Still delivering a satisfying mixture of rock, electronica and sci-fi practically 30 years after forming, Muse has been packing arenas and festivals all over the world on its present tour behind the brand new Will of the People album. The epic reveals mirror the album’s large themes and even greater hooks, however the journey itself began small, inside Exeter’s Cavern Club within the south of England, over a yr in the past.
“It was the unique membership the place the band performed their first present—a 200-capacity venue,” stated Marc Carolan, the band’s FOH engineer since 2001. That was adopted by the 2022 Summer pageant season, a Fall filled with theater underplays across the globe, and now a five-month North American enviornment leg that ended this month in Atlanta. “What I like with Muse is that they’ve nonetheless acquired the flexibility to utterly blow a membership present aside,” Carolan stated with a smile. “It’s the identical with the theaters, too, so though they’re famend for his or her massive productions, they’ll strip that each one away they usually’ve nonetheless acquired it.”
Muse has lengthy been recognized for reveals which are a visible feast—a typical night on the band’s present enviornment run options jaw-dropping quantities of lasers, pyro, large inflatables, confetti (a lot confetti!) and extra—but when Muse is ready on certainly listening to the need of the individuals and overdelivering on live performance theatrics, the identical goes for its method to audio.
Muse’s longtime audio supplier is UK-based Skan, which was acquired by Britannia Row and Clair Global final fall; the group making certain every thing audio surpasses viewers expectations consists of monitor engineer Matt Napier, on his first tour with the group; crew chief, RF guru and monitor assistant Liam Tucker; FOH minder/secondary techniques engineer Eddie O’Brien; system engineer Matt Besford-Foster; system tech Rob Wilkins; and comms tech Boden Birkett.
FOH FOUNDATIONS
Carolan’s FOH place is a fortress of the previous and the brand new, centered round an Avid S6L digital console flanked on both aspect by racks of outboard gear, all tackling the music generated on stage by vocalist/guitarist Matt Bellamy, bassist/vocalist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard, with touring musician Dan Lancaster.
Some of the front-of-house outboard gear has completed a number of circuits all over the world with Muse, however it all has to earn its preserve, stated Carolan: “There are items that work, that sound good and produce one thing to the get together, however I’ll usually ‘blind A/B’ issues, as a result of I need to know if I’m fooling myself pondering this analog alternative is best than a plug-in alternative. With the outboard results that I nonetheless carry, just like the Bricasti M7s and the Eventide H3000, there are plug-in equivalents, however there aren’t any pretty much as good as the actual factor—so we stock the actual factor.”
Other outboard gear filling the FOH racks features a Rupert Neve Designs 5059 Satellite summing mixer; a UBK Fatso; a Maag Audio EQ4M; a GML 8200 parametric EQ; Empirical Labs EL8-X Distressors and Fatso EL7Xs; a Klark-Teknik BBD-320 sign processor; Midas XL42 channel strip preamps; Yamaha SPX2000s; dbx 160A and Tube-Tech LCA 2B compressor/ limiters, in addition to an SMC 2B multiband opto compressor; and a SPL Transient Designer.
Inside Muse’s 2010 ‘Uprising’ Tour
Still, there’s lots occurring with plug-ins, too, not least that Carolan has shifted to utilizing audiostrom LiveProfessor to host all of them. “The full suite of what I might use in studio mixing is all out there to me now, so I’ve fairly a number of Softube plug-ins, FabFilter, iZotope and a few McDSP, particularly the AE600 Active EQ,” he stated, including that he’s been beta-testing the newly launched okesound Soothe Live dynamic resonance suppressor plug-in. “That’s going to be an actual game-changer on the S6L platform,” he averred. Sometimes the plug-ins win these aforementioned A/B checks, too: An Avalon VT-737sp {hardware} unit used prior to now for vocal distortion on Bellamy gave method to a UAD-based plug-in model this time round.
One of the most important modifications within the band’s stay sound on the present tour comes not from Front of House however from the stage itself, as Bellamy and Wolstenholme have switched to utilizing Fractal AXE-FXIII preamp/fx processors. Band studio engineer Aleks Von Korff and guitar tech Chris Whitemyer spent months modeling the group’s gear to make it occur. “It’s not a simple, off-the-shelf determination that they’ve made, however they sound nice,” stated Carolan. “The sounds are barely completely different—and higher—even within the legacy songs, in order that brings a brand new power to them.”
MIKING MUSE
A/B testing wasn’t solely the province of FOH; that’s how the change to Fractals occurred and it additionally affected some miking, as monitor engineer Matt Napier famous, resulting in an AKG D12 VR taking the kick drum spot and a transfer to Austrian Audio OD7s on Toms.
When it got here to Bellamy’s vocal microphone, nonetheless, an A/B take a look at made clear it was finest to go together with not one mic or the opposite, however each. The singer has lengthy belted right into a Neumann KMS 105 onstage, and because the survivor of numerous checks over time, it’s the most effective match for his voice. However, he spends a lot of the present out on the thrust and B-stage, far in entrance of the P.A. “We had good outcomes with the Austrian Audio OD505 on the market,” stated Napier. “The rejection on that has labored out very well—so we change mics as wanted. It’s selecting what’s finest for which tune and the place he’s, moderately than compromising and saying we’ll use one mic for every thing.”
MUSE’S MONITORWORLD
In monitorworld beneath the stage, Napier mixes on a DiGiCo Quantum7 console, using a collection of Waves plug-ins, together with the Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain (“It has a pleasant unfold perform to widen issues for the ears”), SSL E-Channel Strip on drums, and SSL G-Master Buss Compressor.
Mixes are despatched to the band through Wisycom RF bodypacks. “They’ve significantly helped—even the band seen—as a result of they’re a lot cleaner, particularly within the low finish,” stated Napier.
The band hears its mixes through Westone UM Pro30 earphones, quickly to be up to date to Pro X30s. “They’ve all acquired their very own particular person causes for not wanting customized molds completed they usually’re fairly comfortable on the generics,” stated Napier. “They sound actually good, and talking as a monitor engineer, it’s good, as a result of I’ve acquired a drawer filled with them and if one breaks, I don’t must ship it again to get fastened; simply pull out one other set and provides it to the band.”
Hanging above the stage is a substantial d&b audiotechnik GSL/KSL line array system, centered round GSL hangs of 18 on the mains and 16 on the perimeters. Subs are distributed underneath the stage, and fills are used on the finish of the thrust. System engineer Matt Besford-Foster defined, “It offers a focus in order that whenever you see Matt on the B stage, there’s truly some sound coming from the place he’s; in any other case, you’ve acquired this large P.A. blasting away that’s disconnected from what’s occurring.”
Next on the Muse agenda are extra dates in Europe and Malaysia by way of the top of July, taking advantage of the pervasive power operating all through the manufacturing. “The band are happy with the sound they’re developing with,” stated Carolan, “so that they assist us in doing what we expect is finest for the sound. The overriding concern is the outcomes—the sound of what we’re doing. It’s good to be working in a camp the place audio is as intrinsic as anything, and that comes from the artists.”