Four-piece rock outfit Paramore (the Farro brothers — Jeremy, bass; Joshua, guitar; and Zachary, drums — and lead vocalist Hayley Williams) are out in support of their second release, Riot. Mix chatted with front-of-house engineer Ronnie Gardner and monitor engineer Carrol Miller.
Gardner is manning a Digidesign D-Show Profile. “I still love my big old Midas consoles, but this has the convenience of being small and digital, as well as [providing] a warm sound. I’m using the Impact compressor plug for my group compression and running outboard Avalon 737s on vocals. For effects, I use the Line 6 Echo Farm plug-in for delay and Revibe ‘verb plugs for various ‘verbs.” Miller is also on a Digidesign board — a VENUE — and is recording each show in Pro Tools. “For plug-ins, I’m using the 2.0 package. We’re all on stereo in-ears and everyone has the Joemeek Compressor and Focusrite Red EQ plug-ins on all stereo buses. I use the Impact plugs for Zac’s drums with a 4:1 ratio and 1 to 2 dB of gain reduction, medium attack and fast release. For the bass direct and mic, I use a Purple Audio MC77 comp. It is very smooth and helps Jeremy’s bass sit tight in the ear mixes. The sound of the Fairchild 660 on Hayley and Josh’s vocals really help keep them above the mix.”
Rat Sound is providing a rig that comprises 12 L-Acoustics V-DOSC with three dV-DOSCs down, six-box ARC side hangs, dV-DOSC front-fills and 10 Rat subs per side; on hand for tuning is FOH system tech Greg Mahler, who uses SIA Smaart. Sennheiser units are used throughout, including 935 mics for vocals, and IM-300 transmitter and G2 receivers for in-ears.
