scottie pakulski/midas® tour diary - Electro

SCOTTIE PAKULSKI/MIDAS® TOUR DIARY:
DURAN DURAN & ROXY MUSIC
Scottie Pakulski brings a
refreshing and original vision to
world-class live sound
engineering. His console of
choice is the Midas XL4, upon
which he recently mixed Prince’s
all live “One Nite Alone” box set.
Scottie recently toured Japan and
the west coast US with the
original line up of Duran Duran.
These were the first original line
up shows for 18 years. He then
took to the road with Roxy Music,
one of Duran Duran’s prime
influences. Here Scottie
describes his time on tour with
these pop legends and his Midas
XL4.
Duran Duran:
Saturday, July 5th:
• 11:20am flight to Osaka by way of Detroit. Arrived in Osaka (below) at
6:00pm Sunday.
Sunday, July 6th:
• Travel to hotel by car, check in and have conceptual meeting at 10pm
with the band at their hotel. Load-in at midnight. Met Saiji (below) from
MSI-Japan. Went over system and set up Midas XL4 with a sound check
patch for the show. In bed at 5am on Monday morning…
Monday, July 7th:
• Show day, Osaka. Osaka-Jo Hall. Capacity is 16,000. Woke up at
9:30am, walked to venue and time aligned system. MSI-Japan is the
sound provider of the tour. The touring speaker system is a mixture of VDOSC, dV-DOSC, and ARCS and V-DOSC subs. I am also recording
Duran Duran’s shows directly to stereo from the console for release as a
five-disc box set. This follows the success I had last year in recording
Prince’s ‘One Nite Alone…Live!’ three-disc set in the same way. There
are a fair amount of effects present in Duran Duran’s recorded music and
part of my job is to study them carefully and accurately replicate them in
the live setting. This includes all panning of instruments, precision of
reverbs and echo times, etc… Nick Rhodes, the band’s keyboardist, and
I discussed these issues for each song so that any changes can be
locked in to the programming at FOH for the mix. The show went very
well and I’m sure the guys were happy to get their first show in 18 years
under their belt!
Tuesday, July 8th:
• Show day, Fukuoka. Awoke at 4:45am for a 5:30am lobby call. Traveled
by bullet train to Fukuoka for show at Zepp. Zepp is a small club with a
dead room sound and an in-house system. We used their racks and
stacks. Show went very well and I refined some of the automation of
effects on the XL4.
Wednesday, July 9th:
• Travel day to Nagoya. Bullet train at 2:30pm to Nagoya, then dinner at
8pm provided by promoter at Japanese restaurant. Very good food!
Sushi, rice, fried cheese, etc… Had a good talk with lead vocalist Simon
LeBon, drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist John Taylor about music,
relation of music to the audience, etc… John mentioned that they have
upcoming dates in the U.S. in November and December. Load-in
tomorrow at 9am with an 11am call for the sound crew. Travel days, for
the most part, leave little time to really enjoy the great cities in which we
stay. Full days off, however, provide a good opportunity to explore and
enjoy. A lot of times though it’s just as nice, with our hectic schedule, to
just relax in the hotel for the next show day.
Thursday, July 10th:
• Show day, Nagoya. Century Hall. This venue is a beautiful sounding
room with some natural ambience that gives fullness to the sound. This
show went smooth and is coming together in tightness. Very good crowd
even though this is one of the only venues with seats Duran Duran has
on their tour in Japan. Their show is conducive to the crowd standing
and dancing a lot. The FOH engineer can influence this quite a bit by the
amount of low-end that is used.
(more)
Friday, July 11th:
• Show day, Budokan. There is a
Japanese crew multi-tracking
the show onto Pro-Tools for mix
down at a later date for
television broadcast. After the
show I went to truck to approve
the tracking. I gave a bunch of
show notes to the crew for mix
down. After the show I went to
dinner with a friend who lives in
Tokyo.
Saturday, July 12th:
• Show day, Budokan. Second show here at Budokan. This is one of the
most famous and memorable venues in which to play. It can be a very
difficult room but we get the best of it and have a great show. The best
show of the tour so far!
Sunday, July 13th:
• Travel / day off in Los Angeles. Long flight! I’ll be glad to be in L.A. to
see some friends and catch up today and tomorrow.
The rigors of the road: Scottie tries not to lose his head…(!)
Monday, July 14th:
• Non-performance day in Los Angeles. I visit two houses in L.A. designed
by my favorite architect Frank Lloyd Wright, then take in a lunch and
dinner with two friends. Later in the evening we plan out by phone the
next day at the Roxy nightclub.
Tuesday, July 15th:
• Show day, ‘The Roxy’ in LA. Used the in-house system, which sounded
good. This was a hot, fun show! Maybe the best on the tour. There
were a lot of celebrities crowding around as well. This is Duran Duran’s
first show in the USA since 1985 with the original members.
Wednesday, July 16th:
• Show day, Orange County. I finalized getting the ‘Roxy Music’ job that
day so I knew I’d be coming back in two weeks to this same festival. The
local sound company had a Midas XL4 at FOH so I used my XL4 memory
card to load the show into the console. That saved so much time and
added to the consistency of the show.
