Concluding our protection of the four-year Iron Maiden ‘Legacy of the Beast’ tour, FOH engineer Ken “Pooch” Van Druten shares how he approaches every instrument within the combine, the band’s monitor system, what’s in retailer for the upcoming Future Past tour and extra. Don’t miss Part 1, the place he discusses key plug-ins, outboard gear, combine suggestions and extra!
Bringing all that gear to bear on the combination meant Pooch might focus in on the small print of the songs. “They’re super-nuanced, and that’s what makes this band sound nice, so I take advantage of the digital console with all its snapshot know-how to get into these moments,” he says. “For occasion, one of many powerful components about mixing them is that there’s three guitar gamers that each one play Fenders via Marshalls, so there’s considerably related tones and so they’re actually in the identical frequency vary; discovering house so that you could choose them out individually within the combine is troublesome. My answer was to place them in their very own panning areas primarily based on the place they’re on stage. Dave Murray is on stage proper, so he’s panned stage proper—not panned onerous all the best way, however he’s over there—whereas Adrian Smith is close to the middle, and Janick Gers is on stage left. It’s huge, extensive, unfold out, and you’ll select each single guitar—however then I additionally needed to construct snapshots in order that each time one of many guitarists solos, it snaps to the middle, they play it, after which the subsequent snapshot will get them again to their spot. It’s these sorts of nuances that make a distinction.”
To seize these guitar sounds, every guitar participant had three inputs, comprised of usual-suspect microphones like Shure 57s and a Palmer PDI-09 Junction Guitar Direct field, which captured sound after the consequences and preamps, plus it picked up the heat of the guitar amp itself.
Of course, as Iron Maiden followers will notice, there was one other essential guitar sound that needed to be extraordinarily current within the combine: the bass of Steve Harris. “His bass tone may be very completely different than anyone else on the market; it’s nearly like a fourth guitar, as a result of it doesn’t have an entire lot of low finish in it,” Pooch concedes. “If you hearken to any Iron Maiden file, vocals are the loudest aspect, and the subsequent loudest factor is the bass guitar. He has a signature sound you could’t seize with a DI; we use an SM7 on his cupboard, and that’s the sound of Steve Harris.”
Meanwhile, Nicko McBrain’s drum sound was captured with a slew of mics, beginning with a Randall May system contained in the kick drum, used to assist each a Shure Beta51 and a SM91 boundary mic to get a few of the shell sound. Nearby, the snare was heard through a Shure SM57 on backside and a Telefunken M80-SH on prime, chosen partly for its bump within the high-end to higher seize the crack of the snare. The hi-hat cymbal sported a DPA 2011C, whereas the trip cymbal acquired a Mojave Audio MA-201fetVG LDC; that very same mannequin was used for overheads as nicely.
Nonetheless, a lot of the drum equipment actual property was taken up by at least 9 toms, every with its personal DPA d:vote 4099 CORE mic, apart from the 6-inch and 8-inch which shared one. Faced with so many open microphones on the toms, Pooch notes, “I’m triggering gates, however fairly than the gate getting its threshold data from the audio sign, it comes from a set off that’s affixed on the aspect of every drum shell.”
Over within the Iron Maiden Monitorworld sat a pair of DiGiCo SD desks; there, longtime monitor engineer Steve “Gonzo” Smith taken care of Harris’ combine, whereas the remainder of the band was underneath the watchful eye of Kevin “Tater” McCarthy. While all three guitarists sported in-ear screens, there was nonetheless loads of sound overlaying the stage—McBrain had his personal large, customized wedge and sub for monitoring, whereas each Dickinson and Harris most popular to get their mixes from an enormous assortment of audio system. Intriguingly, there have been two units of aspect fills, with one operated by every monitor engineer; Harris’ sidefills have been old-school Turbosound TMS3s, supplemented downstage by three units of the band’s personal customized wedges, relationship again to the Eighties. Meanwhile, Dickinson most popular his personal L-Acoustics sidefills additional upstage nearer to the drum equipment, and likewise heard upward of two-dozen d&b audiotechnik M2 and M4 wedges across the stage.
With the four-year Legacy of the Beast trek now over, one would possibly anticipate Iron Maiden to take it simple for a couple of minutes, however the band will get again on the street in May; the 2023-24 Future Past tour will function the correct introduction to the brand new Senjutsu album whereas additionally shining a highlight on the often-underplayed Somewhere in Time from 1986. Already wanting ahead to it’s Pooch, who continues to be one of the vital current additions to a crew the place most personnel have logged a long time working for the group. “I’m the brand new child on the block, having been right here for 5 years,” he laughed. “They are a tremendous band to work for; I’ll keep right here for so long as they’ll have me.”
