ONEREPUBLIC ONEREPUBLIC S NATIVE TOUR HAS BEEN THRILLING FANS ACCROSS THE GLOBE SINCE IT BEGAN IN APRIL 2013, SELLING OUT ARENAS WITH EASE AND REELING OFF FAULTLESS PROMO TV PERFORMANCES ALONG THE WAY. PRODUCTION WISE, THE TOUR IS AN IMPRESSIVE BEAST AS SIMON DUFF REPORTS FROM THE 02 ARENA IN LONDON. It is quite rare for a production manager to be also mixing FOH sound on a major arena tour but that is exactly what Zito, an affable and hugely talented individual from Nashville, is doing for OneRepublic. My ability to multi task has always kept me busy, he commented. I think the biggest challenge in combing FOH mix duties and role of PM is managing your time. It is hard to get a break during the day. It has also been very interesting because over the course of a year and a half OneRepublic have gone from playing large theatres to arenas, so my role has really grown as the size of the venues has increased. I do have a great deal of responsibilities to the show and I have to know all the detail. I guess ideally with my PM hat on I would have to say that I don t like being anchored to FOH during the show. I would much prefer to be able to have roaming capabilities and keep my eyes on things as a whole. But my crew are top notch. Our security Giovanni Gasparetti is fantastic and fills gaps for me when I need and my Production Coordinator Sators does the same. Other crew members I would highlight straight away are Brett Stec, System Technician, Bill Heinzimier, Chief Rigger, Aaron Draude, Stage Manager and Oliver Rawles, Carpenter. But I could name everyone as well. They are a fantastic hard working crew. Zito started his career in the music business playing in bands before moving to mixing sound for a host of top acts including New Kids on The Block, Babyface, Billy Currington, Good Charlotte, Sum 41 and Back Street Boys with whom he has worked for seven years. He has been with OneRepublic since the start of 2013 and added: Everything has grown exponentially for One Republic and that includes sound. At The 02 Arena the band added a harmonium to their line up taking the channel count at FOH up to 101 inputs. Both Zito and Monitor Engineer Kyle McMahon mix on a DiGiCo SD7. We are sharing head amps, DiGiCo I / O and eliminating the analogue splitter, explained McMahon. This decision was twofold. It cuts down on troubleshooting time when we run into issues, and the sonic quality overall improved by eliminating extra connections and copper. We are able to hear inputs exactly how each other hears them and see meters react the same way since we have the same desks and head amps running at 96k. Switching to DiGiCo has allowed us to effectively and efficiently meet the artistic demands of the band and their evolution from gig to gig as far as monitors are concerned. Zito is equally complementary about the SD7. I did the first leg of the tour on the SD5 and then we both switched to the SD7 sharing 54
Opposite: The Native Tour is driven by a combination of diamond shaped LED elements, video content, and abstract colour design. Below: From the wings of monitor world, Monitor Engineer Kyle McMahon can be seen mixing on a VER Sound-supplied DiGiCo SD7. stage racks. I had some hesitation in trying this but, in the end, it has been a great decision. Not only did it eliminate a tonne of copper from the splitters, but also it has really simplifi ed our patch. We know that if one of us has an input, we both do! This desk sounds phenomenal, it is so clean and the EQ is incredibly accurate. I can t see myself using anything else for a long time. DiGiCo has made its mark the world over because of high-quality sonic performance, outside there is a kick Beta 52. For hi hats and ride cymbals the order is a Shure SM81. With additional triggers the drum count adds up to 21. For the two bass cabs it s SM57 and Sennhesiser 421 and a custom made pick up on cello. No cabinets are used on guitars with Zito opting for DI Palmer feeds. All vocal mics are Shure Beta 58 s with one Shure Series 2 old school mic that is lowered from the stage trusses and used on one song. Switching to DiGiCo has allowed us to effectively and efficiently meet the artistic demands of the band and their evolution from gig to gig as far as monitors are concerned... - Monitor Engineer Kyle McMahon combined with strong networking capability, ease of use and proven road reliability. He mixes using snapshots and recalls on the desk, mainly for the purposes of channel mute recall then mixes manually through songs. With a channel count at FOH at The 02 hitting 101 mute recalls is essential. For the microphone line up on stage Zito uses