Mix caught up with rising new talent Sara Bareilles, who’s opening for James Blunt on the U.S. VH1 You Oughta Know tour. The singer/songwriter showed off her lyrical prowess to a sold-out crowd at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater. Front-of-house engineer Mike Hornby and monitor engineer Gerry Wilkes are mixing for both acts.
Hornby mans a Midas Heritage H3000, using 35 channels for Blunt and 14 for Bareilles. “This means I overwrite about seven of my channels and reset them in the changeover,” he explains. “Sara’s band is pretty well-disciplined, so I don’t really need much processing — just a dbx comp on the piano and Sara’s vocal.”
Bareilles sings through a Shure Beta 58A. The Sound Image-provided P.A. comprises eight V-DOSC per side with three dV-DOSC underhangs per side and four VerTec subs per side; all subs are onstage. Front-fills include four QSC WideLines spread out on the downstage edge. Powering is via Crown iTech 8000 amps.
Also on a H3000 is Wilkes, who is running 14 ins and four outs for Bareilles. As for outboard, Wilkes only uses XTA graphics. “It’s the first time I’ve worked with Sara,” he says. “She’s a very talented musician and, more importantly, a very nice person. She shows great maturity and professionalism in her approach, making the task of mixing monitors much easier.”
