Beware Black Ice

They’re brash, politically incorrect, and getting on a bit – but veteran Australian hard rock band AC/DC can still deliver one hell of a live show, while proving that cutting-edge technology isn’t always the best acoustic solution. On a sweltering summer’s night in late February, 70,000 fans packed Sydney’s ANZ Stadium for the third night of the humungous AC/DC show. The audience was a sea of black that, from a distance, could have been mistaken for a Greek widows convention if was not for the flashing red devil horns that punctuated the darkness.

The crowd was an eclectic mix, from the city and from the country, and ranging in age from small children to grand parents. There were many rough diamonds, male and female, both sexes swilling beer and comparing tattoos while stuck to the floor by beer spilt during the previous two nights’ shows.

The stage was massive and weighed down each side by an impressive collection of suspended EV X-array speakers, looking appropriately big, black and sexy. Rumour has it that on previous tours AC/DC took size matters to the extreme by actually boosting their PA presence with dummy boxes – the acoustic equivalent of stuffing a sock down your trousers. Not only does size matter on this tour, so does age – proof that new isn’t always best. The PA is old and the console older still, the band can soon apply for bus passes and the crew are all old hands.

From mixing drinks to mixing AC/DC

Sound engineer Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd has been mixing AC/DC for many years and – surprisingly – still has his hearing faculties intact, and when asked what he does between AC/DC tours he replies ‘drink’. Long live rock and roll…

The audio set-up hasn’t changed that much since the last AC/DC tour, many bottles ago, as the band follow the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it’ rule. And it has to be said that the sound was exceptional even in a goliath stadium. By the time the show hit Australia it had been on the road nearly 18 months so it had been well and truly tweaked to perfection. ‘The band’s song structure and their input hardly changes, they’re very true to their roots so why change it?’ the sound engineer confirms. ‘It’s the same guitars plugged into the same amplifiers and the same speakers. The mics are also the same. In fact, nothing is really different. Obviously there are more modern and better approaches now through technology, particularly with system processing, but this set-up suits the band. The main change has been the consoles but the PA and amplification is nearly identical to the last tour.’

The front-of-house PA system comprises 96 EV X-Array cabinets driven by EVP3000 amplifiers. There are three versions of the full-size boxes that appear in each of the main left/right clusters – a high-mid pack and a low cabinet with two 18-inch woofers, arranged vertically in repeating columns, and a side column of full-range boxes which has one 18-inch, one 12-inch driver and a horn, that is positioned at the side of the cluster for short-throw. On the bottom of each cluster are half-size X-Array boxes with the same high-mid/low configuration. At each side, is a line array hang of Clair i-5 boxes flown high up to cater for the 270° arena audience, and there are Clair P2s for front fill. These are driven by Crown Macrotech 3600VZs and QSC Powerlight 9.0s.

‘Using a line array for the sides gives us more versatility; we can fly a little bit higher or arc in differently,’ Pab explains. ‘The whole PA is divided into zones and groups so we can boost top end anywhere, turn things down on short throw or turn things for long throw and so on. Below the main hangs are large blocks of sub-bass units hanging in our “sub baskets”, which we had made by StageCo. We didn’t want to just stack them on the ground because the stage is built on a sub deck, and if we were to place 72 SB1000 cabinets onto the sub deck, the band would be getting pretty shook up on stage.’

Singer Brian Johnson spends much of the show strutting along the lengthy catwalk that juts out into the audience and this can obviously pose challenges for the FOH mix. ‘When we set up the PA system we try to create a bit of a trough right down the centre line,’ says Pab. ‘Trying to get him loud enough is difficult, he has a very distinct voice but it’s not massively powerful. When he talks to the audience in between songs he actually gives me more input than when he sings. You have to be very careful with the gain level when he’s in front of the PA. We do some careful zoning on the inside columns, notching and stuff like that.’

What is different for this tour is the use of a Clair/Lake DLP processor for the front end of the system, and the amplifier racks for the X-Array system all having XTA processors in them. These are integrated so that they operate off the same tablet. ‘It’s a pretty well dialled-in system,’ says Pab. ‘The only thing that ever changes is maybe the number of speakers, but the control gear is well settled and we are running on full steam.’

Further down the stadium field were two main delay towers, each housing 12 Clair i5 line array boxes, as well as secondary delays with six Clair i5 boxes each. Acoustics have been a problem in this venue for past tours and so local production company Jands Production Services was consulted. On their recommendation, extra V-Dosc clusters were hung to reinforce some of the high bleachers.

