"John is very involved in the way the band sounds to the audience," remarks the tour's front-of-house main-man Felix Brenner. "He'll actually walk around the arena during sound check and make sure it's just how he wants it."
The centerpiece of the FOH mixing set up is a Digidesign Venue console, clocked by an Apogee Big Ben. "When the tour began we were not using the Apogee [Big Ben] clock and the board sounded pretty good on its own," says Brenner. "Then I heard that Big Ben was making a huge difference when used to clock the Venue. So we decided to try it out.
"The Big Ben arrived at the Reno gig and when we hooked it up the difference was immediately obvious to me. Everything was smoother and tighter, just better clarity and frequency separation all around. The EQ's and FX became much more responsive and less brittle, as well. We did an A/B test, and one guy on the crew said it sounded 'hollow' without Big Ben. All of the sound guys, including the sceptics, were amazed by the contrast. In fact the FOH guy for Billy Idol was there and was really blown away. He plans to clock their Venue board with a Big Ben now."
(Jim Evans)
