Gear Rig - Seasplash FOH Gear Talk

Front of the House Gear Talk by Seasplash

Now this is going to be our last gear talk. Just announcing this already, we will continue this blog with a post about latest news in the world of instruments. So we will give you here some expertise about some instruments like guitars and stuff. And by the way, if there is someone who wants an opinion about an instrument or has a question, just write an email at info@seasplash.ch

Coming back to our rig talk. Since the early years, we've been working with analog stuff by Yamaha. Yamaha proved, at least in our work, the stability and quality their gear has because within almost 10 years we never had any problems or defects with the gear. That's why Yamaha has been a solid and economically priced label to work with. 

Getting back to the real issue here, our FOH rig is actually quiet simple. We use a analog Yamaha MG24/FX mixing console (16 mono Inputs, 4 Stereo Imputs, 4 Busses, 2 Effect-Busses, 6 Aux, 1 Mono-Master, 1 Stereo-Master) that goes into a 31 graphic EQ of dbx, which in turn runs into a Yamaha P-5000 Series amp. Amplified, the signal goes either into two Yamaha 215 CV speakers (those for greater gigs) or into two little 112 CV speakers. Both types are built solid and sound incredible. 

Having described the signal routing, we'll show you more specific how we manage the mixing parts. Yes you heard right, we mix our shows by ourselfs because we haven't found the right man yet who knows mixing better than we do. However, each channel on the console is occupied. You'll find a Input-List bellow. The majorety of channels has inserted a compressor, limiter, gate or expander. The label and types we use for the effect processors differ, but most we use Behringer compressors / limiters. In our experience, you only need to limit the peaks of the channels to make a clear sound but keeping the dynamic of it, so a solid working limiter is all you need. Behringer does its job there. Now following the channels chain on the mixing console, we equalize every channel carefully. Since the MG24 has got a 3 band eq with a frequency pointer for mids in addition, we only cut bass frequencies out and find by turning up the gain knob and searching with the mid knob the worst frequency and gain it slowly down. A tip, cut out every bass frequencies below (100 - 120 Hz) in a live mix for each signal which isn't going into subwoofers. Therefore, make the crossover between subwoofer and top frequencies between a bass frequency you don't need. We actually cross about 90 Hz.

In our experience (without a separate mixing console for monitoring and without a mixer) adjusting the monitors for each member is the worst part about mixing. Sometimes, flexibility is needed to make the monitoring right, sometimes, you need more monitors but have no aux-chanel left and so on. We learned to work with 6 Aux-channels to monitor our stuff (also listed bellow). Fyi, all our monitor channels are leaving the console after the fader level. This has the advantage not to edit again the monitor signal that goes out. 

Now, what's really great about the MG24 is its effect-processor. We have two busses to send for each channel an effect, where again, we can adjust the channel signal with the effect. The two effect we use the most, are reverb and delay (sometimes we use distortion for vocals). With the effect-busses we can adjust the volume of the effects right away. Besides, we can also adjust the level of any effect on the aux-channels. That's pretty cool, because Michel for example loves when he hears his voice coming with some reverb or delay.

Our philosophy in mixing is, make everything as easy as you can and prepare adjustments well to be fast making them. So, we actually summarize drums and instruments on two stereo subgroubs (which are also inserted with compressors / limiters). Therefore, only the voices are going directly into the stereo-master-fader. If adjustments have to be done, we only need to move 6 faders instead of 20. 

What makes our FOH gear in addition professional, is the fact that we are able to click out the speaker - amp system and click in into another speaker system. Depending on the location and the equipment of the location, we can set up our own whole FOH rig or only bring the mixing console with the racks and click in, adjust the signal of each channels (because the mics work more or less the same) and adjust the EQ-processor suitable for the room. That's all.

Once again, we hope you enjoyed reading our rig talk and hope to see you soon back on this site.

