Audio Pro

Which band/project are you currently working on?

I am on Day 450 something since the Red Hot Chili Peppers tour started and doing the very last week of shows in the UK.

Where are you at the moment?

Glasgow

What audio console are you utilising? And how many channels?

I pretty much stay on Midas H3000s with an occasional bounce down to a Midas Verona for shows that I can’t bring in the touring console for whatever reason. I avoid digital consoles like the plague. I need a minimum of 32 channels to mix the show (24 from the stage plus effects and such).

What decision process was behind the choice of this audio console?

What I want in a console and a front of house setup in general is information and control. I want to be able to know everything that is going on instantly and always without pressing buttons. I want control over everything instantly and always with as little effort or wasted time as possible.

With my current setup, I can glance across the console and over to the rack and know every input level, every gate, every comp, all my EQ settings, both house and channel and where my effects are set.

I then can grab multiple things if need be, instantly, with either or both hands and make changes while watching the band rather than the console.

Favourite PA system?

Easily V-Dosc as it not only has a sonic advantage over other systems, it also has worldwide availability and a very high level of vendor to vendor consistency.

Favorite venue/festival?

Coachella Festival is awesome and consistently so. You don’t feel trapped and milked like is so common.

Best toy you take on tour? (Can be audio… can be a ice-machine)

I won’t tell you her name.

Worst professional experience?

When the sound vendor crew at Woodstock 2 got a bit excited to load out and started breaking down the other consoles after I line checked and PA tested the Peppers.

Then, off in the distance is a near naked man, jumping around on stage that looks a lot like Flea, my console shows input but all I hear is a huge amount of not a damn thing. “I got no pa. Hey, I got not PA! HEY, THE PA IS NOT @#$%^&*! WORKING!!”

Turns out those two mic cables running out of my board around the console they were breaking down still needed to be plugged in.

Career highlight?

1. Every tour of Australia.
2. Live patching the sound system AC power on the mid 80s Black Flag tours into the service side of the main breakers. The cops would regularly show up to shut their shows down and we would walk away from the sound board and blend in with audience. Not knowing how the sound board worked they would kill building power to stop the show, while the band, the PA and lights would keep rocking.

What really pisses you off when you’re working?

When a sound system decides to stop making sound in the middle of a show.

With hindsight, what job would you have chosen for yourself?

I can’t think of a better gig than travelling around the world as a sound engineer, designing sound systems and running a company that is a cluster of amazing people working together with a common goal.