ON THE ROAD: Chickenfoot Opposite: Supergroup Chickenfoot performed to a packed venue in Tilburg. Below: In terms of lighting, the aim was to create an old school look incorporating new technology.
at the music venue was instrumental in artists Sheila E, En Vogue and Anastasia, among many others hiring Ace and helping to hone his skills before he headed out on the road with Tower of Power. “It was a pretty intense gig and I was doing
200 shows a year with Tower of Power. I felt it was time to mix some different music so I started working with Sammy Hagar four years ago - I was especially keen to come on tour with him because I grew up listening to his music,” said Ace. Due to his reputation within the industry and
link to vocalist Hagar, Ace was invited to join the crew when Satriani’s engineer - who mixed FOH on the band’s first outing - had commitments that clashed with the recent tour. With Ace on board, the audio crew for Chickenfoot’s recent road test dates was keen to experiment with multiple brands of audio kit before choosing a final list of equipment to feature on the larger scale shows later in the year. Said Ace: “We’re playing around with ideas when it comes to mics. We’ve brought a few different makes and models in and at the end of the tour we’ll figure out what we want to use going forward.” When TPi spoke to the crew in Tilburg,
Shure’s SM58 was being used as a vocal mic and, according to Monitor Engineer, Jim Jorgensen, it had performed well. He explained: “It’s the one that works best with Sammy’s vocal and Ace hasn’t had to EQ things too
much. I’ve tried other capsules several times and I’ve always come back to the SM58 mainly because of its off axis rejection. Sam and Mike will sing together quite often so the newer capsules are more isolated and they wouldn’t pick up the off axis sound as well as an SM58. The industry is moving in a direction to have more off axis rejection and this is an instance where I prefer to have as little as possible.” An assortment of other microphone models
were thrown into the mix on stage. Audio- Technica’s AE2500 dual-element cardiod microphone was positioned in the kick drum, a Shure SM57 on the snare, the Audix Micro-D on the toms and bottom snare, Audio-Technica’s AE3000 cardioid condenser microphone was used on the lower tom and two Shure KSM32’s for overheads. Audio-Technica’s AT4081 ribbon microphone was positioned on the ride but, as Jorgensen pointed out, although ribbons have become increasingly popular, audio engineers need to be careful with their placement. “Kenny’s such a touch player and we wanted
something that picked up more of the character of the ride along with the different touches you get when you have a player like that and the ribbon mic was perfect,” said Jorgensen. “With Kenny being an avid studio drummer, he has several mic endorsements so we’re not being too brand specific at the moment and are using a mixed bag of mics. We had been using other models of mic for kick and snare for Chad
Smith. Switching to the Audio-Technica dual element kick drum mic has worked well in this environment, picking up all of the high end we need while still maintaining its clarity.”
CREATING A CLASSIC ROCK SOUND Ace’s selected digital board at FOH was the Yamaha PM5D and - with many of the venues on the tour featuring smaller production areas - the desk’s small footprint offered the crew added convenience. The size of the venues the tour was visiting dictated the FOH console chosen, but Ace also wanted to avoid desks that were highly plug-in based, believing quick navigation around the desk when mixing the 36 inputs he was working with to be of great importance. “Half of the gear up there on stage was
invented for the band and it wouldn’t make any sense to throw some of my favourite plug-ins over the top - that’s not what they want it to sound like. I try not to use too many effects because it’s old school rock and should sound like the band, just a little bit louder,” Ace highlighted. “I like the way the 5D sounds and feels - it’s
laid out well too and it’s the desk I got exposed to the earliest. When I was with Tower of Power we didn’t carry production and that seemed to be the desk I was on the most.” To give the audience some extra wow factor
in what was already a lively performance, Ace TPi FEBRUARY 2012 • 61
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