‘I don’t like the attitude that the people at the back shouldn’t complain about bad sound because they bought the cheaper seats,’ says Pab. ‘The band is totally into spending money to make their show better, and I think it’s very credible of them to give me a bit of a carte blanche with production. The band wants a great show for their fans and they don’t want to sting them up for a lot of money for their tickets. They are grateful to their fans and we try to fulfil their wishes.’

Vintage control

The choice of mixing console brings us back to big, macho kit as it’s a large and sexy, yet somewhat ancient, Midas Pro40. The console was chosen after Pab spent time with in the studio with Malcolm and Angus – the band’s founders and guitarists – while they worked on their 2008 Black Ice album. ‘The guys love the warm sound they get in the studio with their old Neve 14-channel broadcast console but, obviously, I’m not going to tour with a Neve console so I looked for the closet equivalent,’ Pab explains. ‘AC/DC isn’t a big fan of digital. They never thought the sound of a digital console is equal to an analogue console. The band has been doing this for a long time but they still have a great passion for sound. They have vintage guitars and vintage Marshall amplifiers. That’s their sound and they don’t need to change it.’

Normally he would have chosen a Midas XL4 – a favourite of his that offers a classic sound – but he had heard of an older Midas that could just about take care of the show. Built in the mid-1980s, most Midas Pro40 consoles had been shelved as bands progressed to using very high numbers of outputs, but the sound engineer knew where there were a couple gathering dust. ‘It’s an absolutely gorgeous, hand-built classic Midas console with gold connectors and lovely transformers on the front end,’ he says, with a sparkle in his eyes. ‘Sometimes she gets a bit grumpy and needs a tap here and there, but she definitely adds a bit of character to the sound.

‘I’ve always enjoyed analogue consoles, and I’ll use whatever suits the job,’ he continues. ‘AC/DC don’t have masses of processing, FX sends or over-equalisation going on, just a little bit of compression. Nothing fancy, as there doesn’t need to be.’

The 25-year-old Pro40 was painstakingly cleaned up and restored by Pab, together with Tim Boyle and Pete Cornell from Concert Sound, which owns the console. ‘We had access to lots of spare parts and modules and spent many hours restoring it, wiping away the years of dirt with a Q Tip,’ recalls Pab.

A Midas Pro6 is used as a back-up console and for the opening act. It can also be used to record the show because it is tracking directly to a Klark Teknik DN9696 high-resolution hard-disk recorder. For outboard gear, Pab uses Drawmer DS201 noise gates on the drums and a pair of dbx 160 Blues compressors on bass and guitars, and for vocal peaks. As previously mentioned, Pab’s biggest challenge is getting lead singer Brian Johnson’s vocals above the incredible volume of the band and so he uses a Summit TLA-100 tube on the vocal, to help punch his vocal forward more in the mix. Shure microphones are still Pab’s favourite, particularly the Shure 58A, although he does use the Audix range of microphones for drums and Audio-Technica 4047s on the guitars for a warm sound.

A monstrous wave of sound

Monitor engineer Jon Lewis joined the tour a year ago, when Mike Adams departed, inheriting much of the system and Mike’s ideas. He mixes on a Midas Heritage 4000, chosen for its higher stereo output count, and a console he states is ideal for band as loud as AC/DC. ‘With a stage this loud it’s all about creating zones and pockets and as the Heritage 4000 has so many outputs, it allows you to do that,’ he says. ‘Also, we’re running loads of in-ear monitors; Brian has one in/one out, the drummer has a pair as well as all the drum fills and wedges around him and then the bass player also has a set. Plus all of the technicians are under the stage, either side and aren’t in the direct line of any monitoring or backline so they each have them for their own reference.’

Mr Lewis has been beta-testing the new Ultimate Ears UE 18 Pro custom in-ear monitors on the tour and he describes them as phenomenal. ‘They’re particularly good for bass players and drummers as you can get so much low end from them,’ he reports. ‘They’re probably the only product that can get over that kind of volume. It’s a monstrous wave of sound that you have to overcome, getting the drums and vocal over that is my main priority, especially for Angus and Malcolm who aren’t using in-ears so they have no isolation sound that they can get used to. All of the transmitters are Sennheiser, a mixture of G2’s and G3’s.’

As for recent tours, Firehouse 15-inch wedges keep it raw and ‘old school’ on stage, while Mr Lewis’ outboard gear includes TC Electronic 1128 EQs and DDLs, Avalon 737 preamp/compressors, Eventide H3000s, Yamaha PCM 91 reverbs and Empirical Labs Distressors.

It wasn’t the loudest gig that Sydney has ever seen but it was up there. However, the all-important clarity in the sound and the mix were exceptional, and in this respect it was a testament to how all stadium concerts should sound.

www.jps.com.au

www.stageco.com

Published in PAA March-April 2010