Jim Carmichael has been mixing FOH for Sparks for the past five years which is no mean feat considering their extensive catalogue of songs.
“Initially, Russell sent me an extensive playlist of Sparks songs spanning their 50-year career to listen to and digest,” said Jim. “This gave me the background material I required to understand how the vocals, guitars, keyboards and drums interact in the mix throughout the band’s many genres.”
For each tour, Sparks will always add new songs from the most recent album and hidden gems from the old albums, so Jim says it is always a rich and varied repertoire.
“Luckily, the band are very consistent in their delivery, and more recently, Russell has been sourcing elements from past multi-tracks and adding them to the playback which means I’ve got really good source material to work with.”
Ever since AVID released the Venue Profile, Jim has always been a fan of their consoles remarking that they just have a great ‘in your face’ sound which suits his mixing style.
“At home, my studio is based around an S3/AVID dock with Protools as the DAW,” he added. “For the Australian tour, I chose an S6L 24C as they are easy to get hold of and all my S3L showfiles are compatible with the S6L. I multitrack every show for virtual soundcheck purposes which is extremely easy as Protools integrates seamlessly with the AVID hardware over AVB.”
Ron and Russell have been gigging for over 50 years now so they know what works! Ron’s keyboard patches have effects already programmed so Jim is just applying EQ to remove any low-mid muddiness and increase clarity to cut through the mix.
“I use snapshots to automate playback levels and EQ,” he explained. “I have everything on VCAs so I can push up guitar solos and generally add dynamics to the mix. Plug-ins wise, I am a big fan of the Sonnox Live package, which includes the Oxford Reverb and Inflator (for busses), and I also use the Empirical Labs ‘Arouser’ which is basically a plug-in version of the Distressor, and a McDSP dynamic EQ.”
On recent shows, Jim has been trying out the new Shure KSM11 capsules for Ron and Russell’s vocals previously favouring the KSM9.
“The Shure KSM11 really suits Russell’s voice and delivers a great consistent sound,” commented Jim. “On drums, it is a mixture of Shure, DPA and Earthworks. I recently bought the Earthworks DK7 package so I’ve got DM20s on Stevie’s four toms and the SR25 on cymbals. The SR25s are easily the best overheads I’ve ever heard! For the kick drum, I use a Shure Beta91a and a DPA 4055, a Shure Beta 56a on the snare top, an SM57 snare bottom plus Shure SM81s on the two hi-hats.
“For guitars, I double mic each cab with a Sennheiser e906 and Shure SM57, to give me tonal control, and on the bass amp we have a Beyer Dynamic M88 and a Radial DI.”
The band are not at the point where they can tour their own PA yet, but generally, it’s d&b or L-Acoustics that Jim is most happy with, as long as they are set up correctly. He says that he has also had decent results with Meyer and Martin MLA.
The main hangs in the SOH were d&b; 6 x KSL8 over 4 x KSL12 with ground-stacked SL subs aside. For front fills, there were 8 x T10s, and then a huge amount of delays and fills around the room to cover the various boxes and and circle areas that need reinforcement.
James Campbell was the monitor engineer also using an AVID S6L and both James and Jim have their own stage rack and and 3-way split for broadcast.
Everyone is on PSM 1000 IEMs and Jim notes that this has been a huge bonus for him because back in 2018 everyone was on wedges!
“The stage is so much cleaner now and everyone is much happier,” said Jim. “The other bonus is that Russell can have his own cue tracks and the band their own clicks etc.
“Ron has a lovely and low mellow voice but he’s also very quiet, so I have a ton of gain on his mic, which can cause feedback issues in some venues. His big moment is The Shopping Mall of Love which luckily has no live drums so I can pull the band back a bit to give this voice room to breathe.”
The SOH have spent a huge amount of money improving the acoustics over the years and has special room configurations depending on the type of show that is required.
“We used the ‘Amplified Touring’ configuration which is basically an array of ‘Over-Stage Reflectors’, ‘Wall Reflectors’ and ‘Acoustic Banners’ deployed around the venue, and the main PA is brought in on motors and lowered into position,” added Jim. “I’ve never mixed in the SOH before so was thrilled to hear how much work had gone into the acoustics and PA recently which made for a very enjoyable show!”
