Hiroshima
Jan 1, 2003 12:00 PM, by Chris Michie
Most Popular
advertisement
Polls
Free Live Webcast:
Understanding Bass Management
With Bob Hodas, November 20th
Brought to you by Ex'pression College for Digital Arts and Mix
Bob Hodas explores best practices for Bass Management in your studio, explaining how to set up a bass managed system, what features to look for in a Bass Management box and much more.
Read more and register here.
Check out our other webcasts here.
Mastering Stories
Our December issue will focus on mastering. We'd like to hear from mastering engineersÑtell us about your most interesting mastering project. E-mail us at mixeditorial@mixonline.com.
Remix Hotel News
 |
Avid Presents: Remix Hotel Los Angeles| Dec. 4-6, 2008 |
Hot off an incredibly successful event in Atlanta, Remix Hotel is gearing up for its final event in 2008: Remix Hotel Los Angeles. We're busy putting together a killer weekend of panels, production and more. Keep it tuned to remixhotel.com for registration and schedule details, and be sure to check out all of the amazing videos from Atlanta and New York! .
This Month in Mix
Founded in the late 1970s by saxophonist Dan Kuramoto, Hiroshima has had a long and successful career, and the band's 11 albums have sold more than 3 million copies. Currently promoting their latest CD on Heads Up Records, Between Black and White, Hiroshima recently came to Yoshi's, one of the San Francisco Bay Area's top jazz venues, for a four-night stand. Mix met with band sound engineer John McCourt and Yoshi's resident engineer, Dan Pettit, before the final show.
HOUSE MICS MEET EXPECTATIONS
Hiroshima does not typically carry sound equipment, so McCourt relies on whatever system the house provides. “It makes it challenging for me, but I enjoy it,” he comments. “I see the job of the soundman as someone who goes in and does the best he can. You make it sound as good as you can with what you have to work with. I have certain standards — we send out a rider — and most of the time, I get what I want.”
The house P.A. is made up of a flown center cluster of three Meyer Sound CQ2s supplemented by a CQ1 and a PSW-2 subwoofer flown on each side. Frontfill for the handful of audience members seated at the very lip of the stage is provided by four Meyer HM1s. Onstage monitors are Meyer PSM models, which, like all of the other Meyer speakers, are self-powered and contain onboard processing and limiting.
With eight bandmembers, four vocal mics and a full drum setup, Hiroshima requires many more mics than traditional jazz acts that make up the bulk of Yoshi's bookings. “I like to use 98s or 57s for the toms,” says McCourt. “They've got to have my kick drum mic, too. I like a 421, I like a B52 and I like a 91 — not the Beta 91, the regular SM91. If you've got one of those three for me, I'm fine with it. And, as long as they have some good condensers for overheads, I'm fine with that. Here [at Yoshi's], he's got great overhead mics — they're Neumann KM84s. They have a real nice mic selection.”
McCourt typically uses about 28 inputs, which leaves him plenty of room on the 40-channel Crest X8. The 24/12 Spirit Monitor board easily generates the needed eight monitor mixes, which are distributed onstage through nine wedges. The band rarely uses sidefills, even on wide festival stages.
The Hiroshima stage plot includes two electronic keyboard positions, one at center stage for Kimo Cornwell and another at stage left for Dan Kuramoto, who also plays saxophone. At the back of the stage, drummer Danny Yamamoto is flanked by electric guitarist Fred Shreuders and Dean Cortez on electric bass, while vocalist Terry Steele works stage center and June Kuramoto sits with her koto downstage right.
“It's not like miking a rock band — there's a few nuances to cover,” notes McCourt. For the zither-like koto, an acoustic instrument that sits on the floor, McCourt uses a two-pronged approach: A Barcus-Berry pickup inside the instrument runs into a DI and from there into a Conn strobotuner, which June Kuramoto uses to tune between numbers. McCourt uses some of the Barcus-Berry signal to add brightness, but mainly relies on a Shure SM91 in the koto's sound hole.
McCourt has tried a wide variety of mics on Dan Kuramoto's various woodwinds, including Beyer wireless mics and Shure SM98s. “I've now found a really good mic I just love,” he enthuses. “SD Systems makes mics specifically for horns, so now I carry one of them. On the shakahachi, I use a real long reverb — about nine seconds, with a 100ms predelay,” notes McCourt. Because he can usually achieve this effect on any modern digital reverb, McCourt is usually satisfied with whatever reverb units the house supplies.
As far as levels go, Pettit can advise but not insist. “It's in the bands' contracts that they have control of the production. So as a venue, we don't have a lot of say in the volume level,” he says. “We try to keep it at a comfortable level, and most bands adhere to that.”
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
Modern Recording and Mixing
This 2-DVD set will show you how the best in the music industry set up a studio to make world-class records. Regardless of what gear you are using, the information you'll find here will allow you to take advantage of decades of expert knowledge. Order now $39.95
Mastering Cubase 4
Electronic Musician magazine and Thomson Course Technology PTR have joined forces again to create the second volume in their Personal Studio Series, Mastering Steinberg's Cubase(tm). Edited and produced by the staff of Electronic Musician, this special issue is not only a must-read for users of Cubase(tm) software, but it also delivers essential information for anyone recording/producing music in a personal-studio. Order now $12.95
Delivered straight to your inbox every other week, MixLine takes you straight into the studio, with new product announcements, industry news, upcoming events, recent recording/post projects and much more. 