packaged by a different vendor last year
allowed me to weigh up multiple pros and
cons – small things like the height of the
doghouse or the position of the drive rack.
It all allowed me to put pen to paper on the
design of my dream FOH package. Before
we knew it… POOF! Just like that, the meta-
phorical genie granted our wishes.
Now, stood at rehearsals in Redditch,
England, all the gear we could possibly
want at our disposal and an ever-growing
list of destinations around the globe to con-
quer, it was game on.
Gear Snob
STAGE SET-UP FOR SHAWN MENDES: THE TOUR FEATURING CLAIR PA SYSTEM
It’s interesting to look back at what touring
was for me in the beginning. In particular, I
realize that what I thought were good gear
decisions actually sucked.
If I was to start a club/theatre tour
tomorrow with a low budget and no time,
I would prioritize a means to multitrack
record with some reliable reference moni-
tors. I would never have been left guessing
about where my mix sat in relation to the
30-year-old Turbosound system shooting
down my hopes and dreams via a bullet
horn. (Disclaimer: I actually fucking love
some old-school Turbs.)
After that, a Lake. I see a lot of tours at
this entry- to mid-level that would rather
take out a Waves and/or Universal
Audio setup over anything else.
If you think for one second that
you can rely on consistent PA
throughout a club run, you are
in trouble; moreover, if you think
that your emulated SSL channel
strip is going to make showing up
late for soundcheck after your bus
broke down outside of Thunder
Bay any better, you have lost your
mind.
“It’s All Happening”
has been the hardest pill to swallow thus
far in my career.
Fast forward to March 2019 and here
I sit, beer in hand, sun on my back, having
swapped a muddy field in Swansea for a
bohemian corner of Barcelona. Perspective
The U.K. phase of production
rehearsals lasted for two weeks.
In that time, we utilized the pur-
pose-built facilities at Fly by Nite
Rehearsal Studios to start crafting
the musical side of the show. For
TOM WOOD AT HIS AVID S6L
those 14 days, we quite literally
ate, slept, rehearsed, and repeated,
is everything. I can confidently speak for the
all within the same building.
band, crew, and Shawn when I say that we
Between weeks one and two, we
have been longing to be back in a headline
transitioned from a setup that consisted of
touring environment like this since 2017’s
FOH in an isolated room with a small PA and
Illuminate world tour ended.
reference monitors into a small arena-sized
Each instance of the same console
room with our full touring PA system.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 31