Unless you’re fortunate enough to employ your own personal front of house engineer, it’s difficult to achieve mix consistency from show to show. After all, you’re dealing with a new FOH and monitor engineer every night. So what can you do about it? Ken “hiwatt” Marshall — a talented producer, engineer, and composer whose credits include Skinny Puppy and Linkin Park — has a solution: do it yourself! When Ken’s band, Black Line, secured the opening slot on Depeche Mode’s Global Spirit Tour, they hit the stage with a Midas PRO1-IP digital mixer and DL251 stage box. With this rig, Ken created a “stage mix” — three pre-mixed stereo feeds that he mixed from his position on the stage and then sent to front of house. The result was a top-shelf mix that sounded consistent night after night. We chat with Ken about his unconventional mixing method.
Ken’s band, Black Line, preps for a show.
Running FOH from the Stage
(in a Manner of Speaking)
Right from the start, Ken makes one thing abundantly clear: his stage mix approach is not the same thing as running front of house from the stage. “It’s kind of a pre-mix,” Ken explains. Rather than creating a finished mix onstage, he leans heavily on a qualified front of house engineer to build a final mix out of his stems — one that’s tailored to the venue and PA system.
Ken’s purpose is twofold: gain better control over the mix that leaves the stage and craft a permanent setup that can be assembled quickly and easily. Ken related that when he was running live sound for Skinny Puppy at the FOH position, he felt disconnected from the band. “I felt like I was a quarter mile away,” he says. “I couldn’t see anyone’s face.” He recalled one occasion when he thought he had created a killer live mix — until he spoke to the band after the show, and they related that their monitor mixes had given them trouble all night. “I didn’t even know,” Ken admits.
Makes Complicated Setups Simple
Ken indicated that before he devised his new onstage mixing technique, even top-notch front of house and monitor engineers had a hard time understanding Skinny Puppy’s setup, which included electronics, computers, tape loops, live synchronization, and a whole host of nontraditional elements. And attempting to verbalize the complex setup to any engineer, no matter how talented, was an exercise in frustration. Beyond that, setup and tear-down were difficult, not to mention time-consuming.
Thanks to Ken’s stage mix method, these difficulties are a thing of the past. He’s actually monitoring the return of the three feeds that he’s sending to FOH — his personal in-ear mix is from the solo bus on the console. This makes getting the band’s monitor mixes consistent a piece of cake. And because he’s right there onstage, he can interact with band members to make sure everything is working well for them. As for setup, the Midas DL251 stage box has everything — in-ears, wireless gear, the computer interface, instruments, and more — wired into it beforehand. All he needs to do is roll it onto the stage, take the case lids off, and they’re set up and ready in about 20 minutes.
A Magnificent Confidence Booster
Ken related that the confidence of the entire show goes up for him, as well as the rest of the band. Knowing that he is onstage and able to hear what they are saying gives them all an unprecedented feeling of reassurance. “It’s almost like a security blanket,” says Ken. “Everybody steps up and plays better because they feel really confident going in that if anything comes up it will be dealt with.”
The Role of the House Engineer
Throughout the interview, Ken reiterated that he needs a competent front of house engineer to make his stage mix method work. He indicated that he always tells the house engineer that “I’m a studio guy — not mister live dude. The house engineer knows the system, the venue, the room, and what major adjustments to make.”
Acknowledging that the FOH engineer is more knowledgeable about the house system than he is, he makes it clear that he needs their help. What Ken brings to the table is an intimate knowledge of the band and their songs. He knows the band and they trust him, but he needs the FOH engineer to handle the PA. “Building the relationship that way,” he says, “works out well.” He’s there to supplement what a FOH engineer is doing, not replace the position. In the end, Ken makes their job easier. “The stems give the FOH engineer something to work with,” he says. “Everything that’s rhythmic and percussive — all the drums are on a stereo stem. All the music is another stereo stem. Then all the vocals are one stereo stem.”
Re-creating the Studio Sound Onstage
Ken acknowledged that even the most qualified FOH engineers have difficulty reproducing the studio sound of a band like Skinny Puppy onstage. Because of its idiosyncratic nature, it really requires somebody who has worked closely with the band and has a strong familiarity with their music. Ken indicated that by sending pre-mixed stems to the FOH engineer — vocal effects and all — he can approximate the band’s studio recordings. The house engineer can then adjust as needed to tailor it to the venue. And if something on his end does go awry, he maintains direct communication with FOH via intercom, so he can give the house engineer what they need to get the right sound for the room.
If Ken wasn’t creating his stage mixes, the FOH engineer would need to contend with a 40-input mix. But since Ken is giving him a solid-sounding mix to start with — something he knows will work for the band — the FOH engineer can focus all of their energy on the room and what’s happening against the room. Since the engineer no longer has to worry about every vocal line and every crazy effect, their talents can really shine through.
A Solution for Anyone
So who would benefit from Ken’s stage mix approach? Ken indicated that any touring artist who works with new house and monitor engineers every night would gain a lot from using this method — it’s a great way to achieve consistency. You can do crazy things with effects. You can enjoy consistent in-ear mixes from night to night. You don’t need a separate person, either. According to Ken, it’s just as easy to mix your own band. And the approach is scalable — small bands don’t need a 40-input mixer. Any small mixer will do.
Praise for Midas and Sweetwater
Ken is a huge fan of Midas, and he knew that he wanted to use their gear for his stage mixes. He called up his Sweetwater Sales Engineer, Brendan Murphy, to iron out the details, and two days later, he got a call from Evan at Midas. “The guys at Midas totally stepped up,” says Ken. He says that before he knew it, his system arrived in LA with everything he would need for the Depeche Mode tour.
Ken noted that his relationship with Sweetwater goes back 18 years, and that when he needs gear, he won’t call anyone else. He stated that he has built several studios over the years, and that Sweetwater has been a part of all of them. “Nobody does it like you guys.”
Are you interested in trying Ken’s stage mix approach? Want to build a killer live rig? Call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700 — they’ll be happy to help.
