New York (January 5, 2012)—Kenny Rogers’ annual “Christmas & Hits” tour wrapped up on Christmas Eve, using Astatic microphones, as it had on every stop, to mic a local choir.
Frank Farrell, Kenny’s Technical Director and Monitor Engineer, says the sold-out tour was designed to be “as frugal as possible in this economy,” the tour includes an 8-piece band and a full complement of A/V equipment with multi-video servers and five projector screens, all of which fits into a semi behind two buses and two trailers.
An integral part of the show is the Christmas repertoire, which requires choral support. Different choirs are chosen locally from colleges, churches or high schools, “which makes it challenging,” according to Farrell. “We usually try for college choirs because they’re older and more mature-sounding. Miking the choirs is a major challenge, which explains why we like the Astatic 1700VP (Remote Control Variable Pattern) mics so much. We’ve tried all kinds of different ways of miking the choirs and so far, the Astatic 1700VP offer the best solution in terms of pattern control and sound quality.
“The choir is on a riser in an opening center stage between the drummer and keyboard player. We’re using two of the 1700VPs for choirs that vary from 18 to 30 members. The mics are in front of the choir on stands positioned at the corners of the riser, and it’s really cool being able to dial the pattern in tight and experiment to get the best sounds for different situations.”
Other equipment for the Rogers tour includes two Avid Venue D-Show consoles for FOH and Monitors, Clair Brothers 12 AM wedge monitors and Sennheiser 5200 wireless mics.
According to Frank, “everyone has in-ear monitors except for Kenny who’s on the wedges, so that presents challenges. Even though the Astatic mics are off axis and 25 feet upstage of the monitors, you still get reflections from the stage but the mics are very good at picking up from the direction you aim them because of the different patterns you can dial in, which I like a lot.
“The producer of the show is Kelly Junkerman who’s directed three of Kenny’s movies and this is the happiest he’s been sound-wise. Our FOH Engineer Keith Bugos who’s been with Kenny for over 30 years has never been able to get the choir with this kind of fidelity.”
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