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Mics, mics, mics!

Learn more about Pearl Jam’s mic set-up onstage… Eliason uses four Audix OM7s for the vocal mics. Lead guitarist McCready plays into two Marshall 4x12s,

Learn more about Pearl Jam’s mic set-uponstage…

Eliason uses four Audix OM7s for the vocal mics. Lead guitaristMcCready plays into two Marshall 4x12s, while Gossard plays into one.Both guitarists use heads custom-built by Sal Trentino. Eliason micsthe cabinets with a Shure SM57 and an Audio-Technica 4050, putting themside by side just off center, pretty tight to the cabinet. McCreadyalso has an isolated Marshall Plexi cabinet offstage on stage right, byhis tech, that lets Eliason get a tight, dry signal that gives a littlemore edge for leads. That is miked with a Sennheiser MD409. Jeff Amenthas an Avalon DI for the bass, and also plays through an SWR 6x10cabinet; Eliason uses a Beyer M88 and Sennheiser MD409 on the SWR, andblends the signal in the truck. Ament also plays an electric stand-upAzola going through a separate rig, and Eliason takes a balanced directout from the head. “Jeff does a lot of speaker overdrive anddistortion, and if I didn’t use the mic, I wouldn’t getthat aspect of his sound. Both of his rigs sound very nice.”Eddie Vedder has been playing guitar at a lot on recent tours, and usesa Hiwatt head and a Marshall 4×12 cabinet. Eliason mics the cabinetwith a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser MD409.

Drummer Matt Cameron is playing a Yamaha kit with two racks, twofloors, typical kicks and a few cymbals. Eliason uses a fairly normalmic setup on drums: “On the kick I use a Shure SM91 and an AudixD6, the SM91 inside the drum, and the D6 just inside the hole on thefront. On the snare, I have an SM57 on top and a Beta 57 on the bottom.On hi-hat I have an AKG 460. Toms have four Beta 98s, and overheads aretwo AT 4050s.” Keyboardist Boom Gaspar is playing on this tour,as well. Eliason uses a BSS DI for the piano, and mics the Lesliecabinet with two Sennheiser 421s and an EV RE20. “We position theleft on the rear cabinet in the horn and flare one on the outside, andthen the RE20 is on the low-end driver.” For the acousticinstruments played by Vedder and Gossard, Eliason has Avalon DIs.

The audience mics for the bootleg recordings are an AT shotgun andan Oktava condenser, each on stage left and right. “The shotgunsare outside, pointed towards the outside and up part of the venue, andthe Oktavas are pointed towards the crowd. I also have an AudioTechnica AT 822 stereo mic at front-of-house. The mics onstage arereasonably time-aligned to the mix. The mic at FOH is not for thebootleg series; it is for future 5.1 applications.” While Eliasonsays he likes the pre’s in the XL4 console, he has a bank ofGrace Design 801Rs for all the microphones.

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