Thursday, July 17th:
• Show day, Las Vegas. For this show there was a Midas Heritage 3000 at
FOH and Midas XL250 in monitors. The integration went smoothly as did
the show. FOH mix position is difficult here as I am up on the balcony but
I make adjustments to my reference during sound check to get used to
how it varies from most of the club.
Friday, July 18th:
• Day off, Las Vegas. Went to Las Vegas Motor Speedway to take part in
a racing school. I drove a stock car around the track at 170mph!
NASCAR is definitely my new favorite sport. This is the adrenaline rush
of a lifetime. I can’t wait to do it again! A truly great day off!
Saturday, July 19th:
• Show day, The Joint, Las Vegas. Second show at this venue and last of
this leg of the tour. The band threw a party at our hotel in celebration of a
successful return to the stage!
Sunday, July 20th:
• Travel day, Las Vegas to Minneapolis.
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Roxy Music:
Thursday, July 24th:
• Travel day / load-in, tech day to Jones Beach, Long Island. I have an
‘Eighth Day Sound’ V-DOSC rig and system tech Jordan Zur (below) for
this leg of the Roxy Music tour. The working relationship with my system
engineer is of paramount importance, as we need to develop an
understanding of the variables in which we are going to set up and drive
the system. Jordan and I work out the details in as this is a technical day
and I am very pleased with the results.
•
Friday, July 25th:
• Sound check / show day, Jones Beach. Roxy Music has the unique
situation of having a sound director. This is none other than Mr. Rhett
Davies (below). Mr. Davies background as Roxy Music’s record producer
works to an advantage because I will be working with Rhett on altering
the work he did in the studio versions of the songs to fit the live setting.
This includes subtleties in arrangement as well as different effects, visual
cues, solo cueing, etc… I quickly discovered a great working relationship
with Rhett and we achieved great results!
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Saturday, July 26th:
• Show day, Radio City Music Hall, NYC. This is where we get to work with
Local 1. These are possibly the best sound and stage crew in the world.
The show is a great success despite the added pressure of a huge media
market. David Bowie, Moby, and Michelle N’Degeocello join Rhett and
me at FOH for the show.
Sunday, July 27th:
• Travel / non-performance day, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Shopping at
Eaton Centre. The whole crew goes out to dinner at a Thai restaurant.
Border crossing into Canada is a bit harder nowadays but all goes well.
Monday, July 28th:
• Show day, Molson Center, Toronto. Great show, great catering! Toronto
is known for its awesome catering and they did not disappoint!
Tuesday, July 29th:
• Show day, Detroit. Great show! Best sound yet. It was a shed but the
roof and walls are covered with soundproof fabric. This is the best show
of the tour for both band and sound. This show is a good example of why
it is good to automate the mutes and keep the mix clean. I normally bring
each band member out to FOH to tell me what they do or do not play on
every song. I also do this in the form of a “cheat sheet.” Looking at a
modified input list, the band members will check boxes of the instruments
they play during each song. It is valuable in keeping the mix extremely
clean in terms of musical and special depth. It takes some tweaking
throughout the tour but makes the sound so much more transparent that
it’s worth the effort.
Wednesday, July 30th:
• Travel / day off, Chicago. Eighth Day Sound owner Tom Arko (above)
and director of touring services Owen Orzack flew to Chicago and took
the sound crew out to dinner. I appreciate the hands on approach of
coming out to check on the tour. That kind of involvement shows a
commitment to excellence and support. Thanks for my favorite XL4 Tom,
and great job to everyone at Eighth Day!
Thursday, July 31st:
• Show day, Tweeter Center, Chicago. Not a very good room for
acoustics. Tin roof and wide dispersion but the sound is good and it is
Eighth Day Sound’s last gig on the tour. I had a good talk on the phone
with a future engineer I am mentoring by the name of Demetrius Moore. I
got him a position on the ‘50 Cent’ tour and checked up on his progress.
He approached me after an ‘R. Kelly’ show I mixed in 2000 and
expressed interest in learning the business. As I’ve said before, this is
the “music business.” It is an advantage to be good at both the musical
and business side of things. Helping others along the way is something
in which I take great pride. Demetrius will do very well considering his
already great ethic.
Friday, August 1st:
• Travel / non-performance day, Orange County. The whole crew goes
shopping and then I have dinner with a friend who lives from Orange
County.
Saturday, August 2nd:
• Show day, Orange County. I’m going to train-in another up and coming
engineer named Kat Araya on the Midas XL4. This is the venue that we
played with Duran Duran just two weeks ago. Both training and the show
go great. It is a fitting end to a busy Midas-filled month!
Sunday, August 3rd:
• Travel day, Orange County to Minneapolis.
Scottie heads back out on the road with Prince October 13th, bound
for Hong Kong and Australia. We’ll check in with him soon…
For full details on Midas mixing consoles, please visit www.midas.com
(more)
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