Gabe Zouain, or Gaby as most people call him, has worked with Ian Moss regularly since 2009. Before that, he was involved with several associated acts including the Steve Prestwich band, Richard Clapton, Billy Thorpe, Thirsty Merc, The Sick Puppies, The Mick Fleetwood Blues band and 956 others!
Fortunately, Ian understands very well the interaction between all elements that go into making a great audio experience, which means they can build together a genuine system and there are not many other gigs where this is so.
“In terms of artistic freedom, Ian and I will be pushing all sorts of elements, tone, positions, fill systems, delays, panning, did I mention tone?” said Gaby. “Tone and more tone. The aim is to sound huge, not loud, well good loud, and deliver a dynamic sound that complements each song with different elements chosen to suit them. We aim to tether audiences to songs via the sound levels and nuances. A successful show is when audiences react “in concert/harmony” with what’s happening on stage.
“Ian has an enormous amount of trust in what I do and is always reactive to what happens at FOH. It is genuinely a great responsibility to have, one that generates just enough nervousness to turn into creative excitement while on the console/rack etc.”
Gaby is a big fan and owner of Clair Brothers audio systems and has been using these systems since 2007 when he toured most of the USA. For him, it is mainly about sound quality and engineering.
Usually, on tour, they use the inhouse PA at each venue but when there isn’t one Gaby will bring in the main PA of 12 x Clair Brothers i212M double 12 elements supported by two or four iS218M subs.
Gaby always tours with four Clair Brothers 12AM stage monitors driven by Clair 10K amps and Lake processing. Added to that is a Clair Brothers ML18 sub that is sometimes replaced with a QSC 18 for convenience. Two Clair Brothers I5 touring subs for apron fill, four JBL 4892 14” 2-way cabinets for apron fill and two Clair Brothers FF2 front fill cabinets complete the package.
Control is chosen purely for tone quality and versatility. Gaby mixes on a NEVE 542 8-channel analogue mixer that is very much modified and if forced to use a digital console he’ll carry a DiGiCo SD11. His effects are one TC Electronic 2290, one Eventide Harmoniser 4000 or Eclipse and a LAKE DLP 8 in 8 out for EQ on all sends and venue integration on AES/analogue.
“It is a long show, over two hours of pure Moss, so I must be ON and super tuned to each nuance for perfect song delivery, I “play” the mixer as an instrument with every single second counting,” remarked Gaby.
Gaby’s ‘Tone Rack’ consists of JLM dual 99V 500 preamps for guitar and vocals, JLM BA 500 custom with filtering preamp for stomp, JLM PEQ 500 Pultec style EQ for guitar, JLM LA500 Opto compressor for FOH vocals, two MIDAS PEQ Heritage style EQ (one for monitors and one for FOH), Eventide DDL500 delay (backup for 2290) and Heritage Audio MCM 8 500 rack and summing mixer.
An Ian Moss gig is an IEM free zone with Gaby saying it is all about connection and interaction, not isolation. Most of the tone comes from Ian and the loudspeaker positions, and how it all works together.
“For starters, the monitor system is crucial as the genesis of it all, the use of reflected sound for the acoustic guitar, rather than direct sound is a very unique approach,” said Gaby. “In essence, Ian sits with an 18” sub behind him, mainly for the bottom end of his guitar and some stompbox, then on top of the sub we have a trusted 12AM pointing backwards (yes, backwards!) carrying the guitar signal from the U5 pushing audio into a reflector which sits about 678 mm from the wedge. This ensures the stage is awash with guitar. A buffered output feeds a small Fender Deluxe reverb amp for stage reverb.”
A pair of Clair 12AM take care of vocals in front of Ian. Once this is all in place, Gaby adds two Clair i5s about 980 mm at either side of his sitting position, perfectly in line with the microphone stand, and on top of these fill subs he adds two JBL 4892, 2-way 14” point source bi-amped cabinets aside.
“This completes the front/apron fill, these being chosen as a line array “fix” as they produce the right amount and tone of sidewards energy for Ian to feel well supported and not in an empty isolated area,” said Gaby. “By design, line array systems, which have become somewhat popular lately, only produce energy forward towards the target audience. This creates a situation in our particular set up where Ian feels the emptiness of the stage so the apron fill helps us.”
Microphones include a Shure Beta 91A on stomp, three Shure SM58 for vocal option one, three Shure Beta 58A for vocal option two and three Shure Beta 57 A for option three.
“We change microphones regularly to avoid top-end losses due to microphone sweating out,” added Gaby. “A vintage Sennheiser MD 421 is on the guitar cabinet, a pair of Shure SM81 for the audience and an Avalon U5 as guitar DI, of course, and we are toying with introducing a Neumann 85 on a stand in front of the guitar …. but that’s in the future.
“I must mention that both Ian and myself are very critical of cable and copper quality, each guitar cable is hand-built to spec, as is each mic lead, specific to each task and so labelled. We use Belden 8412 and 8413 exclusively.”
The close working relationship between Gaby and Ian Moss has resulted in smooth sailing with their biggest challenge finding a great open-all-day breakfast cafe for themselves the morning after the show!
