Sune Snellman Jakobsen had just come off mixing Mew as a support act for Nine Inch Nails when he arrived in London for a gig at Shepard’s Bush Empire. The NIN shows, which took them to huge, cavernous venues like London’s 02 arena were a far cry from the more comfortable and intimate venues that the band plays as a headlining act, and would seemingly require a raft of extra gear and subsequent worry and frustration by Jakobsen. However, he doesn’t seem flustered at what seems like a massive mix mountain produced by Denmark’s most decorated prog, indie band. “The only time I really get nervous is when I am mixing at home, in Copenhagen,” he explains.

The tour the band is on now makes it difficult for Jakobsen to take his console or PA system to each show, so each night is a blank canvas, which he combats by employing a compact system based mostly around Metric Halo’s Mobile I/O 2882 and ULN-8, and Apple Logic’s Main Stage. 

He explains: “The Metric audio interfaces has DSP and gives me good dynamics processing. I used the Halo ULN-8 for kick, snare, bass and lead vocal preamps, dynamics and eq, as well as drum group processing and system eq. I then send the signals to my laptop via Firewire and use MainStage for effects like vocal delays and drum reverbs.”

Adding to the puzzle is the fact that Mew’s new album, No More Stories Are Told Today I’m Sorry They Washed Away, No More Stories the World Is Grey I’m Tired Let’s Wash Away, as its title would suggest, it not a simple record. Produced by Rick Costey (Franz Ferdinand, Doves, Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Weezer), the album is a rich audio experience with layers on top of layers. The same effect is achieved live as the band plays to cinematic audio effects played through a Bonsai Drive video hard drive, which is assigned to seven faders on the house board and mixed with the full band. The audio and video are played through the PA and projected on video screens respectively, to represent things like a children’s choir, a singing bear and cats and dolls playing violins and trumpets.

Jakobsen has to start from scratch to replicate the effects made in the studio in the live shows. “I have to listen to the album and then find a delay that sounds similar and try to reproduce it on a mic through Main Stage,” he says. “Once we start rehearsing, I then adjust the settings and see what works best. I also use a TC Electronics Reverb 4000 for extra reverb on the vocals.”

This process, along with having to use a different FOH configuration for each gig, requires Jakobsen to do a lot of on-the-fly mixing. “Once the sound check is over and everything is set in the computer I only have to change my settings from song to song and change the presets in Main Stage, but otherwise I just mix on the desk. What comes off the Bonsai Drive are additional instruments tracks, so it makes seven more channels of the mix.

“There are lots of sounds going on at the same time from key boards, guitars, drums, vocals and backing tracks, but I am used to mixing music like that and I know where the frequencies need to be in the mix. After working with the band for so long, I know the set and what is important in certain parts of each song. For instance, I need know when to pull the keys back in a certain parts to make room for the guitar, or if something on the backing track needs to come up for a certain verse or chorus. The vocal is always difficult, so I need to know the important elements during the different parts of each song.”

Working with so many different pieces of gear and venues forces an engineer like Jakobsen to be well versed in almost every major console, in addition to learning the intricacies of many different rooms and PA systems, a process that has pushed him to favouring certain brands and clubs. “The best venues on this tour were Botanique in Brussels and ABC in Glasgow. The Brussels venue had a great modern L-Acoustics PA. I also really like the d&b Auditotechnik J series and the Meyer Sound Milo system.

“You just have to do the best with what you are given. The clubs we have played on this tour have been good every night. We do have to work a lot on tuning PAs, especially the older systems. We played in gig in Cologne and I don’t even know what the system was because it was very old, but it just took longer to eq.
“I use a Waves Maxx BLC as a master compressor and limiter. It is very good for a system that can’t really handle the whole mix because you can get it up and then compress and limit it a little bit so the systems can still work as full capacity.
“As for consoles, I love the Midas Heritage. I am a big Midas fan because they sound amazing and have great preamps and eqs. I prefer to have a good analog board, but I don’t mind digital. I always prefer an analog board for one-off shows because it is always faster and you don’t have to set up the internal patches and all that, so in those situations I prefer analog. Digital is great if we play a festival and work on a board that I have used before, because I can just use those files and tweak them to fit the show.

“We also use mostly Shure mics – I definitely favour the Beta 58a for vocals; I know them and they always sound good. We also have 57s for snare and guitar, KSM137s for overheads, high hats and snare bottom. A KSM32 is used for one of the guitar amps and another paired with a 57 is used for the stereo guitar.”
The Mew tour has taken Jakobsen to several venues and outdoor festivals with varying noise limits. He explains: “The band doesn’t want to be loud just for the sake of it. They want to be loud and punchy, but still maintain dynamics. We keep the level around 102dB. In smaller clubs it gets a lot louder. It really depends on the venue, because in smaller venues as soon as the drummer starts playing you are already up to
over 100dB.

“There is a festival in Copenhagen that has a 95dB limit, which just doesn’t work. I think it should be at least 98dB, . Some festivals, like Roskilde, work on an average. The max is 103dB over 15 minutes, which is cool because you get ear damage over time – if you do it as an average it works.”