The Whitlams are finally touring the country with their Gaffage & Clink Tour 2022 having endured many shows twice postponed in the past due to Covid.
In March they reached Sydney’s Enmore Theatre where sound engineer Tim Millikan, who has mixed the band since 2019 after the incredible Greg Weaver suddenly passed away, was in control.
“Tonally, the band are pretty true to the record,” commented Tim. “Tim’s piano sounds are probably the instrument with the largest variety, moving from concert grand to slightly out of tune upright sounds, into three or four different electric piano and organ patches.”
At The Enmore Theatre Tim used the in house L-Acoustics v-DOSC rig consisting of six SB218 subs, a stalls array of five v-DOSC and a flown balcony cluster of four v-DOSC per side. There were also dV-DOSC as delays upstairs and as underhang on the main array and infill.
Tim ran his preferred console – an Avid S6L 32D which he believes is by far the best sounding digital console on the market.
“It’s easy to use, there’s no weird or clunky filing system and everything onboard sounds fantastic – dynamics, EQ and even the standard onboard effects are great,” he said. “The Whitlams are a great and easy act to mix, they are all incredible musicians and the sounds on stage are great. I don’t have to fight anything, and if there is a problem, it happily gets sorted at the source.
“We have good solid sound checks, with enough time to get everything right for everyone, without the days turning into a rehearsal and show day in one.”
The mic kit is very simple:
Shure B52 on kick
Shure SM57s on top and bottom snare
AKG 451s for hats and overheads
Sennheiser 904s on toms
Radial JDI passive di on the bass, no bass mic
Guitar – either a Shure SM57 or a Sennheiser 906
For vocals, Tim runs a Shure KSM8 for Tim’s vocals saying it has such great detail and suits his voice.
“They aren’t an overly loud band on stage so it’s easy to use a condenser mic without a lot of spill and Shure B58s on the three backing vocals,” he added.
Monitors on this run have been operated by the in house audio engineer and Tim has also done monitors from FOH.
“It’s a very straightforward setup and not overly complicated with 16 inputs in total,” he said. “There are two sends of ears and three sends of wedges. I split the head amp into two channels, one for FOH and the other for monitors, just so the band don’t have any compression etc going to monitors.”
The band own an IEM system, a very old Shure set up with two mono channels – one for Tim and one for Warwick Hornby, the bass player. Jak Housden and Terapai Richmond are both on wedges and there is a single wedge for Tim as redundancy.
“Tim’s such a great storyteller so it’s critical, like any gig as far as I’m concerned, that the vocal is pristine,” remarked Tim. “All the information is there, you have to make it sound produced, smooth, natural, without being a bland flat dry vocal.
“There’s quite a lot going on effects-wise, different reverbs and delays, but nothing can clutter the lyric, it’s the crux of the mix.”
Tim reports that so far the shows were great and that he has been doing quite a few gigs over the past months, most of which have been outdoor seated festivals.
“These Enmore shows were the first 100% capacity indoor shows that had a mosh pit with some seating at the rear of the stalls and the balcony,” he added. “It was great to see people dancing and singing, having a great time at shows again.”
Photos: Amy Halpin Scenstr www.ahimagery.com.au
