FOH Engineer Olivier Gerard, who hails from Belgium, has worked with Simple Minds on tours since 2008 becoming their permanent sound guy in 2012.
“I try to render their music as I understand it, however, I am aware that this is not my music but that of Simple Minds,” he told ALIA. “It is my duty and my job to render their music with the utmost care and honesty to the soul of their lifetime work. They spend months in the studio to mix their tracks. It is up to me to understand how the music functions and how it was created.
“I spend a lot of time studying the sounds, the reverbs, to be able to make it as true full to their intention.”
Olivier points out that the punters deserve this experience as they pay a ticket to see their band and he wants to give them the best time of their lives. They have been listening to all the albums for so long, he wants to match their expectations and when their favourite song is played, that it touches their emotion.
“That is only achievable if it is mixed right,” he adds. “My passion is to find the ‘code’ of all of these iconic songs which are often the soundtrack of the audience’s lives. And to mix it as I think Simple Minds like it. If it is not right, people say … yes it’s good but nothing more … it is like a cover band. But if I get it right, in the first couple of bars of the intro, with the right code of the song, musically and sonically, the audience is transported into their deepest emotion. That is what I am aiming for.”
When it comes to the choice of PA, Olivier says that the production team makes good deals with providers and he is happy to work with the system the providers have chosen. This tour has Solotech as the provider using d&b GSL and KSL PAs.
“I really like this system as it is cardio and in big arenas you get rid of all the sound bouncing behind,” said Olivier. “I have used the KSL on the a-ha tour and it was really noticeable, I had much more control of the low than with other systems. Nowadays it is all about sub by the looks of it.
“But again, Simple Minds music is mostly bass line driven, it is important that the bass line remains readable the best possible. And good lows are for me much more important than the big sub malarkey.”
Olivier was running the show on an SSL L200 console although he comments that it is not the easiest console on the market or user-friendly.
“I am a bit older and I was raised in the analogue era,” he explained. “The elastic feeling of an analogue mix buss is not the same as a digital one. It is not better, or worse, but it is what I have been raised with and working with for the first 25 years of my career.
With the SSL I have the same feeling as an analogue buss. It has something special gluing the mix together. The pre-amps are off the scale, and the dynamics and EQs in the desk are just fantastic. I see a lot of my colleagues use consoles with SSL emulation plug-ins… I don’t need them as they are all on my desk already. I use a lot of programming and snapshots. And their snapshots are very clever, I use the SSL L200 mostly because of the fader layout that works better for me than the L500. It is a workflow choice.”
As the band covers more than 40 years, Olivier has studied the reverbs, the delays and other signature sounds that lay in their music such as the iconic 80s snare with non-linear reverbs.
“I use a Bricasti M7 for the vocals as the Lexicon 480 is very fragile for touring,” he revealed. “In my opinion, the Bricasti is the closest to the 480. I have a TC Electronics R4000 to take care of the drums, I have a program for each song, and I use a Lexicon L300. I use the MIDIi for program changes between songs. All the delays, harmonizers, exciters are from the desk. Again these are my tools, and I know them … all choices are personal.
“I have an old BSS 901 with a distressor on Jim’s vocal as he uses his mic as an instrument, cupping it most of the time. I spend the whole gig adjusting song to song to his manipulations! I could do it on the desk but then I’d need to swap from window to window. Having it at my fingertips at my left is best.
“I use a distressor and a Tubetech MMC1A as multi-band compressor on the bass to help me in bad acoustic environments to keep the bass readable. Added to that is a UAD live rack with SPL Transient and some fancy spreading tools like the precision K Stereo, and of course the Iconic RMX16 AMS and 224 Lexicon.
“On my masters, I use the magic SSL Fusion for colouration of my general mix and I have a brand new SSL bus+ which is a fantastic tool. I don’t like to compress my end mix. I like to keep it dynamic but I use the dynamic EQ mode to be able to knock back some of the aggressive frequency that could pop out. I used an Avalon 747 with the side chain before but, again, on tour the valves are touchy beings.”
Olivier has his usual go-to mics including a Shure Beta 58 for Jim Kerr as for him it is like an instrument. He has used the mic forever, it is his favourite and that is fundamental. Shure Beta 91, AKG D12 VR, dpa 4011, Audio Technica ATM 450, dpa 2018 are all in the bag as is Olivier’s latest discovery Earthworks Audio DM20 low-profile snare and tom drum mic.
“These mics are like proper drum mics,” he commented. “It is like they have a SPL Transient designer in them as the toms and snare pop out the mix. Also new are the dpa 2015 compact wide cardioid mics for ambient pickup. We use them as audience mics, they are very natural and transparent and very, very good. We also have Sennheiser MKH 8060 shotgun mics.”
All of the gear for the Australian and New Zealand shows was provided by Solotech and shipped as it is not an easy gig to technically reproduce according to Olivier.
Playing at the Sydney Opera House was a long-awaited box for Jim and Charlie to tick and an experience for Olivier.
“Sonically, it is not the best place for rock music as it is built with an acoustic purpose,” he said. “Acoustic venues are like an instrument, they are alive. They react to the sound differently when it’s loud and when it’s quiet. The trick is to find the sweet spot when louder is messy and quieter loses the impact which is not easy.”
The Monitor Engineer is Jac Not and she used a Digico Quantum 338. A couple of d&b M2 wedges are used for Charlie Burchill on guitars and Ged Grimes on bass. Sennheiser SR 2050 IEM and EK 2000 beltpacks were used for IEM.
