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Applications, Concert
Tool take the stealth route to the road
It's a dark pool of sensual immersion that Tool has created, an ocean of havoc where no part of the
spectrum, emotional, visual, or aural, isn't saturated to excess. Come with every expectation of having
your sensitivity overwhelmed and you won't be disappointed. Bleak? Joyless? Far from it. Tool take us
into dark corners of existence but do not insist we inhabit them. In that respect their shows are
perversely, a celebration; something joyous transforms the expectant crowd. It is a very fine line to
tread, not least in realization; with that in mind sound has several onerous expectations placed upon it.
"There's a lot of extreme dynamics to master", is how FoH mixer Al 'Nobby' Hopkinson defines his role, "that
and getting definition." To give some proportion to those not unfamiliar justifications, imagine a drummer
with eight arms playing a kit where every shell is made from cymbal brass. Then add a guitarist and bass
player who both indulge the full gamut of effects with, it must be said, some truly startling and inventive
forays into hitherto unexplored realms of distortion. Include a vocalist who has the power and larynx to
follow these other instruments into the dark waters, and to top it off, every band member has a synthesizer
somewhere; there is no frequency untouched. "For some time I've been looking for delivery in the low end,
from the smallest venue to the large arenas of the US." In pursuit of this Hopkinson switched to using the
d&b J-Series last summer after a short stint using it in Europe. "We run the J-SUBs in cardioid mode,
four stacks of three each side of stage and I have to say we achieved the smoothest, fattest low end I've
ever heard."
"Maynard (the vocalist) has a really good voice and a good mic technique, but it's not a vocal centered
musical style." Hopkinson uses an Audix OM7 vocal microphone; drums and back-line on a selection of Heil
microphones, overheads are AT4050s and AKG414s with a 451 on the hi-hat. "The band performs exactly as
they sound recorded. It is dense musically." Mixing is done on a Midas XL4, the renowned capabilities
of the desk pivotal for Hopkinson in managing those extreme dynamic lurches he mentioned, "A sudden +15dB
on any input can test a desk, one reason why I have yet to be tempted to the digital; the Midas can manage
it without distortion."
System design is the responsibility of Steph' Serpagli, while Erik Sanderson-Evans assists FoH and tweaks
the system set up. "We've been touring the J-Series for over a year now," said Sanderson. "The things we
like about it are how quick it goes up, the lack of space needed to put it up, and I'm really impressed
with the efficiency. Compared to the last line array we toured, this system uses a quarter of the watts,
quarter of the cabinets, and produces twice the power. In terms of power to weight ratio there is nothing
to compare."
The monitor system is similarly impressive; side-fills comprise four C4-TOPs, two C4-SUBs and two B2s a side;
guitars and bass both use M2 wedges. The drummer meanwhile, has what has been named Texas Headphones by Eighth
Day Sound who service Tool's US tours, "A Q7 and a pair of Q-SUBs either side of him," explained Sanderson,
"Maynard, in contrast, uses an in ear system; Steve Curtin mixes from PM5D; he took over from the previous
guy last year and is doing an excellent job. Overall the experience has been great," concluded Sanderson.
"We use to characterize our last system as similar to standing behind a B52 taking off with a full bomb load,
all black smoke and spitting sparks. The J-Series is much more like a Blackbird, much faster, much stealthier,
and a lot less smoke and sparks."
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