LIFE ON MARRS
14 January 2015
Founding member of the British rock band the Smiths, Johnny Marr recently completed the United States leg of his Playland tour, supporting his 2nd solo album of the same name. The tour’s FOH engineer, Russ Miller, aka Russthesoundguy, has engineered live sound for numerous acts over the years, including artists Alison Moyet, Curtis Stigers, Lacuna Coil, Spiritualized, and From Autumn to Ashes to name a few.
For the Playland tour, Russ rigged Johnny Marr’s Fender Deluxe guitar amp, with the Royer Labs R-121 (you can check our review, here).
“Johnny is a great producer and engineer and is real savvy when it comes to tone. He came out front during a soundcheck and was pretty darn impressed with the reproduction of his signature sound through the PA,” Miller said.
Discussing the mic set-up, Miller said, “I’m currently using two Royer R-121s, and have been using them since the start of the tour. I position the Royer on the Deluxe about 1 inch to the left of the dustcap/centre of the speaker, then place a DPA2011c right next to it—making certain that the R-121’s ribbon and the diaphragm of the other mic are lined up to ensure phase coherence. I’m also using an R-121 on a Marshall 4×12 enclosure used by one of the other guitarists in the band.”
“The reaction we get from crowds since we switched to the Royers has cemented the ‘right tool for the job’ mentality for me,” Miller continued. “I’ve never had so many compliments. I would never ask someone like Johnny to change his sound to suit my microphone. That would be insulting. So it’s most important to listen to your source and choose a mic that’s going to compliment it. If you have to resort to tons of EQ and compression, then it’s not the right mic for the job. With the Royer R-121, that’s never an issue.”
Australian Distributor: Atlantis, Ph:(03) 9818 7778 Email: [email protected]
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