Shure KSM 137 for drum overheads, Beta 56 for the toms, a SM57 for snare top and Shure KSM 32 s for the snare bottom. For the inside kick mic, a Shure Beta 91 is utilised and McMahon has been working in sound since 1997, initially as a system technician then moving to monitor world working for a host of high profi le clients including Earth Wind & Fire, Harry Connick Jr as well as many leading Christian acts such as Hillsong and Passion. He took on OneRepublic s monitor duties in September taking over the baton from Matt Manix. McMahon s DiGiCo SD7 takes the 100 plus inputs to create some 14 stereo IEMS for band, techs, video and lighting world as well as six mono sends for a small amount of 55
Below: Neg Earth supplied the lighting rig, including eight Showtex Matrix 5x5 s; While a custom made pick up was fitted to Brent Kutzle s Cello, Sennheiser 421 and Shure SM57 microphones were employed for bass amplification. stage wedges which are d&b audiotechnik M4 s. McMahon commented on the console: Sonically the SD7 sounds great, the layout is easy for me to understand and DiGiCo s audio network capabilities are beyond comparison. DiGiCo are doing networking of racks and consoles, which can run over 500 channels of audio. People are getting much more into distributed I / O systems. Mix-wise I use snapshots, mainly for aux send levels. All in-ears are Westone ES60 s. Shure PSM 1000 Transmitter and receivers utilised for some 50 channels of RF with the Shure AXT 600 Spectrum Manager System. A d&b audiotechnik J Series PA hang was supplied for the 02 show and consisted of 18 boxes of J per side; four J12 s and 14 J8 s. In addition, a further six J Series subs were hung per side directly behind the hang in cardioid formation. Zito added: It keeps the low end really tight and punchy. For the Side hang 12 J Series units were deployed. On the ground, two stacks of d&b audiotechnik J INFRA subs were used, four per side. Zito likes to run the subs very much as an effect, he explained: The main hangs are fed off the LR bus. Then the ground stacks are fed off an aux send as an effect. There are about four points during the show I use these to really drive the audience. All loudspeakers are run off d&b audiotechnik D80 power amplifiers. There are four racks a side for the whole PA with Lab.gruppen LM 44 amplifiers for EQ. Zito continued: I love the J Series because it is very clean and musical. The D80 s bring a tonne of punch and headroom to the already amazing PA. My System Technician, Brett Stec, can get the system to how I want it so sound. I leave I am really enjoying the B-Eye. First and foremost it is an excellent wash fixture, and I like how the LED washes are now competing with HMI washes... - LD Andrew Pen that to him so when we do a sound check we are already there as to how it should sound. All tour audio equipment was supplied by VER Tour Sound. ONEREPUBLIC VISUALS The look of The Native Tour is driven by a combination of diamond shaped LED elements, video content, including a mixture of abstract colour design and some band footage as well as on occasion each band assigned an individual animal character cartoon, in addition to the use of IMAG. The stage was built by Accurate Staging in Nashville with All Access Staging providing risers, B stage and power transformers. For lighting fixtures the look is of sharp bold well-defined lines and washes with blues, reds, yellows, greens and tungsten very much to the fore. Two follow spots were used at the 02 Arena. The band themselves take quite an interest in production and have a direct influence over the look of the show. Lighting Director for the European 2014 run is the affable Montreal-based Andrew Pen who has been in the business for over 20 years. His impressive lighting design and production credits includes the likes of Linkin Park, Jovanotti, The Goo Goo Dolls, Audioslave, Avril Lavigne, Walk Off The Earth, Matchbox 20, Van Halen, Weezer and now OneRepublic. Neg Earth supplied all the lighting fixtures, consoles, motors and rigging for the tour. My relationship with Neg Earth goes back to the Avril Lavigne tour in 2004, said Pen. Dave Ridgeway (owner) has always provided me and the productions with whom I tour top-notch, stellar service and support. When I joined the Native Tour the show was already built on an MA Lighting grandma2. Since joining, I have worked to develop the look and programming. All consoles are equally useful to me, however the grandma2 is quite obviously the dominant player in the market. Chris Lisle s truss design is all-straight. One of the unique features are the four stage truss pods that are suspended from the upstage truss, containing both LED panel and lighting fixtures. Continued Pen: Overall Martin Mac Vipers, Clay Paky B-Eyes and Auras provide the meat and potatoes while Sharpy s add spice and the 5X5 Matrix contribute to the overall diamond look of the set by virtue of how they 56