Stay tuned and keep rockin'

Seasplash

Input-List

1. Michel Vocs (compressor - reverb - delay - stereo)

2. Julien Vocs (compressor - reverb - stereo)

3. Talk Box (compressor - reverb - sub 1-2)

4. Mesa Michel (limiter - sub 1-2)

5. Line6 Michel (sub 1-2)

6. Mesa Julien (limiter - sub 1-2)

7. Randall Julien (sub 1-2)

8. Acoustic Guitar - DI 2 (compressor - reverb - sub 1-2)

9. Acoustic Guitar - DI 2 (compressor - reverb - sub 1-2)

10. Bass Guitar - DI (compressor - limiter - reverb - sub 1-2)

11. Kick (gate - compressor - limiter - reverb - sub 3-4)

12. SN Top (compressor - limiter - reverb - sub 3-4)

13. SN Bottom (gate - limiter - reverb - sub 3-4)

14. Mid-Tom right (gate - reverb - sub 3-4)

15. Mid-Tom left (gate - reverb - sub 3-4)

16. Floor Toms (gate - reverb - sub 3-4)

17./18. Overheads (gate - sub 3-4)

19./20. High-Hat / Ride (sub 3-4)

21./22. Stage-Piano - DI (limiter - reverb - sub 1-2)

23./24. Aux-Input (stereo)

Aux-List

1. In-Ear left (reverb - delay)

2.  In-Ear right (reverb - delay)

3. Drum Monitor

4. Vocs Monitor Michel (reverb - delay)

5. Guitar Monitor Michel 

6. Spare output

Gear Rig-Seasplash Rig Talk

Alexej's Bass Guitar Rig

Now since joining the band in 2007, I tried different things with my bass guitar. Actually I'm not really a geek. Today I play only my rare Godin Bass with 5 Strings and nice specs on it. I'll talk about those later. First of all, I want to show you my amp rig.

Working with Seasplash makes my Bass sound simple which is in fact our secret. A solid and tight bass sound. But only a few know that I'm able to play everything, I can even sweep with my bass guitar. Maybe I'm gonna perform a bass solo next tour. But however, I fit my sound to the guys ones. Besides playing with finger and plectrons, I once in a while slap or sweep my bass. To generate my bass sound, I use a Line6 Lowdown6 transistor amp. This my sound crazy because it doesn't have a warm sound with an tubeamp. This isn't the point. The Lowdown amp has a direct out which is connected directly into the mixer. But instead of not pulling out my sound off my guitar into a DI-Box, the amp DIs the amp programm as well. 
My amp therefore is set up with four channels. 3 channels are more or less the same classy undistored bass sound we know but the EQs are set differently for each channel. For each channel in addition, I can jump on the floorpedal which punshes up more of the low frequencies and with the volume pedal I adjust the sound level. The fourth channel has distortion in it which I use to sweep or to make some rhythm parts (you will hear this on the next record). Since the amp has a solid working compressor already in it, I do not use a crazy on the mixing console. Just a little peak controlling needs to be done on the mix. 

Now coming back to my guitar. It has more or less all the basic stuff every bass has got. Besides the 5 Strings (normal with the B-String on top), the guitar has a varity of knobs on it. Since the guitar has two active emg pick ups, one knob is to adjust the position of the pick ups (this is also nothing crazy). Of course one volume knob, one tone knob, but the highlight of this amp is the fourth knob. I have a push knob on it that pushes the tone setting a little bit up or a down. Furthermore, this push knob has on top another push knob for the push knob (you get it?:D). So I can push my bass two times up. Stupid you think? Don't think so. I made the experience that live you don't be aware of the bass sound often. This doesn't mean you don't hear the attack, but the sound in the mix is often bad to be conscient of it. 
So with my 4 options of pushing frequencies up or down I can adjust my bass sound to the song sound to make sure, that I am everywhere in the song where I want to be or have to be. And that's also the reason why I play only one guitar. To vary my sound, I do not have to change every time my bass guitar. Still, I have a Cort Bass as a back up. But don't use it often. 

Now you know all my gear stuff. I hope you enjoyed reading it and be ready to get to know more about Seasplash's FOH gear and mixing stuff next week. 

Stay tuned and keep rockin'!
 

Gear Rig - Seasplash Rig Talk

Gilles' Drum Rig

Over the years, I have changed my drum set constantly. First of all, I want to talk about the drum set, then I give you some specs about it, some adjustments I use and last but not least all the gear stuff to make the drum sound great.

