Shania Twain’s Queen of Me recently played 78 shows across North America and Europe – marking her first live shows in five years. At FOH was Rob ‘Cubby’ Colby supported by the production crew from Eighth Day Sound.
‘It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Tom Arko and his team at,’ Colby says. ‘Ive enjoyed getting to know their different crews, project managers and office staff on Shania’s tour. I requested a small footprint at FOH, and everything was addressed perfectly both at their US and UK shops.
‘To be trusted is always an opportunity to focus on why I’ve been chosen to mix FOH on tour, and I’ll do my very best to mix the music as the artist intended it to be heard,’ he continues. ‘I familiarise myself with recorded versions of the songs, not just the biggest hits, and concerning Shania’s huge catalogue, there are many stories from her extensive career that offer a better perspective on what the song might be about. I take what I learn into her live production and create a sensitivity to the music mix.’
Cubby’s console of choice has been DiGiCo since the desk’s inception. ‘Currently, I’m on an SD7 Quantum with two 32-bit SD Racks. I use pretty much everything on the desk itself as my approach has always been of pure path, and this console offers everything I need,’ he says. ‘The only plug-ins I use are the Waves PSE and F6. ‘I multitrack via two MGB to BlackMagic Drives and use Logic Pro as my DAW. I also have a Tascam SS-CDR200 for quick reference mixes, and there are two Smart C2’s in my rack, just in case…’
With his equipment as requested, Colby reports: ‘Her voice is so strong and her band are great musicians, I enjoy the emphasis on the segue into different parts of the show. Shania has a very good knowledge of audio and musical sounds in general, and her vocal ability to harmonise and select the parts best suited for each singer in her band is interesting. She explains her vision for the live shows, and I translate that; she’s always the producer.’
The UK PA comprises 148 d&b audiotechnik cabinets powered by D80 amplifiers – main and side hangs of KSL (8s and 12s) and flown and groundstacked SL Subs with Y10s on the inner placements and AL60s on the outer.
‘Cubby is a great engineer, and his mix translates Shania’s music perfectly,’ says Systems Engineer, Nils Knecht. ‘He likes a round system with some low end and doesn’t want to overachieve with the d&b ArrayProcessing on a long throw; he wants to make sure there’s a natural touch.
‘In the larger arenas where seats are sold all the way around, we have a 270° hang made up of V12s and V8s. We use ArrayProcessing on all the hangs, which helps to make everything sound even throughout the venues, and the Y10s and AL60s make a little curved cluster to get the near fill we require.
‘From Cubby’s SD7Q, I get a couple of AES lines which I take into the Lakes at FOH to distribute the signal. All my processing happens in the amps, so my Lakes are a big matrix used to route the signal wherever I need it to go.’
Fellow engineer Connie Fernstrom has been mixing Shania’s monitors for around 11 years. ‘Shania wants things to be consistent, night after night, venue to venue,’ he says. ‘That’s what we strive to deliver.’
Using a DiGiCo SD5, he describes each song as unique: ‘Every song is unique in terms of how she likes to hear it live, but once we get that locked in, we do our best to deliver that same sound each night,’ he confirms. ‘For any monitor or FOH mixer, backline tech etc, you must earn the artist’s trust and then deliver on it repeatedly.’
Fernstrom is generating eight mixes plus the crew shout-out lines. Very happy with his Shure rider: ‘Everyone uses Shure PSM1000s with Shure Axient and ULXD for RF, it’s a wonderful sounding system. Our DiGiCo drive racks and all my RF inputs/outputs are in one big rack, which is very convenient. Eighth Day has been great with my packaging. Like Cubby, I asked them for a small footprint, which is why the SD5 is perfect, and it’s working great.’
Fernstrom works closely with Monitor Tech Nathan Fenchak: ‘The goal we have is to achieve the right mix without adding complexity to the monitor system. We have a couple of analogue splitters because Cubby and Connie don’t share a cage but the whole show pretty much fits in one rack. The only unusual thing we’re doing is that all of the backline RF is in our monitor rack, so the signal comes into our rack, and we then return the guitars out to the musicians, which runs through their Kempers and Helixes and back to us.’
Fenchak’s RF file is built into a Shure Wireless Workbench, which he says gives peace of mind: ‘I love the way Shure integrates into Workbench, I can monitor and manage the whole system so easily.’
Nick ‘Niko’ Labas handles comms using Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom system, chosen for its robust nature and ability to handle up to 100 antennae at a time. He says it has made his role on tour second nature.
‘Using the Bolero system has been great, they’ve made a very easy-to-use comms program, which is intuitive even if you’ve never done comms before. It’s a powerful intercom that I think anyone can get comfortable using. I’ve had some nice feedback on my work on this tour, and I’ve loved working on it.’
More: www.8thdaysound.com
