Avoiding Unnecessary Complications
A conversation with Lee Moro about sound and mixing Norah Jones
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There’s excitement in the air backstage when I meet up with Lee Moro at New York City’s beloved Beacon Theatre, prior to a recent concert by Norah Jones. Life has been pretty darn good, and fun, of late for Moro, the front-of-house mixer for Jones, coming off her sweep at this year’s Grammy Awards show. Moro, a 31-year old sound professional from Windsor, Ontario, was
gracious with his time as he filled me in on his background as well
as life on a top tour featuring a compelling young artist. |
David Weiss: How did you get started in the pro audio biz?
Lee Moro: As a drummer, I saw other people making money working
the sound side of things, while I wasn’t making money! I was maybe 17
when I stopped drumming. Stewart Copeland was a favorite, Mike Borden
from Faith No More, and, being Canadian, everybody was a Neil Peart fan.
Then I did a little bit of studio stuff, helping young kids record demos,
and it was fun, and then someone asked me to go on the road, so I did
that for a long time, making no money but learning, which is the only
way to start: just dive in. I did that for a while, then went to school
in London, Ontario, for music production, but had to leave after a year
because I was on the road too much.
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After that I got a house gig at Harborfront in Toronto, which showed
me how to do world music five stages, nothing but world music.
It was great because a guy showed up with a twig and a fork and
you had to mic it! Just stuff you’d never see, ever. After that, 1995 was a big year for me, with my first extensive international tour. I’d gone from being with three guys in a van in the middle of snowstorms to doing an international tour, with my first taste of going to Australia and Europe. Especially at that age, it was a blast, working with different gear and people, that’s where you get your chops. |
DW: How did you happen to join the Norah Jones tour?
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LM: Macklam Feldman Management handles Norah’s business,
and I’ve worked with a lot of their artists. They manage numerous
Canadian bands, they’re agents for everybody from Rush to Sarah
McLaughlin, etc. When Norah came on board with them, everything
was just starting to explode, and they wanted someone to come in
on the ground level and help out with sound. I joined up last year
in the middle of May, and up until this current tour, it was just
me. During this past summer we brought in additional sound team
members, and we’ve been working together on everything from 300-
to 2000-seat venues. Now here we are with two buses and a full crew.
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LM: I’m done with studios. I hate recording the process is too
slow. What I want to do instead is to make it work in a short process,
and it’s done. In studios, it takes days and weeks again, too slow for
me. I do like doing live recording in a truck, where it’s one take and
that’s it.
For this tour, we’re recording live, to DAT and CD-R, straight out of
the house console with no room mics. It’s primarily for the band to listen
to, strictly archival, so if in a couple of years Norah says, “What was
that, what did we play?” we’ll know.
DW: Tell us about the main system for this tour.
LM: We’re going with a fresh-out-of-the-box MILO line array system
from Meyer, and I’m almost certain we were the first tour to use it. I’ve
always been a fan of Meyer, and I think the MILO is extremely applicable
for this type of tour. It sounds amazing with women vocalists, really
clean. From what the crew and Meyer both tell me, this new line rigs different
and has less weight. We just did Philly for 13,000 people and it went
great.
I generally use eight boxes per side, with a little stuff on the deck
as well, but my main throw is only those 16 boxes (eight left and right).
I set up a few different zones so I can turn top boxes up or shade them
down. You can take two or three boxes, maybe four, so it’s four then two
then two. I can turn the top four boxes up so they’ll be over my head
at the mix position, hitting the back of the room. Then turn the next
two down more, and then the next two down, so as you walk down the room,
they’re consistent as you shade them down.
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DW: Is it easy to set up? LM: I don’t ever have to do it, so I don’t know! It takes
a while to rig a new PA you have to learn what pin goes in what
hole. But every day it goes faster and faster. |
We’re not using outboard mic pre amps, but are going directly into the
Midas. Less engineering and complication I want to get this stuff in
at high quality, and get it out the same way. There’s something to be
said about “less is more”. Go with quality gear and what you know. Why
mess it up or unnecessarily complicate things? That’s why I haven’t jumped
into digital desks: There’s so much going on that sometimes you forget
there’s a band onstage.
DW: What are some of the challenges presented on this tour?
LM: Because of the variety of venues, we need a diverse rig for
going from clubs to amphitheatres, and from amphitheatres of 4,000 ranging
to ones that hold 14,000. With Norah’s material, you can’t be loud all
the time, but you have to hit everybody with it. There are parts of the
show that are super quiet, but everybody’s still got to hear, from that
person in the furthest row all the way to ones up front.
We’re flying subs on top of the arrays, so now there’s great warmth up
there. For years, you never saw subs in the air, now they’re up at the
ceiling. This adds warmth up there, which is just great. At the same time,
behind the arrays, you don’t hear a thing (standing behind it), so there
isn’t all that low end spilling back onto the stage.
