Article: Guns N' Roses go digital in USA

[sic.]

Guns N' Roses go digital in USA

USA - Guns N' Roses are currently on tour through North America. To handle the live shows, audio veteran Toby Francis was tapped for FOH duties, Andy Ebert was selected for monitors, and the Digidesign Venue live sound environment was chosen to run the show. With two Venue D-Show systems in tow for FOH and monitor mixes,

"This is what I've wanted for years," says Francis. "I've tried everything - at least demoed everything. This is the first console I've wanted to own. I've always looked at the others as a temporary step. Even though some of them I used for four or five years, I was just waiting for technology to advance."

Ebert is equally enthusiastic: "I had used digital consoles before, but I never really liked them because of their sound quality and the fact that they're so complicated to operate. What I'm looking for in a digital console is something that's the most like analogue."

"Guns N' Roses' rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus asked me what plug-in I was using on his guitar and was blown away that it was the same one he used in the studio," recalls Francis. "This is when I first started working for Guns N' Roses, and it helped us get a rapport going. Bassist Tommy Stinson pulled me aside last night and said, "This is awesome - I had the monitor engineer [Ebert] put a Fairchild plug-in on my bass and it sounds just like it does at home! I got the same thing in my ears that I'm used to hearing."


- L&Si Online

[meanmachine73]

Thank you Toby Francis for hopefully sorting out the shitty mix's, feedback and monitor problems.  Shit its only taken the band the last 3 tours to get it sorted!

[freedom78]

Good stuff!  You'd hate for the best band to be ruined by shitty sound.

[AxlsMainMan]

Sounds like Uncle Axl is also no doubt thrilled with these guys

[brock]

I wonder if this will help get them to release "official bootlegs" ala metallica and pearl jam!

[Mr. Redman]

Haha, must've been first used in MPLS, since ther was NO mix problems at all.

[littlewing]

Nice, I'm going to have to email that article to my dad. He works at Digidesign.

[ty182]

maybe coincides with how Axl's voice seems to have improved over this tour? it's tough to sing when you can't hear yourself. At the show I went to he got some wicked feedback in his ear and kicked a monitor.

[wells]

Haha, must've been first used in MPLS, since ther was NO mix problems at all.

I think it was used from the start of 2006. shows back in May.

[Gagarin]

Nice guy, the the house guy is, anyway.

It was cool - there were LCD screens, and one of them would have a "gauge style" instruments on it every now and then.

FYI:  Don't complain about sound unless you are near the soundboard =).  I think the sounds probably been pretty good all tour... I heard people complain about Chicago, and I was there, and it was great!!!

[saint seiya]

i was sitting behind this guy at the frisco shows, i was able to see the diff settings for each song.

[Gagarin]

i was sitting behind this guy at the frisco shows, i was able to see the diff settings for each song.

Yeah, it seemed like he picked from a pretty long list, I couldn't make out the list, but I assumed they were songs.

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

FYI:  Don't complain about sound unless you are near the soundboard =). 

yeah cause we all know the do concerts for the 50 people that stand around the soundboard ..... ?__?

[jarmo]

FYI:  Don't complain about sound unless you are near the soundboard =). 

yeah cause we all know the do concerts for the 50 people that stand around the soundboard ..... ?__?

As far as I know, the best sound in the building is by the soundboard. Simply because that's what the sound guys hear, that's the sound they mix.

It's a lot easier to adjust something you hear instead of guessing what the people up in the nosebleed sections might hear. 



/jarmo

[jbenzz]

A good sound guy knows that what he's hearing doesn't represent the sound everyone else is getting and he sacrifices what he's hearing to mke the show better by understanding the venue's acoustics.  Furthermore, that isn't an excuse for the band getting shitty monitor mixes (which is what they complain about).  I'm assuming they have another guy doing the monitor mixes, but still...