Taking its original line-up back on the road, Limp Bizkit have played a series of festivals ahead of a new studio album, Gold Cobra, and will play shows in North America, Europe and South America following its release.
Fusing rap and rock, the band’s microphones need to accommodate high stage sound levels to still deliver the vocal of controversial frontman Fred Durst. ‘These guys are all on wedges and side fills,’ says monitor engineer George Squiers. 'It’s old school with everything set to “stun“. It is no-joke loud up there.’
Durst sings and raps into a Sennheiser SKM 2000 wireless transmitter with an MMD 935-1 cardioid capsule, which cuts through Limp Bizkit’s often thick sound. ‘As a monitor engineer, I have three requirements of a vocal mic,’ says Squiers. ‘I have to be able to make it loud, clean and stable. It was apparent the very first time I pulled the 935 up that it would perform flawlessly on all three counts with only minimal EQ. There were no problems then and there haven’t been problems since.’ He says the same of the two wired Sennheiser e945 super-cardioids used for backing vocals.
With double bass drums, two snares, two hi-hats, and more than enough toms on drummer John Otto’s kit, Squiers and FOH engineer Bryan Worthen turned to Sennheiser’s evolution series of mics – paired e901 and 902s handle bass drums; separate e905s cover the snare tops with e614s on bottoms; clip-on e904s capture the toms; and additional e614s find the sizzle in the hi-hats, ride, and crash cymbals. ‘They have the right attack and punch,’ says Squiers. ‘Like the other mics on stage, they are perfectly stable in the face of tremendous SPLs. It’s really nice to have dynamic e904s on the toms, as I’ve struggled with condensers from other manufacturers that always seem to crackle, pop and hiss. The e904s deliver that classic tom sound without any of the technical problems that plague other mics. Plus, these mics are so durable. Fred and Wes are both very animated during performance. It doesn’t seem to matter how hard the mics hit the ground – either accidentally or on purpose – they just keep on working.’
Worthen found a unique distorted guitar mic combo while working with the Foo Fighters – he pairs a Sennheiser MD 421 II with a Sennheiser e935 (most frequently used for vocals). ‘The MD 421 grabs the body of the guitar,’ says Squiers. ‘The e935 extends the upper range and sweetens it out. Even at Limp Bizkit’s incredible amp volume, the e935 holds steady.’ For the clean riffs, the team uses only an e935.
More: www.sennheiser.co.uk
