Tina Turner Turns It Up On Her 1997 ‘Wildest Dreams’ Tour

This article appeared within the October 1997 situation of Pro Sound News, overlaying the top of the 18-month-long Tina Turner “Wildest Dreams” tour.

New York (October, 1997)—By August, everybody on the Tina Turner tour was wanting ahead to a while off. Having began 18 months earlier in March, 1996, the manufacturing arrived in New York some 300-plus exhibits later with a mere eight performances left; going residence was a well-liked subject of dialog.

“Everyone’s able to cease–even Tina’s prepared. She toured final 12 months for 10 months and had one week off in that point,” remarked Chad Shreiner, system engineer for the Clair Bros. rig with which Turner was touring. He, system tech Kirk Shreiner and FOH engineer Dave Natale had been the one members of the six-man sound crew to do your entire tour. Natale, who’s been Turner’s FOH engineer since 1985, repeatedly characterised Turner as “a traditionalist” and the identical may very well be stated for his personal strategy to mixing; for example, there was little in the best way of results on the FOH place. “See, I really combine,” he stated, wryly. “I push the faders up and down, like, loads throughout the present. I do it myself, it makes it extra attention-grabbing. Plus I believe I’m a greater limiter than any field anyway.”

Following equally in that traditionalist vein, Natale famous that he had used the identical makes of microphones for the final 15 years (“no level in altering except there’s one thing price altering to.”). Not that he’s towards change nevertheless—for example, he added a “new” field to his arrange a couple of years in the past: “I run Tina’s voice by way of the Manley, which is a superb limiter. You can’t hear it—identical to a limiter ought to work. Tina’s vocal will get no Harmonizer, and reverb provided that it’s exceptionally dry. She’s received a extremely good voice, so I don’t need to do something to it.”

When the reverb is used, it’s additionally utilized in a straight-ahead style. “I’m not a lot for utilizing totally different reverbs on totally different devices,” stated Natale, “as a result of that is purported to sound prefer it’s reside. Everything has the identical reverb on it, so it sounds just like the band’s all enjoying in the identical place on the similar time.”

One of the issues Natale needed to take care of was a strong stage sound created by a slew of sidefills and 40 monitor wedges–18 throughout the entrance of the stage only for Turner alone. Despite all these containers, monitor engineer Ed Dracoules didn’t assume the stage sound was that uncommon, describing it as “Loud—similar as most bands I work with.” Natale merely noticed the stage stage as one thing that simply needed to be handled, noting, “Tina wants to listen to herself earlier than she will sing something into the PA–which is what I care about. I simply EQ round it. Instead of going by way of a giant music and dance in regards to the wedges, it’s simpler to only pull the vocal fader up and down a bit of bit now and again.”

With all of the containers on stage and the truth that the present was all singing and dancing, it was nearly shocking that non-public monitor programs weren’t used, if solely to get wedges out the viewers’s view of Turner’s shuffling ft. Shreiner defined, “Only the percussion/sax participant is utilizing private displays and he has a Clair Brothers system. It doesn’t get fairly as loud as the opposite ones, however it’s very clear. We tried to provide them to Tina, however she’s from the old-fashioned. She needed to see containers pointed at her, plus she has lots of costume modifications the place she has to get again on stage quick, in order that they’d get in the best way.”

Regardless of the stage sound, the PA typically received turned up fairly excessive, too. “Tina likes the present to be highly effective, so it will get as loud as it will probably,” Natale defined. Pushing the sound to the wall can be proper in step with the remainder of the present, nevertheless, which was a powerful mixture of over-the-top spectacle and efficiency, even with solely eight exhibits left. As Shreiner identified, “She provides 120 p.c each night time, whether or not it’s an excellent viewers or not. She nonetheless treats it prefer it’s the primary present of the tour.”