Ben Howard's 10th anniversary tour for 2014’s UK N.1 album 'I Forget Where We Were' visited venues across Europe with Eighth Day Sound's audio services, looked after by Account Executive Stuart Wright.
Celebrating the English songwriter's impressive fan captivation a decade on, Tour Manager Martijn de Jong, explains the distinctive nature of Ben’s music: "Ben's a unique musician with a wide range of records & songs that hold a recognizable sound. No two records are the same, and neither are his tours. He knows what he wants and strives to get there with his sound, look, feel, and the overall live experience of his shows, Ben and his band are inspirational to work with.”
To help provide this exact experience, Martijn explains what the production requires from a vendor: "We need answers and solutions,” he says, simply. “We knew what we were after and got there with Eighth Day Sound and Stu by our side. Their flexibility and an ongoing effort to jump onto any required adjustments and extras is also a plus. The tour couldn't have gone any better and we're all thrilled with the outcome and positive responses!"
The ‘Only Love’ singer treated fans to a multifaceted deep dive into the back catalog which put Ben on the map. Taking charge of both production management and system engineering duties, Bobbie Caris has the insight needed to pull off delivering a tour which both marked a special moment in time and had to re-imagine sounds for today’s audiences.
Eighth Day Sound provided an L-Acoustics system for the tour, which also uses in-house PA in the more intimate spaces. Bobbie comments: "With audio, it all starts with analyzing the room plans and looking at rigging possibilities, followed by a thorough software simulation. Looking at size, capacity, stage width and many other aspects of the venue will decide the amount and type of PA needed. Most venue nuances are already known to either the vendor or me, so making small adjustments along the way helps to translate the best sound.
"One of my current favorite systems is the L-Acoustics K1/K2 combo. This systems' musicality reinforces the tone and harmonics of Ben's music very well, and in acoustically treated venues, the transients of an L-Acoustics system can really work to your advantage. I have a lot of information coming my way from the 9-piece band on stage, and the system is fully capable of translating the finest details therein."
As a new client for Eighth Day, Bobbie says the collaboration has been a positive move: "We have been really pleased to have Eighth Day Sound as a worldwide partner on this tour, for both equipment consistency and having the same contact person worldwide. Having warehouses spread out over the planet makes it easier to get what we need in a timely manner, and it's great to have a team of people thinking in 'solutions' instead of just giving you one option that you must go with. There are always multiple solutions within the Eighth Day realm, which is something that makes my crew - and me as a production manager - happy."
Mixing the rich textures of Ben’s music at FOH John Cornfield is using an Allen & Heath S7000 console with a DX32 Prime rack for local IO and a DM64 stage rack with a 32-way Prime preamp rack for additional IO.
Well known for his studio work, John starts his live process by creating a playlist of 'contenders' for the tour's set list. "I had a fairly good idea of Ben's sound as I recorded the 'Noonday Dream' album a few years ago and mixed his 'Live from Goonhilly' recording too. Together with Mickey Smith, Ben's Musical Director, and a multi-instrumentalist in the band, we discuss how we are going to go about re-creating the songs as faithfully as possible.
"I try to avoid getting into using separate scenes for each song but try to sort out why we feel the need to make changes in the console and see if we can make it all work from the sound at source, primarily. This has paid dividends so far in getting the band to find a good dynamic balance in their ears between songs. Once we get into full rehearsals with PA in the larger rooms, we inevitably get into a small amount of scene automation but in the larger areas, I like to wing that each night. I find things can get very circular with mixes if the automation is utilized too early in the process, this is the same for me when studio mixing."
John's stage rack is fitted with the new A&H V2.0 Ultra FX DSP card, which he uses to add "wonderful-sounding FX."
He goes on: "I'm running a MADI card at FOH for virtual soundcheck and record it all on ProTools on my PC laptop using an AVID HDX card from the BNC out with an Avid MADI HD interface. I also have a Mac Mini with an RME MADI FX card from the optical out. We have 8 x channels of Rupert Neve Designs 5045 Primary Source Enhancers. I run these alongside the AHB Primary Source Expanders on all vocal channels."
For vocal, the Se Electronics V7 Dynamic Microphone came out on top. John furthers: "Ben liked what he heard, and I liked the rejection we were achieving. The rest of the band also decided on the V7 which made life much simpler! I'm running Ben's vocal saturation on the console using the new UFX saturation plug-in, Mickey also runs vocal saturation through his QuadCortex pedal.
"These days, with the bigger systems, it’s enormously useful to have a system engineer that knows the system and the sound we're trying to attain. The sound Ben is after is not "standard", there are a lot of layers on this production with the 9-piece band and a few challenging sounds with an acoustic guitar going through many different pedals. Ben's guitar is also constantly on the edge of feedback at all frequencies, so we also have half of an LR Baggs acoustic guitar pickup system to pick up the high end of the acoustic which is fed out to a separate input via a volume pedal.This means he can add to his sound when needed but this can be a little tricky in some venues.
Also important to John is consistency in the supply chain: “We have used Eighth Day Sound for the control package for the entire tour, and the world-wide part was done largely as fly shows with different but similar packages in different territories, so to have a consistent supply company was enormously important."
In monitor world there are 13 IEM mixes at play; 9 x band mixes (with all manner of fun instruments from the flugelhorn and trombone to a cello and a live analog tape looper), to guest and tech mixes. Monitor Engineer Sander Van Laere begins: "Ben wants to hear the FOH mix; it was a very clear and simple instruction. I feed some of the FOH effects back to him, so his mix is in the same space as FOH, and he likes to hear ambience."
For the perfect mix in this instance, Sander uses a DiGiCo Quantum 5 console, with Shure PSM100's for in ear monitoring. He says: "I love the nodal processing on the DiGiCo Quantum desk, for monitors it's such a great feature, and the sound and workflow of the Shure PSM1000's work best for me, so I never stray far. The whole show is ever changing and evolving. So never a dull moment, it's a hands-on faders kind of show - fun and challenging!"
There is an LA4X to drive the VIP fill (L-Acoustics X12's) and Porter & Davies TT6 transducer for the drummer. Sander continues: "The X12's are used as VIP fill or emergency wedges. I chose a TT6 over a drum sub as the sizes of venues varied from under 1,000 capacity to large arenas. I also have a Cedar DNS 8 and run everything on the console. The sonic landscape that Ben creates is very dense, so I learned early on that anything I can use to clean things up without affecting tone would be useful and that's where the Cedar DNS 8 comes in.”
In closing, Sander sums up touring with an Eighth Day rig: "It was great working with Eighth Day, every package, anywhere in the world, was built to my wants and needs. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I'm especially thankful for all the fantastic techs that joined us along the way, every single person was outstanding."