Liz Phair’s FOH engineer for her current tour, Mark Chase, is a longtime Sennheiser aficionado. Production manager and monitor engineer for Vanessa Carlton for the past two years, Chase introduced Carlton to Sennheiser’s Evolution Series E 845 supercardioid vocal microphones. With Phair since the tour started two months ago, he has once again tapped Sennheiser for the full mic list.
At front and center, there’s an unusual choice of vocal microphone, reveals Chase, but one perfectly suited to Phair’s voice, which is relatively soft. “For Liz’s mic, I use one of Sennheiser’s newest mics in the Evolution 900 Series: the 903. And while this mic was originally conceived as a snare drum mic, due to its smaller size and tighter pickup pattern, I’ve been having great success using it for Liz’s vocal.”
Chase has also made his personal collection of Sennheiser gear available to Phair. “I own three sets of Sennheiser in-ears. Liz is on the Evolution 300 Series in-ear wireless monitors. And although I’m the front-of-house engineer, I still mix Liz’s in-ears from front-of-house.”
Phair, who also plays guitar, is joined onstage by a guitar player, bassplayer, keyboard player and drummer. “For backup vocals, I switch between the Evolution 835s and Evolution 845s for my two singers: the guitar player and the bass player. On my drum kit, I have the Evolution 602 on the kick drum. Across the snare and the toms, I use the Evolution 604s. I have an Evolution 602 on the bass rig, 609s on the three guitar amps and an amplifier I use for the Fender Rhodes keyboard. I also have an Evolution 545 wireless microphone that I use from time to time: That’s the combination of the 500 Series with the 45 capsule.”
For more on the mics used, visit www.sennheiserusa.com.