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DW: Tell us about some of your mix techniques for Norah. LM: It’s a really dynamic show, so you have to really let
her and the band go at it. You can’t try to process or squash anything
your fingers have to be on it. You can’t do it too much with compressors.
Norah’s all over the place, so I’ll push faders, and have found
that some compression is working really well with her to a point.
But when she goes quiet, the fingers come in. I don’t want to squash
her too much, because that takes away the breath. |
You have to keep the integrity of what’s going on onstage, you have to
keep it real that’s how Norah has sold so many records. The idea is
to retain that integrity, and put it out with the PA. People want to hear
her sing that’s Norah, her breathy, soft, subtle, deep, smoky voice.
DW: What aspect had the steepest learning curve for you?
LM: Microphone choices. I’ve learned how good it can be if you
have a good mic on her voice. Sennheiser and Neumann got involved in supporting
the tour, and we have their mics all over the place. A Neumann mic, the
105, has been working great for Norah’s vocal. It’s difficult for monitors
because its pattern is wide, but you can still pick up a lot and it doesn’t
have a lot of sonic changes. You plug it in and it’s what you hear coming
from her. It’s got a great top end, really smooth.
We’re also using a Sennheiser 602 on the kick drum and a Shure SM91 on
the bass drum as well I’m using a combination on the drums. The 602
is a fat kick drum mic, a little rock ‘n’ roll, but it works well. I keep
it a good distance from the beater.
On the overhead we have a Neumann 193, which is a phenomenal large diaphragm
mic. I like a lot of size in the drum kit because of the way the drummer
plays. There’s a lot of weird cymbal stuff, and I want it to carry to
10,000 people. We also have Sennheiser Signature Series mics on the backing
vocals, and there’s a Sennheiser 140 on the piano that sounds really good.
It has a swivel so you can shoot it straight down.
The stage setup is fairly straightforward, with a Heritage 3000 monitor
console and not much else. The nature of the show is quiet, so any noise
is prevalent if there’s a sizzle, you notice it. Everybody is on Future
Sonics in-ear monitoring systems, with some Audio Analysts wedges, mostly
to add some feel.
DW: What outboard gear is being deployed?
LM: We’re got BSS 404 compression, as well as a BSS 901 frequency
compressor and a Summit 200 tube compressor for Norah. There are Drawmer
gates, which frankly don’t get a huge amount of use, but are more of a
safety net. I do use them to compress the kick and snare. If the drummer
starts paying really hard, I “stomp” him a little bit, especially on a
couple of hard rock songs in the set, including AC/DC’s ‘Ride On’. It’s
a blast, and the crowd has a great time with it. It’s the end of the night
and everyone lets loose.
And there’s some Lexicon, Eventide and TC components. It’s actually fairly
minimal.
The TC 5000 is my main reverb, I’ve always loved it because it’s simple:
pick a preset and go. In an amphitheatre you don’t need very much, and
our material doesn’t need very much either. It’s not like I’m going to
flange the lead vocal and pitch shift the guitar, although I’ve thought
about it, just to mess around in rehearsals! (laughs)
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DW: How do you go about translating the intimate feel Norah’s
album work to the bigger setting? LM: You have to really watch the line between keeping it
loud enough for everybody while also making it subtle. We’re turning
the boxes up and down we play with that every day. I think that’s
the key: You’ve got to listen for the little things, like Norah’s
foot on the piano baffle, and work to bring that out appropriately.
Sometimes in big arena rock shows, things get missed and no one’s
the wiser, but we can’t do that here. |
LM: The first week we had a Meyer SIM guy work with the system,
and from there, we’ve been using (SIA) SMAART Live, as well as our ears.
We put SMAART on when the system first goes live, to see if anything is
jumping out. During shows we use our ears. Going from an empty room to
a full room, the mic check is really a line check. Once you go into an
empty room, that’s your time. During the first song, we smooth things
out, because sometime rooms will turn 180 degrees you never know.
DW: Have you had any “cruel shocks” along these lines?
LM: There have been some rooms that were ridiculously “boomy” during
soundcheck, and then during the show they were dead. Hockey rinks, in
particular, present some interesting challenges they’ll change, some
more than others, and specifically, the top end can just evaporate. But
you never really know until the show starts.
That’s the difference between the studio and live sound: It’s a total
adrenaline rush doing a festival with a rock band, 40 inputs, no soundcheck
and 50,000 people there to enjoy it. That’s adrenaline, it keeps you on
your toes it still gives you the willies, and it’s just so much fun
to make a living this way.
Note from the author: Lee Moro also stressed that we note the
contribution of key sound personnel working with him on the Norah Jones
tour, including Systems Engineer Steve Bush, Monitor Engineers Brett Dicus
and Ryan Cecil, and touring company Audio Analysts.
David Weiss is a free-lance audio journalist who regularly covers the concert industry for Live Sound, most recently Pearl Jam on tour (July 2003 issue).
October 2003 Live Sound International