Crowded House’s Dreamers Are Waiting tour, their first Australian tour in 12 years, traversed the country before Neil Finn contracted Covid-19 and the remaining handful of dates had to be postponed. This happened despite strict Covid rules backstage with everyone having to take regular RAT tests, the band kept as separate as possible from the crew and crew required to stay in their hotel rooms on their days off.
However, sound engineer Kerry Furlong wasn’t complaining about spending a day in his hotel room after a day of going up and down Sydney’s ICC stairs!
“But, of course, I’m grateful for working at all!” he added. “In New Zealand we endured 240 days of no gigs during the lockdowns and like many, I turned to odd jobs and gardening to earn an income. Not once did I think about changing careers and I notice that there seems to have been more of an exodus from the profession in Australia.”
The tour is a combination of arenas and vineyards and the dates have meant a bit of bunny-hopping for JPJ Audio. It’s been a lot of hard work for them and Kerry says their systems guy, Boden Birkett, works harder than anyone.
“He’s a lovely guy and one thing I have noticed, is that there doesn’t seem to be so many egos in our business anymore,” said Kerry. “When I first started, it was quite intimidating but nowadays it’s more we’re all in it together and there isn’t that rock’n’roll ego so much.”
Kerry specified his favourite d&b audiotechnik SL Series PA (a mixture of 80° and 120° boxes) which he says has a lot of technical wizardries that he doesn’t totally understand but it copes well in arena situations.
“It’s pretty unbeatable really – the array processing, the nature of the boxes and the rejection that they have add up to an incredible piece of technology,” he said. “I have found it unbeatable in arenas but once you get outside maybe you can hear the technology a little bit more. Personally, I don’t find it as good as an L-Acoustics in an outdoor setting.”
Kerry mixed on an Avid VENUE S6L which he describes as a great console but if it came down to which sounds better, he says the DiGiCo consoles sound slightly warmer and more analogue.
“However, software-wise I don’t know how you’d beat the S6L,” he added. “It’s so intuitive whilst I find the DiGiCo architecture a bit clunky to get around especially when your eyesight is as bad as mine! The S6L sounds hi-fi and whilst they don’t have the DiGiCo warmth, they certainly have depth and some sparkle.”
Kerry likes to treat the mix as a journey and prefers not to mess with the classics choosing not to try to embellish the songs which everyone knows.
“It’s more about the dynamics than effects,” he commented. “It can be a bit quiet for a song or two but then you hit a moment in a song everyone loves, so you turn it up to make a big impact. There are some instances, such as in Private Universe, where I go to town with reverbs and delays but for the most part, it’s more about dynamics. I hate concerts that are too loud and tend to mix on the quiet side so when it does go loud, it might be aggressive and offensive but it’s not for long … bit like a scary scene in a movie!
“It’s pretty much Waves across the board although I have an outboard Memory Man Analogue Delay / Chorus / Vibrato for the more crusty moments. I throw Waves plugins on top of that to get swirling effects and such.”
Microphones are mainly a Shure affair with a couple of Sennheiser e604s on the toms and a ribbon mic on one of Neil’s amps but that’s for when Kerry records the show.
“It’s a case of better the devil you know,” remarked Kerry. “I’ve tried different microphones in the past but they’ve never added to the show. There’s a reason why Shure mics have lasted so long. You know what you’re getting, they’re sturdy and they sound good. Years ago, we went out on a limb for the Sydney Opera House shows and I tried the latest flashy thing which lasted about 30 seconds before we all rolled our eyes and went back to the wheel that went around and didn’t need reinventing.”
Kerry did try using Earthworks mics once but says although they’re amazing mics you couldn’t notice the difference in the mix for the extra price.
“It’s very easy to become self-indulgent as a FOH engineer but you have to ask if it’s adding anything to the mix,” he said. “Audio can be psychological …. if it looks good it must sound good!”