Drum Set

Since the beginning of Seasplash, I use a Pearl ELX Drum Set in black. It's pretty standard and solid. Standard here means, Snare, Bass drum, High-Hat, 2 Cymbals, one Ride, 2 mid-Toms and one Floor Tom. The wood's got a full sound, even though the ELX serie is not Pearl's flagship. However, over the years I stucked the drum set up by having made the exactly double version of the standard set, but with different sizes of Toms. Since then, I'm varying my drum set depending on what we are going to need for recording sessions and differently for live session. But normally for live sessions, I stick toghether 2 Floor Toms, one Snare and Bass Drum with a double bass pedal, 2 High-Hats (one left and a open High-Hat on the right), one ride (normale size), 2 Mid-Toms (13" and 15"), 4 crashes, one china cymbale and one splash cymbal. This set up gives me the flexibility to play any song we've got. This is actually one quality thing about Seasplash, we are able to play every Song live and have played every Song live.

Besides my main drums, I added some percussion stuff too. For example do I play some Bongos though haven't used them yet in a song. But its a nice to have. Other stuff like a bell or a nice sounding bar-chimes, rattels, and so on.

Specs

Mostly for my Toms I use Remo hides. They sound really rocky and live more or less long. Exclusevly, I play woodsticks because of the sound though I vary with thickness and wood quality. I change also the label of the stick from time to time, just to test some new things.

Electronic Gear

I have amplified my drum just like every one else does. Perhaps more old fashioned. So I use normally condenser overheads which are set up in A/B positions. A SM 57 for my High-Hats, a Beta 52 for my Kick, a Beta 98 AC for my Snare top, on the bottom I've got a Shure PG 56. For my mid Toms I've got also two PG 56, for the Floors two PG 52. This is actually my live stuff which surprisingly works great though the PG Series isn't strong in delivering, but it goes well with my sound. However, in our experience a tight live drum sound is depending on the mix of the drums. That's why I have my drums compressed, gated and limited. But more important, my drums are paneld in stereo range only 45 degrees on each side. This gives us room for the guitars to sound more clear.

Of course it isn't just the sounding and the mixing that makes the drums cool and tight, it is also my playing. I've been always a passioned player and played along how I feel the stuff. But for studio sessions I had to learn playing with click. That wasn't easy at the beginning. Today, and I think that's what actually makes my drumming for Seasplash specially, I play tight on click while feeling the stuff live. So this combination is perfect.

Monitoring is more or less the same as the other Bandmembers have got. Though I have added a 15" floor monitor to hear the low frequencies better. The in-ear system, which I do not always use for live gigs, depends on the spl on stage. Because I play very hard and loud, I need to protect my ears by plugging them. To make the on stage sound more comfortable to the others, I use a custom made plexi panel wall in front of my drums.

Now I have given you a view into my work and hope you enjoyed reading it.

Stay tuned and keep rockin'!

 

Gear Rig Seasplash - Julien's guitar rig

Julien's guitar rig

Unlike Michel's simple guitar rig, I use a bit more of stuff behind my amps. First of all, I use two different amps and cabs. One is a Mesa Boogie dual rectifier with the rectifier 4x12 cab, the other is a Randall RM100 (with Kirk Hammett Modules in it) and a Randall standard cab. On the floor, I use a Morley Tremonti Wah Pedal that goes directly into an A/B Box which splits the signal one into the mesa amp and two into a Line6 Live Pod. The Live Pod is actually great. I've got all great pedal sounds in it like the MXR red comp, the Tube Screamer, an EQ and a Noise Gate which I actually use. Further, I set different modulation, reverb and delay effects. The Volume-Pedal works smooth, though I do not use it often. The Signal out of the Pod goes into the Randall Cab, on which I change between the clean and the crunch channel. Since Mesa is my main amp, I have only the TC Electronic Hall of Fame in the Loop. With the Mesa Solo-Chanel I can easily push the signal in front of the mix. Unlike Michel, I have my amps paneled on the same stereo side. What makes my sound other different to Michel's is my kind of playing. I play smoother than he does, have lighter plectrums and use for some tracks a Dunlop glass bottle neck slider. In my opinion it's a must for our sound.

