Australian born but now a Nashville resident, guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel has spent most of 2011 touring the world, performing concerts in Europe, Asia, and even Russia. His itinereary now brings him to the US for a series of summer dates.
The show requires a total of 30 inputs, and all but a handful – keyboards and acoustic guitars use DI boxes – use Heil microphones. The drum kit uses a combination of PR40 on kick, PR22 for snare top, PR31 on snare bottom and toms, PR 30s on overheads and a PR20 for the hi-hat. Guitar cabinets are miked with PR31s, as is the bass cabinet. Vocal mics are all PR35s. A PR35 stands downstage centre, but ‘vocal’ mic doesn’t fully explain its use as Emmanuel likes to hit it with his hand, head, drumsticks and brushes to incredible percussive effect. Once in a while he sings in it too.
‘Tommy is a unique and dynamic guitar player but he also is a pretty good drummer,’ Steve Law explains. ‘That shows when he starts hitting the microphone in what becomes a perfect simulation of a drum kit. He is old school with monitors and uses wedges, so the sound he hears coming back at him from the wedge is very important to him. As such the mic he uses is critical to his performance. The Heil PR35 has been the perfect match.’
Emmanuel’s tour runs through 2011 and into 2012, with dates in Europe and a return to the US.
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