about two years now. Andy has put
more time than I have into designing the system we currently have.
The overall idea behind the design of the system was for world touring.
With the exception of our consoles, PA, snake and splitter, everything
can be broken down into road cases that weight less than 75 pounds and
carried as checked luggage if needed. Every local crew loves us.
C.K.: Are there any “tricks” that you use in terms of the interfaces
to bring the players’ signals to you that you can tell us about?
B.T.: No tricks really. I suppose I could leak one little trick
I learned from Dave Zan, who ran monitors in the fall and the beginning
of this spring tour. We put the Sennheiser paddles on two booms on a stereo
bar attached to a single mic stand. It saves us from carrying around an
extra stand. This is probably the oldest trick in the book, unbeknownst
to me.
C.K.: How do you parcel out your use of EFX (effects) throughout
the band’s set, so that you achieve distinctive feels for different songs
and not use up your whole arsenal right away?
B.T.: I do use a couple of delay FX during the song “Chopsticken”
and a vocal effect on our percussionist. It’s basically an evil voice
for a bit of narration during “Rasputin.” To keep things compact, I use
seven of the onboard effects from the DM2000.
I carry a Lexicon 300 for the violins and the one vocal tune. I tried
using the DM2000 for the violins but it just doesn’t do it for me. The
300 has always sounded so convincing with strings and orchestra in general.
That kind of quality reverb is so key for violins, particularly for the
soft, touching tearjerkers.
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GETTING LOOPY? The performers rarely stand in one place for very long. There are a few choreographer notes on the click track as well. Last tour, we had our violinists doing flips off a trampoline in the show. They sword fight with bows and play their violins with chopsticks. It’s nice to have that click in your ear when there is so much going on. |
As for loops and samples, there are a few FX sounds that come from a Yamaha
4416, which has the click recorded on a track 16. Our percussionist, Bob
Fenske, plays a MalletKat and another MIDI keyboard that control a Triton.
He’s responsible for almost every MIDI sound you hear. As for the rest
of the band, it’s live.
I do have a track of the bass recorded in case of extreme need of a bail
out. By the way, the band is comprised of seven violins, drums, upright
and electric bass, electric and acoustic guitar, and xylophone and much
percussion, in case I hadn’t mentioned it.
C.K.: What vocal mics and processing do you use?
B.T.: Every violinist and our percussionist use the Countryman
Isomax and our vocalist, Seonaid Aitken, uses the Sony CUF780 handheld
for her solo vocal tune “Skye Boat.” As for processing, I use the DM2000
compressor. The compressor on the DM2000 would not be my first choice
as it almost doesn’t do the job. I have to run it up to infinity to obtain
the kind of compression I need for her. The ratios on the compressor are
not true to parameter.
For verbage, I use the (Lexicon) 300. One of the benefits of using a digital
console is keeping things like the 300, the 4416, and even the CD player
in the digital domain. The fewer the conversions, the better.
C.K.: How much gear, in terms of desks and monitor equipment, does
Barrage typically carry on a bus tour?
B.T.: Since I joined in 2002, we’ve carried full production. Barrage
has had full production for about three years, I believe. We fit everything
into one truck and two busses. The set is pretty minimal. We carry four
Meyer MSL4s, four UPA-1Ps, four UPM-1Ps, and two PSW6s. The PA, the snake
and splitter were the only things we rented. The two DM2000s, the wireless
and other mics and the power distro were part of our purchase in February.
C.K.: How about when you fly?
B.T.: Flying in with 19 people and loading in a show the same day
is not the best scenario in the world. SUITCASES ON THE TRUCK!! Half of
the tour was by air and the last half was on the road.
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HOW ONE ARRIVES HERE |
B.T.: I began touring last fall with Barrage. Before that, I worked
at Disney, typically in a theater-type situation. I got quite good experience
from Disney. They recruited me right out of school at Middle Tennessee
State. I got to be a part of many different live audio situations from
rock ‘n’ roll mixing to full orchestra and chorus mixing to large televised
event mixing.
In my later years there, I started doing freelance corporate work with
LMG and a few other companies, which provided me with even more diverse
audio experience. Barrage had been performing at Disney for the past five
years, and throughout those years, I developed a relationship with Dave
Bond (the prior engineer) as well as the rest of the band. As Dave went
on to other aspirations, and Andy was unable to tour last fall, they finally
brought me on board.
C.K.: In Canada, are there many programs at universities for live
audio, or are there any specialized schools?
B.T.: Well, since I’m from Dallas, as my Canadian Production Manager
Bruce Hennel tried to nickname me, I don’t know much about the Canadian
programs. I do know that one of my favorite professors from MTSU, John
Hill, went to McGill. They have a very competitive program, I understand.