Since the beginning of Seasplash I worked with the classic Dunlop TalkBox. It makes our sound more special because modern metal bands do rarely use it. However, the TalkBox is chained between the Mesa Head and its cab. For my amps I use just like Michel two Shure SM57.

Guitars

Well, I never was a guitar geek as much as Michel was. That's why a played in the early years a ESP LTD JH Strat with EMG Humbuckers and a ESP LTD Truckster designed by James Hetfield also with EMG Humbuckers. I loved the active Humbuckers because they pushed the drive of my tone more up. But today I found my love also for PRS guitars. That's why I play a PRS Custom 24. It sounds amazing. There are no other words to describe it better than the word amazing does. To vary my sound, I need to get some different guitars too, haven't yet decided which kind, but I'm sure it must be a Fender Strat, perhaps a American Deluxe or Custom, as well Gibson ES. The ES with its hollowbody has a warmer and brighter sound than my lead guitars have. To make the rhythm parts, it's the perfect guitar.

The acoustic guitars are the same as Michel plays. We share these guitars for different live parts. So you already got more specs about those last week.

Backing Vocals

For vocals, I worked only with Neumann KSM 104. Though it's more often used as a studio mic, it takes my voice perfectly live. And with a bit of Reverb in it, it makes the perfect balance between Michel's Lead vocs and my back vocals, bright and smooth.

So that's already it. Hope you enjoyed it. Next week, you'll hear about Gilles drum set and stuff behind it. Keep rockin' and stay tuned!

 

Gear Rig Seasplash

Each member shows and explains the rigs they are using

Michel's Guitar, Piano and Vocal Rig

Guitar Rig

Actually, I do not use something crazy like the great guitar-artists in the world. Much like Steve Lukather, I've become quiet with adding some new stuff. Hence, my guitar rig is small, but works great and solid. Find gear specifications listed below. My main amp is a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier (50/100). I like its tones so much that it is a must for my rig. But one of the greatest things by the new Dual Rectifier is its pedal board. With the board I've got a great flexibility on changing stuff. Besides the three chanel, solo and fx options I now can jump on mute too. The FX-Chain works also good. Since I'm using only a delay in the serial chain, I don't need a midi-changing system for my dynamic pedals. Talking about them, I use a MXR dyna compressor (red comp), a MXR Phaser (90), Boss SD-1 and a MXR Chorus Zakk Wylde. I use the chorus mostly playing clean to get a 80s / 90s guitar sound. By the way, the Dual Rectifier goes through a simple Marshall 1960 A Cab. Maybe I'll get a 1960 Vintage B cab and stack it up. The vintage cab tone has more mid-frequencies than the 1960 A. A bit more special about my rig is that additional to my main Mesa amp I use a Line6 Spider II cab amp just for clean stuff. With a Morley A/B box I can switch easily between both amps. You might think it is stupid to use a additional amp just for clean. But the advantage of the additional Line6 is that first, I can preset my beloved sound for my guitar, second, in the foh I set the Line6 in the middle of the panel. Now for live this setting sounds tighter than having my amp paneled just on stereo. So when I play clean rhythm and Juline makes some Solos the sound is quiet stronger and when I come in with some heavy drive, I jump on the A/B box to the Mesa amp which is set stereo at the foh. By the way, for both amps I use simple SM57 to get the signal through. The acoustic guitar also easy goes DIed into the mix-console. As DI-Box I use a LD-102. They are pritty good.

My guitar monitor gets the signal directly out of the mix-console in a Yamaha CM12V. I have another one just for vocals.

