SHAWN MENDES & BAND
IN REHEARSAL
My main weapon of choice: the Avid
S6L. I’ve long been an Avid fan since the
Profile. As one of the most successful live
consoles in history, it’s rare to find an engi-
neer who isn’t familiar with its workflow. In
response to advances in technology and an
increased demand for flexibility, Avid has
come up with a console that marries pro-
ductivity and sonic quality brilliantly.
Shawn has a fantastic musical director
(MD), Zubin Thakkar, who understands the
technical side of audio just as well as he
understands the musical side. Every project
is different and the unique challenges that
come with them make you better as an
engineer. In this case, Zubin’s attention to
detail can be a challenge, but that is the dif-
32 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
ference between “world-class” and not. You
either embrace it and give your all, or you
don’t. Resistance is futile. (And will probably
get you fired.)
Zubin and I worked very closely
throughout the rehearsal process. I can’t
tell you enough how much I wanted ev-
eryone to feel invested and proud of what
we were doing musically this time around.
I made a point of becoming an open book.
I invited everyone to take a listen to what
we were working on. That shit is straight
up scary, but a milestone on the route to
better mixing.
As Yoda once said: “Fear is the path to
the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger
leads to hate. Hate leads to backline.”
Part of the beauty of working in audio
is that the technology you choose really
does have a direct and immediate im-
pact on your life. Without AVB and Virtual
Soundcheck, the rehearsal process would
have sucked. I’m not talking about virtual
soundcheck in general; I’m talking about
the proprietary Avid way. I’ll give you some
quick examples because I could write an
entire magazine about it:
• Recalling a snapshot adds a mark-
er to Pro Tools while recording.
• Recalling a snapshot in Virtual
Soundcheck snaps to the corre-
sponding marker!
• Control events within the S6L
software allow you to trigger Pro
Tools to record when recalling a
snapshot. (If I had a dollar for ev-
ery time I forgot to hit that satanic
space bar before AVB…)
• There are transport controls ON
THE DESK!
I digress. Zubin and I sat long into the night
looping individual sections, asking for each
other’s thoughts on certain parts. Often,
Zubin would stand to my right at the helm
of Pro Tools while I listened to gates open-
ing and closing or auditioning different
drum compression. I was adamant that I
wanted to start using drum triggers to key
the opening and closing of gates on this
run. We had already started adding some
triggered samples anyway, so all we needed
were a couple more physical triggers.
Boy am I glad we went in this direc-
tion. Gate phobia is a thing of the past.
The band has long been amp-less, instead
favouring Kemper Profilers for guitars and
an Avalon DI on bass. This is backed up by
a keys and track rig, leaving the drums as
the only element actually making noise on
the stage.
Not gonna lie. For a “pop” gig, this rocks.
We’re blessed with a truly incredible
bunch of musicians. I have never once had
to worry that, if something doesn’t sound
right coming from an instrument, the
band would not move heaven and earth
to change things. In addition to Zubin on
guitar, we’ve got Mike Sleath on drums,
Dave Haskett on bass, and Eddy Ruyter on
keys. All Canadian and all very apologetic
about it.
Knowing myself and Zubin were
leaving rehearsals on the same page about
where the mix was sitting made the route
to success that much easier to walk – I
hope, for both of us.