Below: A J Pen, Lighting Director; Charles Signaigo, Video Director; Zito, Production Manager and FOH Mix engineer; Kyle McMahon, Monitor Engineer. are hung at 45º angles. The main fixtures for the Neg Earth line up for The 02 comprised of 22 Martin Professional MAC Vipers, 25 Martin MAC Auras, eight Showtec Matrix 5x5 s, four Martin Atomic Strobes, 12 Clay Paky Aleda K20 B-Eyes, 20 Clay Paky Sharpys, 16 Chroma Q Colorforce 48 s, two Colorkinetics Colorblast TRXs and five 500W Edison Bulb Large base fixtures. Pen added: I am really enjoying the B-Eye. First and foremost it is an excellent wash fixture, and I like how the LED washes are now competing with HMI washes. It is very unique in some of the effects you can get out of it. Risers are fitted with fascia panels which are lit from within by custom LED tape, as is the band s custom upright piano and some large drums that the band plays in the finale. The brand-new piano also incorporates Chauvet Professional Strike fixtures in the top as up lights for when singer Ryan Tedder stands on the piano during the encore. The LED wall from XL Video is made up of the MC-18mm Hybrid panels in diamond formations with high-res tiles each with low-res bright pixels spread throughout. A Catalyst media server is programmed at video world and chases SMPTE for the high-res wall while the low-res is on the same Catalyst but triggered via ArtNet from the lighting console. All cues are run 100% manually by Pen during the show. He added: I have an in-ear mix that includes the mix that Zito sends to the PA, the click, the crew talk back and a separate talk back for Bert Elliott, our audio playback guy who counts the songs in. My mix is delayed to be in time with the PA. I I like to feel the music and imagine how I d want to see it if I were in the audience... - Video Director, Charles Signaigo find it easier to play ahead of the beat than to interpret conflicting ear mix, sub bass messages. I can also fine-tune the timing of the cues based on how much of the crowd is in front or behind me. CO2 effects are triggered from the lighting console and are played just like lighting cues. Moo TV, the Nashville based live event video event specialists provided video content development with XL Video providing all associated hardware. Video Director is Charles Signaigo who has done a lot of work in the house of worship sector prior to coming on board with OneRepublic. Signaigio cuts his mix on a Panasonic AV HS 410. For IMAG content on the LED and rear projected onto screens either side of the stage nine cameras are used, three manned and six unmanned. On how he approaches his show mix Signaigio commented: I like to feel the music and imagine how I d want to see it if I were in the audience. Zito as PM is great to work with as are the band and I mix the show differently each night and I have a fantastic tour rigger, Bill Heinzimeir. Other key suppliers on the tour are Fly By Nite which is supplying six trucks and Beat the Street, four buses, two for crew and two for artists. Eat Your Hearts Out is providing catering for the full run. Come show time the band arrived as giant shadows behind a screen in true kabuki style before the curtain fell. The band has a wealth of talent beside front man Tedder. Bassist Brent Kutzle frequently takes up the cello and guitarist Zach Filkins finesse includes a solo segment of looped flamenco acoustic guitar. Song highlights included Counting Stars, Love Runs Out, Apologize and Stop and Stare. The band combines their Coldplay, U2 and Gospel influences to create an up beat optimistic American pop sensibility and Zito s mix faithfully creates a polished high-powered dynamic throughout. The show ends with the bands worldwide hit 58
Below: XL Video supplied the wall of LED, which comprised a number of MC-18mm Hybrid panels. The panels became an integral part of the stage. single If I loose Myself complete with confetti from the bands own purchased Artistry in Motion confetti cannons. Two at stage and two at FOH control. This band and crew really do have all bases covered. TPi Photos: Simon Duff http://onerepublic.com www.verrents.com www.accuratestaging.com http://allaccessinc.com www.negearth.com www.mootv.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.beatthestreet.net www.eat-your-heart-out.com www.xlvideo.com 59