I can certainly recommend Middle Tennessee State University!
C.K.: How have your experiences been with digital consoles?
B.T.: Up until the DM2000, my experience had been just the smaller
03Ds and O2Rs and such. I haven’t been around a larger InnovaSon or DiGiCo
or anything. I loved all of the ways the smaller digital consoles made
life easy but I never liked the way they sounded. Also I would usually
find myself saying, “If only they had this function or that control surface,
it would be so much better.”
The DM2000 fixed most of this. I was a bit skeptical at first, given my
prior Yamaha digital console experience. After getting to know the console,
I came to really like it. It can really spoil you if you get too comfortable.
The routing ability, functionality and the lack of multiple FOH racks
make for an incredibly smooth design, show and load-in.
As for functionality, I find it easier to use the cursor buttons and shuttle
wheel rather than the “analog-esque” pots up top. You barely have to move
your hand! It’s better for low light situations as well. I really like
graphic display of the EQ also. It provides a better understanding of
what kind of curve you are using. One thing that really irks me about
the DM2000 is the lack of actual mute groups. You can group channels to
be muted but there isn’t a mute group in the traditional sense. It is
supposed to be a recording console though!
As far as the sound quality, it does pretty well. I try to keep the input
levels rather hot, maybe averaging around - 8 to - 6. If you keep the
outputs at a healthy level and your bits all used, the console sounds
nice and clean. I still don’t get the solid low end of an analog console.
This can’t be true of the large digital consoles, is it? I really want
to do a gig on one of the large format digital consoles so I can compare
the sound.
Last year I used five scenes for the show but this year I mixed off a
single scene. The different show format gave me more time to change settings
between songs this time around. There aren’t an incredible amount of changes
but I enjoy actively mixing as opposed to hitting a recall button. It
helps keep you intimate with the performance happening on stage.
The instruments behave differently in different venues and climates as
well. Many times the timbre of the violin would change from sound check
to show. Things like reverb settings will change from venue to venue too.
Perhaps if I were in the same venue every day, I would utilize several
different scenes.
C.K.: Do you use (SIA) SMAART or any other analyzer programs?
B.T.: I used SMAART quite a bit at Disney. I bought it for myself
last year and used it at the beginning of the fall tour. After using SMAART,
I’d toss on a few familiar CDs and would make further changes. As the
tour went on though, I started just using the CDs and listening to pink
noise. I enjoy the daily ear training. It’s so much quicker to use your
ears. After spending so much time with the same boxes, you become intimate
with the problem areas. There are also some things inherent in a show
with seven violins that you must be mindful of when EQing a system. SMAART
won’t tell you those things.
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ARE YOU A MUSICIAN? |
I grew up believing I was going to be a professional musician. I played
percussion very seriously until I transferred from Boston University,
where I was pursuing a Performance degree, to MTSU to get my audio training.
The young fellow said he didn’t play any instruments, so I suggested to
him that he pick an instrument he would like and learn it well enough
to play in an ensemble. Of course, I suggested the piano but I think the
guitar or some other instrument would work as well. My music education
is my advantage over another mixer. Anyone can learn how to operate a
piece of gear or how to solder a wire, but without a music education,
you cannot apply that technical expertise to the musical performance happening
on stage. I cannot stress enough how important a strong musical knowledge
is to mixing.
Regardless if a young person is or isn’t a musician, I think a university
audio program is essential. Learning on the job is a difficult but admirable
instructor. I think without an educational environment, one may miss out
on the most important of audio fundamentals. Not only will you get the
all important college education but you will also get help with internships
and job placement. You’ll get much farther in life with a four-year degree.
C.K.: And, finally, with all the bands I’ve ever mixed, there are
a few shows that stick out as being extra memorable; ones that helped
me get through all the hell gigs! Is there a show you remember as just
one of your greatest nights with Barrage? Where was that, and what are
some of the factors, including what the system was like, that made it
an exceptionally good night for you?
B.T.: Barrage has provided me with many incredibly fulfilling experiences.
Just the fact that I’m out on the road mixing a fantastic show with remarkable
musicians is reward enough. After so many shows, it’s difficult to remember
one that really sticks out. For some reason, I remember the shows where
something has gone wrong more than the others. I have a powerful conscience!
I do know what it’s like to have a perfect show. It’s so invigorating.
I think I have my best shows when the performers are on point. I feed
off of their energy. The audience has a powerful effect on the quality
of a show as well. That’s the beauty of a live performance. Everyone is
in it together. It’s quite amazing how much enthusiasm and joy is produced
when everything clicks.
Chris Kathman is a working mixer and regular contributor to Live Sound and ProSoundWeb.com. He is a widely published author of a variety of articles and can be reached at chris@prosoundweb.com
November 2003 Live Sound International