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20
FOH Interview
Bringing Discipline to a Mötley Mix
Andy Meyer on juggling five bands, huge stage volume and a guitar rig that goes down to 30 Hz.
PR BRown
Motley Crüe press shot for the Crüefest tour
By BillEvans
With bands like Mötley Crüe — whose
members appear morally opposed
to personal monitors and seem
determined to prove their continuing viability
by being louder than ever — paired with
loud upstarts including Buck Cherry and
Nikki Sixx’s solo side project on the same bill,
one might assume that the biggest challenge
of the recent Crüefest tour would have been
dealing with sheer volume. Au contraire says
Crüe FOH mixer Andy Meyer. While dealing
with huge SPL can be an issue with five bands
onstage every night, the biggest challenge is
often just having enough time to get everything
up and going.
When the tour hit Vegas with a slimmeddown,
three-band schedule (gotta keep the
show tight and get those people back out into
the casino where they belong…), Meyer actually
had time for dinner after sound check. We
sat down with him backstage and had a chat
over a plate of tour catering ribs…
FOH: OK, let’s start out talking system…
Andy Meyer: Well, first of all we are using
the Clair I-5 PA. What you are seeing is a custom
bumper, so the onstage column is the
I-5, the offstage two columns are called I-5Bs.
The I-5Bs are discreet from 85 Hz down. So,
there are 48 subs — 24 per side — in the air.
Plus, under the deck there are nine double-18
(BT) subs a side.
That’s a ton of subs.
Well, it kind of evolved because we wanted
to fly the subs, get some low end up in the
air. Basically, it's almost like an undisciplined
mix — everything overlaps. This is not a case
of neatly placing bandwidth like your guitar
has this range and vocal has this range and
things like that. For instance, Mick’s guitar, he
wants it all the way down to 30 Hz. He wants
sub coming out of it. He actually has a crossover
in his rig that gives me a discreet output
NOVEMBER 2008
from 80 Hz on down off his guitar. I am moving
a lot of air just with the guitar. I have so
much overlap and energy, but it gives it this
power that it needs to have. So, there are
challenges in doing that. That takes a lot of
PA. And it’s not so much about volume as it
is about the bandwidth and being able to reproduce
all of it. So, this PA and this band has
been a wonderful marriage. It has been great.
It’s got huge guts to it. When (Mick) gets going
and I start driving the guitars it will move
the hairs on your arm. It is very impressive.
Have you worked with the band before?
No. I haven’t worked for Mötley Crüe before;
however, I have known Tommy for quite
a few years now. His drum tech and programmer,
Viggy Vignola, and I have toured together
for five or six years straight. We were on
Timberlake together and Sevendust…
Okay. You did Timberlake?
Yeah, I did. I mixed that whole tour —
almost two years of work that was.
I missed that tour, but heard it was a pretty
good show.
It was fantastic; Tommy would come out
and see the shows. He liked what I did, and
then when it came time he asked me to do
this tour. It was very kind of him. I was actually
working for Janet Jackson, but wasn’t quite
sure whether she was going to tour or not.
Andy Meyer
www.fohonline.com
How long are you out with Crüe?
Well, right now this leg is till September
and then tentatively October we have Asia
dates and South America dates.
It looks like it is all Venue up there.
It is all DiGi, yeah. There is a D-Show and a
Profile at front-of-house and a D-show and a
profile in monitor world. The D-Show is there
to do the band and then the Profile’s for Vince.
Vince has his own guy, which really is good
because it is just too much trying to cover ev-
This PA and this band have been a wonderful
marriage. When (Mick) gets going and
I start driving the guitars it will move the
hairs on your arm. It is very impressive.
— Andy Meyer
erybody and keep them all happy. It works
well; a lot of artists are doing that. It's really
hard to keep track of everything that’s going
on, especially if your singer is flying around
doing things and you are trying to watch all
that and then one of the other guys needs
something, you never see it. So, it is just a
better way to do it. It really is.
Bill Evans
Okay, so let’s get down to it. How loud is
it?
The show is between a 104 and 106 at
FOH, which is pretty loud for 110 feet back.
That’s pretty damn loud.
It’s up there, but it just about takes that to
get over the stage.
Yeah, it's funny because I am seeing a
lot of bands going out with… I mean it
looks like a wall of amps, but they are
almost all dummies and they’ve got a
Palmer DI or something like that driving
the system.
Yeah, exactly, but I am not just using
palmers out here. We are using microphones.
I am using Audio-Technica 4050s
on the left, right and mono; Mick’s got a
left, right and a mono. Well, basically, it is a
left and right wet and then a dry. We'll call it
that. That’s a better way to put it, and then
I also have an AKG 414 left and an AKG 414
right, and so I have a 4050 and a 414 left,
4050 and a 414 right and two 4050s on the
dry. I am using a palmer on the sub output
instead of a mic; there’s also a mic up there
that we use for monitors. For the sub output
I needed a direct source because I am
moving those low, low frequencies. I didn’t
want to get it loose in the PA.