Midas XL8 article relating to the Gig........

[LivewireYouthMusic]

From 'Front of House Magazine

Remaining Members of Led Zeppelin Perform Tribute Concert with Midas XL8

LONDON - Nineteen years after their last appearance, the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin, together with John Bonham’s son Jason, took to the stage at the 02 Arena to perform a tribute concert for their late record label boss Ahmet Ertegun, who signed them to Atlantic Records in 1968.

Technology has clearly moved on since the trio of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones played at a concert to celebrate Atlantic’s 40th anniversary in 1988, and only the best would do to recreate the band’s legendary sound, which appeared undiminished by the years. At front of house was a Midas XL8 Live Performance System provided by Britannia Row, with two engineers at the controls. Big Mick Hughes mixed the band - Jimmy Page on guitar, John Paul Jones on bass and drummer Jason Bonham, while Robert Plant’s front of house engineer Roy Williams handled the singer’s soaring vocal range.

The decision to use the XL8 came after Page heard it at Metallica’s Wembley gig this summer. Plant subsequently visited the Midas factory to see and hear the XL8, which guaranteed the XL8’s place on the rider.

Williams has worked as front of house engineer for Robert Plant for almost a decade. “I'll always have a preference for Midas, and the transition from analogue wasn’t as hard as I had expected; I found the XL8 user-friendly, especially when obtaining any EQ that I might be looking for.

“I had known from before the start of rehearsals that two engineers would be doing the show, one to look after the band and one to concentrate on Robert’s vocals and effects. Not the easiest thing to do: two engineer, two pairs of ears and two egos! Mick and I have known one another for over 30 years and are both from the Black Country so that helped a lot.

“The XL8 let me have my own world to work in with just the vocal mic and eight effects - leaving Mick to create his world without either of us getting in one another's way. No blood was drawn, we had a blast and more importantly are still friends.”

Big Mick, who put the XL8 through its paces on Metallica’s European tour earlier this summer, was mixing the band.

“We felt that using the XL8 gave us an unlimited amount of options,” he says. “It was a good job we did as the input list grew to over 70 channels, and if we’d gone analogue, we would have been into two desks.

“The operation of the console made it really easy for Roy and myself to divide the work surface. Being able to set the last bay of the console to the B zone and then recall a POP (population) group containing Robert's vocal and effects into the B zone meant that Roy had his own section. This in turn allowed me the remaining two bays and the VCA (Variable Control Association) section to mix the band. The ‘a/b’ headphone solo busses were invaluable as I could be using one while Roy used the other. And as before, when I first used the XL8 for Metallica, the pure sound and stereo image quality is undeniable.”

A preproduction Klark Teknik DN9696 high resolution live hard disk recorder was on hand during rehearsals, allowing the engineers to ‘virtual soundcheck’, working on the sound and effects from the live recordings and using the settings to create automation scenes for each song.

During full production rehearsals the band ran through the entire show twice, and this was also recorded on the DN9696 to further develop the mix and provide a time reference for the lighting and video crews. The band was then able to watch the whole show from an audience perspective, and also use the recordings to assess their live performances. This extra capacity provided by the DN9696 proved invaluable for a live event on this scale.

Onstage, a Midas Heritage 3000 handled the band’s monitor duties under Sound Engineer Dee Miller.

The original members of Led Zeppelin last played in Berlin in July 1980 - two months before John Bonham died. Page, Plant and Jones performed at Live Aid five years later in addition to the Atlantic Records appearance in 1988, and Page and Plant played together live during the 1990s. Profits from the show will go towards scholarships in Ertegun's name in UK, the USA and Turkey, the country of his birth.

original source

http://fohonline.com/index.php?option=com_...74&Itemid=1

All the best

Andy

[EDIT] Just realised this may have been posted already sorry if it has

[Tea41]

From 'Front of House Magazine

Remaining Members of Led Zeppelin Perform Tribute Concert with Midas XL8

LONDON - Nineteen years after their last appearance, the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin, together with John Bonham’s son Jason, took to the stage at the 02 Arena to perform a tribute concert for their late record label boss Ahmet Ertegun, who signed them to Atlantic Records in 1968.

Technology has clearly moved on since the trio of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones played at a concert to celebrate Atlantic’s 40th anniversary in 1988, and only the best would do to recreate the band’s legendary sound, which appeared undiminished by the years. At front of house was a Midas XL8 Live Performance System provided by Britannia Row, with two engineers at the controls. Big Mick Hughes mixed the band - Jimmy Page on guitar, John Paul Jones on bass and drummer Jason Bonham, while Robert Plant’s front of house engineer Roy Williams handled the singer’s soaring vocal range.

The decision to use the XL8 came after Page heard it at Metallica’s Wembley gig this summer. Plant subsequently visited the Midas factory to see and hear the XL8, which guaranteed the XL8’s place on the rider.