Guitars

With my guitars it has become more or less the same story with the amps. In the beginnings of Seasplash I was kind of a guitar geek and bougt mostly all kind of Gibson guitars, some Fenders, Jackson, Yamaha and so on. Building up my rig I noticed that some guitars didn't fit in into the sound I wanted. So I sold the rest of it (rest means: Gibson SG, Gibson Explorer, Gibson Flying V, Gibson Les Paul Standard 2008, Jackson Warrior EMG, Fender American Special) and bought a rarely hand made Paul Reed Smith (PRS) McCarty 57/08 Goldblack. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest guitars in the world. You might think that I'm the kind of guitarists that plays only the most expensive guitars. But ironically, I have one Fender Telecaster Standard (made in Mexico) left which fits perfectly into my sound. I used the Telecaster as main guitar on the new Dead Diamond record. How ever, upcoming guitars I might bye are Gibson Les Paul custom (just to have one :D), a PRS Modern Eagle Quattro, a Hollow Body Guitar (not sure yet whether it's going to be a Gretsch or a Duesenberg) and going back to the 70s a Epiphone G1275. I want to play this beast because I am a big fan of 12-String guitars, haven't used them as much as I wanted. On acoustic guitars I'm always with Takamine and Yamaha. Both are great and solid. You don't need more.

Because I need flexilibilty on stage, I'm using for every kind of stuff on me wireless systems. So for my guitar I use the Shure BLX14R racksystem, which goes only for little stages but works great. With two bodypacks and one receiver, this stuff works solid and great.

Piano

Well to the piano rig there is not much to say. We never wanted to use really upsapced stuff, so any kind of keyboards and synthis don't fit into our music. That's why I wanted a nice stage piano with hammered Keys. I bought a Yamaha P255 in black which works great. It has got some strings, organ sounds, and different piano sounds too and they sound amazing. You hear that on every record we made. Also for live I do not need more than just one Behringer Stereo DI-Box to get the signal into the FOH and that's all. One stustain pedal of course, but nothing more.

Vocal Rig

Now on vocals I have tested and studied a great varity of mics. Though one criteria was to be flexible, it has to be a mic-version with a wireless handheld. Since I am a fan of shure, I now use also the BLX024R system with a Beta 58 capsule on it. Shure's mics are in every perspective great, and every typ of mic is solid. In the beginnings of Seasplash I used for live gigs Mipro-Systems which are also really great. The handheld mic I used had a condensator capsule which surprisingly went well with my voice. But the dynamic Beta 58 fits well live. A SM58 could have also worked out, but our soundpresserlevel on stage is very loud. So to compete against feedbacks on stage, the Beta 58 in my opinion is more solid than the SM 58. Further, I do not use crazy stuff in my signal. I have of course a compressor in it (now its a Behringer MDX4600) which works actually not bad, but I think I'm going to work with summit tube compressors like a TLA-50 or even a TLA-100. The sound of these compressors is so great that it blows you literally away. And they don't have anything crazy to set on. And of course a bit of reverb makes up voice.

Since our soundpresserlevel on stage is high, we worked from the beginning on with in-ear monitors. You hear everything tight, smooth and the loudness is gentle. Some artist do not like to hear themselves over in-ear but we love it. We set our in-ear sound excactly the same as it comes out of the FOH. So we hear the same as the croud does. Then I feel myself as a part of the croud which cheers me up to give everything I have on stage. Perhaps you noticed that I talked about my floor monitors for guitar and voice above. This sounds pretty stupid, but the brute sound which comes out of the monitor speakors makes me feel more alive and within the sound. Also it is thought to be a back up in case the in-ear monitors go north. Our In-Ear system is a Mipro with one Station and 3 Receivers (Gilles does not want a in-ear monitor, he likes the pure brut sound coming out of his monitor speaker).

So I hope you understand how I work now. Stay tuned and keep rockin!

Cheers

Michel

Gear List:

- Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier (50/100) -> channel 1: 50W, channel 2+3: 100W

- Marshall 1960 A Cab

- Marshall 1960 BV Cab (coming up)

- Line6 Spider II Cab

- Yamaha CM 12 V

- Boss SD-1

- MXR dyna comp (red)

- MXR Phaser 90

- MXR Chorus Zakk Wylde

- Boss Tuner

- TC Electronic Flash Back Delay

- Morley A/B Box

- Yamaha P255 Stage Piano

- Shure SM57 (BLX14R)

- Shure Beta 58 (BLX24R)

- Mipro In-Ear Wireless System

- PRS McCarty 57/08

- Fender Telecaster Standard MN

- Gibson Les Paul Custom CH (coming up)

- Epiphone G 1275 double neck (coming up)

- PRS ME Quattro (coming up)

- Duesenberg Starplayer TV (coming up)

- Takamine EF341

- Yamaha FX