Monitor engineer Kevin ‘Tater’ McCarthy was introduced to Klang:fabrik 3D monitoring through the rider for a tour with Linkin Park: ‘I can’t say enough about how great this thing is,’ he enthuses. ‘And it benefits in ways you might not think of.’
A pair of Klang:fabrik units reside in a rack beneath McCarthy’s DiGiCo SD7 mixing console. ‘I’ve been able to substantially lower levels in the in-ear mixes for the entire band – especially the click track,’ he continues. ‘I just move that right to the front centre of the 3D field, like it’s right at their forehead, and then I cut its volume in half. The sound sits there in its own little bubble and, since it’s not sonically competing with anything else, it does not need to be nearly as loud.’
Volume is an issue that Tater has spoken out about in the past, and the band members are all careful to protect their hearing from damage – especially Brad Delson, who plays with foam earplugs and over-the-ear, gun-muff style headphones.
Klang:fabrik allows an engineer to determine the best mix of inputs, outputs and sampling rate for the specific act or situation. ‘I’m running the Klang at 96kHz and can use all eight outputs and have enough processing for 27 inputs,’ McCarthy says. The show is actually more like 95 inputs, so he’s running a mix of stems and individual channels.
Adding Klang:fabrik to the system has also allowed him to eliminate some other gear. ‘We used to use a single Aviom unit for the drummer, and I was able to ditch that completely,’ he reveals. The Klang:app runs on anyt platform, so instead of the Aviom he’s got an iPad on a stand next to him, and now has more control than before.
‘This is not the kind of box where you try it and you’re not 100 per cent sure you hear what it’s doing,’ he notes. ‘With the Klang, you start moving sources within that 3D field and just move them the tiniest little bit and it is noticeable like you can’t believe. The first time we used it with just a crew check, I moved the bass guitar so that it was coming from way behind them. And when the first bass note hit, literally every person on that stage turned around 180° and took a step backwards.’
The members of the band are also impressed: ‘The first time using it with the band, the DJ wasn’t there and his tech was covering those parts. I accidentally dropped him out of the 3D mode and into straight stereo. Now keep in mind that stereo just meant my “old” mix without the 3D field. I swear he looked like he was going to drop to his knees when I inadvertently put him back into 2D.’
The tour is set run deep into 2017. ‘We’ll be out for the rest of the year and we bought two units so we have a backup,’ McCarthy says. ‘It’s not an optional thing at this point. The Klang:fabrik is now a staple part of the monitor rig for Linkin Park.’
More: www.klang.com