Williams has worked as front of house engineer for Robert Plant for almost a decade. “I'll always have a preference for Midas, and the transition from analogue wasn’t as hard as I had expected; I found the XL8 user-friendly, especially when obtaining any EQ that I might be looking for.

“I had known from before the start of rehearsals that two engineers would be doing the show, one to look after the band and one to concentrate on Robert’s vocals and effects. Not the easiest thing to do: two engineer, two pairs of ears and two egos! Mick and I have known one another for over 30 years and are both from the Black Country so that helped a lot.

“The XL8 let me have my own world to work in with just the vocal mic and eight effects - leaving Mick to create his world without either of us getting in one another's way. No blood was drawn, we had a blast and more importantly are still friends.”

Big Mick, who put the XL8 through its paces on Metallica’s European tour earlier this summer, was mixing the band.

“We felt that using the XL8 gave us an unlimited amount of options,” he says. “It was a good job we did as the input list grew to over 70 channels, and if we’d gone analogue, we would have been into two desks.

“The operation of the console made it really easy for Roy and myself to divide the work surface. Being able to set the last bay of the console to the B zone and then recall a POP (population) group containing Robert's vocal and effects into the B zone meant that Roy had his own section. This in turn allowed me the remaining two bays and the VCA (Variable Control Association) section to mix the band. The ‘a/b’ headphone solo busses were invaluable as I could be using one while Roy used the other. And as before, when I first used the XL8 for Metallica, the pure sound and stereo image quality is undeniable.”

A preproduction Klark Teknik DN9696 high resolution live hard disk recorder was on hand during rehearsals, allowing the engineers to ‘virtual soundcheck’, working on the sound and effects from the live recordings and using the settings to create automation scenes for each song.

During full production rehearsals the band ran through the entire show twice, and this was also recorded on the DN9696 to further develop the mix and provide a time reference for the lighting and video crews. The band was then able to watch the whole show from an audience perspective, and also use the recordings to assess their live performances. This extra capacity provided by the DN9696 proved invaluable for a live event on this scale.

Onstage, a Midas Heritage 3000 handled the band’s monitor duties under Sound Engineer Dee Miller.

The original members of Led Zeppelin last played in Berlin in July 1980 - two months before John Bonham died. Page, Plant and Jones performed at Live Aid five years later in addition to the Atlantic Records appearance in 1988, and Page and Plant played together live during the 1990s. Profits from the show will go towards scholarships in Ertegun's name in UK, the USA and Turkey, the country of his birth.

original source

http://fohonline.com/index.php?option=com_...74&Itemid=1

All the best

Andy

Good article, the odd thing is that with all the technology and expertise on board, which is alot, they still could not get control of the feedback that plagued the entire show. It was likely the monitor engineer's issue. You would think that Roy Williams would have communicated the issue to the monitor guy during the 2 hours the band was playing (I'm assuming they have headsets or other ways to communicate from FOH to monitor guys). Not bashing at all, still loved the show, but just curious and kinda scratching my head at how these pros couldn't lick the feedback issue during the course of a 2 hour show of this magnitude, as it wasn't just one song, it was feedback on the vocals intermittently throughout the whole show. Hopefully an interview soon with either P/P/J will clear this up, if not out of curiosity for us engineers. I'm sure if they play more dates, P/P/J are acutely aware of the issue to get it resolved or at least we hope.

[Gr3ll]

Great article, thanks for posting it. I don't think I've read that one before.

Regards,

Grell

[JimMorgan]

Good article, the odd thing is that with all the technology and expertise on board, which is alot, they still could not get control of the feedback that plagued the entire show. It was likely the monitor engineer's issue. You would think that Roy Williams would have communicated the issue to the monitor guy during the 2 hours the band was playing (I'm assuming they have headsets or other ways to communicate from FOH to monitor guys). Not bashing at all, still loved the show, but just curious and kinda scratching my head at how these pros couldn't lick the feedback issue during the course of a 2 hour show of this magnitude, as it wasn't just one song, it was feedback on the vocals intermittently throughout the whole show. Hopefully an interview soon with either P/P/J will clear this up, if not out of curiosity for us engineers. I'm sure if they play more dates, P/P/J are acutely aware of the issue to get it resolved or at least we hope.

I agree. It's called clear com. and didn't the system engineer have smaart live or any other rta hooked up to the system?

I am a live sound engineer in the philadelphia, pa usa area and when jason was playing drums with ufo a few years back I was lucky enough to be the monitor engineer. I didn't feedback LOL As a matter of fact I would be willing to be Led Zeppelin's monitor engineer for next to nothing

I got into the live sound business because of Led Zeppelin. I was never so excited and disappointed and the same time when i heard a copy of the show from various sources (sorry had to torrent it since I wasn't there and I very eager to hear the show)

[leddy]

The decision to use the XL8 came after Page heard it at Metallica’s Wembley gig this summer. Plant subsequently visited the Midas factory to see and hear the XL8, which guaranteed the XL8’s place on the rider.

Thanks very interesting...good on Jim going to a tallica gig !!!