Modest Mouse played to a sold-out house at the Berkeley Community Theater (Berkeley, Calif.) in early February. Mix spoke with front-of-house engineer Chris Chandler — who has mixed the band since 2003 — about their current tour. Thomas Wright (monitor engineer/stage manager) and backline techs Trevor Keen and Derek Linaman are also on-hand for this jaunt.
According to Chandler, “Things can change when you’re not carrying full production. [At the Berkeley show, Sound on Stage provided the P.A. and Yamaha FOH mixing console.] On this tour, I’m using Shure Beta 57As on Isaac [Brock, vocalist/guitarist] and Dann [Gallucci, guitarist/keys] and Shure SM58s on Tom [Peloso, upright bass/fiddle] and Jeremy [Green, drummer]. For Isaac’s second vocal, we use a Shure 104C for that ‘telephone’ sound.”
FOH engineer Chris Chandler
photos: Steve Jennings
Chandler’s outboard rack includes Mercury M76m mic pre’s (with a dbx 160 and 6-band EQ inserted) for Brock’s vocal, and a Discrete Plus stereo pre for Peloso’s vocal and bass. Bass also has a dbx 160 and 6-band EQ on it. Chandler inserts a Ridge Farms/The Boiler compressor into a stereo bus on drums for the “compressed drum sound from the album.” Also in the rack are Drawmer DS404 quad gates and a DL 441 quad comp, and a TC Electronic M2000. Drums are miked with Shure Beta 91, Beta 52, SM57s, 98s, SM81 and a pair of KSM 137s. Percussion is treated with an SM57, Beta 57A, 98s and SM81s. Guitars are miked with Sennheiser MD409s or 421s.
