Interview: Neil Gray
Who have you been mixing recently?
Last year, I did FOH for the APIA Good Times Tour featuring Leo Sayer, Richard Clapton, Russell Morris & Joe Camilleri. The tour included a nine-piece band of the country’s best players and weaved around Australia over two months. I attempted to make each show of the original lineup Mondo Rock 33 1/3 Anniversary Tour a hi-fi experience. I also got to mix Daddy Cool following their induction into the hall of fame at The Age Music Awards.
Other bands you’ve worked with?
My regular client over the last six years has been Ross ‘Eagle Rock’ Wilson. He keeps me pretty busy. It’s a bonus that his band are not only great players with extensive experience but excellent humans. It makes all the travel and time together so much easier. I’ve been working with Speed Orange, and I’ve mixed a couple of shows for Five Mile Sniper. They’re kind of an indie super band featuring past members of Ice Cream Hands, MotorAce, P76 and Pretty Mess.
How long have you been doing live sound?
I started out in 1988. While completing a sound course, I threw myself at every gig I could find. In Brisvegas that meant a lot of pubs with Yamaha desks and Lexicon SPX90s in the rack. I then lived and worked in Sydney and London for a few years each before settling in Melbourne. Melbourne has worked out to be a great city to be based in, at least in terms of industry activity and opportunities.
What’s your favourite console?
Currently I’m most comfortable with Avids. There are few if any surprises; the show file always loads, you don’t have to rely on the screen for all information and can mix with a sense of tactility (handy when sun glare strikes at some outdoor events), and they’re easy to source. My long-standing use of Pro Tools plays some part in my familiarity with the plug-ins. The reality is I mix on whatever is supplied. The past month of gigs has had me mixing on products from Midas, Soundcraft, Digico, Allen+Heath, Yamaha and Avid.
Favourite microphone or any other piece of kit?
I never leave home without a bunch of USB showfile sticks, Technics cans and my Audix D6. For me, this mic provides a result every time regardless of system and style and I find it quite versatile; it’s my friend in small and large systems. I’ve also noticed that drummers like the D6 character back through their monitors/IEM. I recently tried out the Telefunken M82 which is a very flexible, great sounding mic for kick and instruments; like an RE-20/SM7 hybrid.
For smaller analogue gigs I travel with go-to processing racks to ensure I have my preferred preset FX and dynamics processing. Those days are increasingly rare.
Most memorable gig or career highlight?
Three highlights come to mind. At the turn of the century, I had the opportunity to mix chart topping NZ band The Feelers at the first outdoor rock concert in Hong Kong when it returned to the control of China. It was a crazy show with armed uniform guards around the stage and a drummer from a Japanese punk band getting arrested for playing the set in little more than a sock-jock.
More recently mixing the Time of My Life superband featuring Daryl Braithwaite, Joe Camilleri, Ross Wilson and James Reyne at the base of Big Red — a 30m-high sand dune on the edge of the desert — was a special experience. Big Red made an impressive stage backdrop, and acoustic properties of sand everywhere was unique. I felt for the production company; they would have had sand in every piece of gear!
Lastly, the opportunity to facilitate the Face The Music Conference Q&A session with Steve Albini. Having admired much of the studio work he has engineered, it was a rare privilege to ask a bunch of questions and chat about his perspective on sound engineering.
How has your mixing setup changed in the last 15 years or so?
If mixing in digital, I enjoy refining the production with snapshots/scopes, save/recall and well-designed plug-ins that allow more mix production detail, such as easily manageable side-chain busses and routing. Certainly most systems now offer excellent detail and coverage that can be further developed within the mix to bring out the character of the artist and each song. It satisfies the studio production engineer in me.
What are three mixing techniques that you regularly employ?
1. Parallel compression for both vocals and drum shells. Yep, we all love it, and is now a widely applied technique. It just works so well in containing but highlighting critical mix elements without flattening the overall dynamics. I’m enjoying those desks and plug-ins that offer the blend control right there at the compressor.
2. Mic choice. I like to spec or travel with the same mics, especially for drums. It translates to a repeatable mix that also compliments the recall features of digital desks.
3. Mix from the vocals back. The vocal is the star; build the mix up with the vocal as the focus and use treatments to sit the BVs around it. Depends on the band but some tasty pitch thickening, panning and Haas-zone delay for width and depth are my go-to building blocks when the desk, DSP and time allow. The Mondo Rock tour really got me investigating how to evolve vocals and lush BVs — it was back to the ’80s!
What have been game changers for you in the last 15 years?
Tough, but I’ll go for offline editors, great system techs and Radial products.
To remotely prep a desk in advance is now a normal and essential routine for most shows, most weeks. The range of digital desk products that are supplied at shows over the year is quite varied. Each brand is trying to stand out in a crowded marketplace with its own take on the digital mixing desk, which can be a great distraction when the core job is to create a mix. It sometimes feels like the desk interaction is a distraction to the mix workflow, until I get some time on it and the familiarity is there. So to be able to check out the desk in the software editor at home, prep the desk layout, and do essential settings ahead of time is a winner.
Many current speaker systems benefit from the application of prediction software and attention to rigging to get the most of the system in a given venue. A great System Tech may make or break how my mix decisions work out and how that mix interacts and covers the venue.
And Radial, it makes rock solid solutions to everyday signal capture/control. There’s always a JDI in my Pelican case, it never fails!
Any words of wisdom for someone starting out?
In the ’90s, I recall a sign stuck above the FOH rack at the Melbourne venue Revolver — “Gain Structure, it’s an Immutable Law, learn it, live it”. Good advice. More so these days for those entering the industry; to survive and respect the digital path. From the DAW in the bedroom to the largest show, the management of signal level is crucial, as is the interpretation of metering.
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