Diana Krall a Padova

To get across the natural quality of Krall's sound, Lawler uses mostly Neumann microphones. “We have a KMS 140 on her vocal, two KM 100/40s on the piano and two Schertler transducers, and an AMT Brass PZM for the piano. The guitar has two Neumann KMS 105s, the overheads are two Neumann TLM 173s and the snare and hat are Neumann KM 184s. I use an Audix D4 on the back of the kick drum, and the toms have two Audix Micro-Ds. The bass gets a KM 185, and there is also a pickup on it running through an Avalon U5 DI.

“This gig is all about managing leakage because everything mikes everything. That is why I use the Neumanns; they have the best off-axis sound I've ever heard. It's super quiet. It is quite a challenge to mix that quiet. Any noise from the stage, like fans, can be heard. They have a lot of dynamic range that way, but it can be difficult, especially in theaters.”

WORKING IN THE ZONE

Lawler became positively effusive when discussing the Milo line array system: “The console goes to three BSS Audio Soundwebs, and the SIM 3 machine is routed in through the Soundwebs so we can see everything. There is also a rackmountable PC power and cooling computer that runs all the Soundwebs. SIM 3 is the thing I really want to talk about. It's been 11 years since SIM 2 was put out and the third generation is a third of the cost, size and weight — it makes my life a lot easier. We set up the mics on all the zones on the right side and then we can see what EQ correction we are doing in real time upside down on the computer.”

The P.A. is set up so that Lawler can achieve a similar sound in every part of the venue. “It has 22 zones overall,” he says. “We break it into a lot of parts, fix each part and put it back together. SIM is a Meyer Sound analyzer, and we have mics all over the venue to tweak the system. The goal is to get it to sound the same everywhere — same tone, same gain — which is quite challenging. It's a superdetailed rig and fun to mix on.

“Three lower cabinets on each array are on their own zone, and then I have two in the center on a reverse stereo with the right a left and the left a right, creating a good sound for those in the VIP area so things aren't muffled there. I've been a freelance SIM engineer for 10 years, so it isn't hard for us to figure out these venues and what to do for them. We try to stick to the facts, but there's a lot of mythology out there. Those cabinets on the P.A. are set up so I can mix from back to front in the venue. All the cabinets are self-powered. We have a wireless tablet controller that we can use to mute any cabinet using the Meyer Remote Monitoring System so we can see what's going on with it. Each cabinet can be muted one at a time or by group. During the system test, we can hear the coverage of each cabinet. MAPP Online Professional is also used to design each array for all the venues on this tour. As far as the cabinets, we have eight Meyer M1Ds across the stage for nearfills and one Meyer M3D sub per side. On the array itself, we have three Meyer CQ2s on the bottom. The main array is 10 Meyer Milos and then another Meyer M3D sub on the top. We also have a pair of Meyer CQ2s for that reverse stereo pair in the middle.”