Counting Crow’s 56-stop Banshee Season tour kicked off June 13 and wrapped at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in late September. Photo by Steve Jennings
For many bandmembers of SF Bay Area rockers Counting Crows, it was a true hometown show when we caught the band at Berkeley, CA’s famed Greek Theatre. The venue is a favorite of the bands. Vocalist Ada Duritz made several comments about growing up in the area and going to shows here when he was young, also sneaking in when it was empty to pretend play on stage… only for that dream to come true, headlining here many times since breaking big.
With the hit “Mr. Jones” from their debut album August and Everything After… with seven million sold, we have seen the band continue reaching new heights and fans along the way. Now past the 30-year mark (starting in 1991), the band are as tight as ever, performing a solid two-hour set. We spoke with the audio crew about the tour towards the end of the tour’s four-month run.
From left, systems engineer Norman Stallings and FOH engineer Tom New
The FOH View
For FOH engineer Tom New, the current U.S. tour is technically his second time mixing Counting Crows. He started with them in March of this year on their New Zealand, Australia and South Africa run. “I had worked with the band back in 2014/15 as a Clair Global monitor tech, and we remained in contact once the tour was over. When they came to London in October of 2022, I met their production manager and stage manager for a drink. When the subject of working with them again came up, I jumped at the chance!”
New is mixing on a DiGiCo Quantum 338, although he started off using the incumbent console, which was an Avid S6L. “I had been a longtime DiGiCo user, and for the last five years or so, the SD5 Quantum was my console of choice. I was interested to try out the workflow of the S6L, but old habits die hard,” he says.
Counting Crows 2023 tour photo by Steve Jennings
“Having spent time working with the band previously and having the opportunity to speak with (and hear mix) the Crows’ previous long-time engineer Bruce Jones, I had a good idea of what they were looking to achieve.” New understood the importance of placing the lead vocal front and center. “For that reason, I gave careful consideration to the processing on Adam’s vocals, using EQ/verb and diligent compression to bring out the best in his performance. From the outset, I knew that finding space for the three guitars in the mix, often all playing at once, would be a challenge, so I use subtle panning to give them, and everything else, space in the mix. Jim Bogios is a solid drummer and only requires modest compression to add a little bombast, and everything around that just slots in easily. It’s really a pleasure to work with such a great group of musicians, because they pretty much mix themselves.”
Counting Crows 2023 tour photo by Steve Jennings
New says that for this band in particular, the “live” approach struck him as the best one. “Their arrangements and performance are not strictly to the recordings, so it didn’t seem natural to bend the mix in that direction.” New tries to let the instruments and players dictate the dynamics, and to leave things as open as possible in that respect. “I don’t like to overuse effects or slavishly copy album recordings, unless I am given specific directions to do so.”
New doesn’t use an awful lot of processing, but certainly does have his preferences when it comes to what to use. “UAD effects processing being my preferred choice, yet I’m not sure what I’ll do when the UAD live rack is no longer supported…The DiGiCo has some great in-the-box stuff, which I use on supporting instrumentation and vox, but for my upfront and center stuff, I tend to go outboard. I use the DiGiCo Mustard Optical compressor on the bass and Wurlitzer and the onboard verbs for cocktail snare and guest vocals.”
Counting Crows 2023 tour photo by Steve Jennings
For Adam’s vocals, New is using a hardware Empirical Labs Distressor as a compressor. “I use two UAD reverbs (a short verb and a long verb) — the UAD Plate 140 and EMT Plate 250 — plus the Cooper Time Cube Tube Delay when required. I also use the EMTs (140 and 250) in multiple other instances such as for mandolin, acoustic guitars and as a snare verb. I use dbx 160 on BD and SD, then the Neve 33609 as a drum bus compressor. I also use the 33609 as a limiter on my master bus, and separately on my two-track record bus. I have two Lake LM44’s which I use for tuning and system control.”
When New began working with the band, he was using the S6L, and the lead into this tour was just three days of production rehearsal (of which two days were tech only), so he says he had to hit the ground running. “I built my UAD show file off my previous tour’s file and took a similar approach structure wise. I felt that these tools had served me well previously and they have more than proved that in my last three plus months touring the U.S. with them. I have 32 mono processing channels of UAD, many of which are run in stereo — bus comps, stereo verbs, etc. — so roughly 18 channels of processing in total. Spread over our 64 input channels, I think it’s fairly modest, which is precisely how I like it. I like to think that I use the plug-ins just like I’d use outboard, except the knobs don’t move, and if one breaks, they all break!”
Photo by Steve Jennings
In total, New notes he is up to 124 channels, including all the returns and peripherals although he believes the stage inputs are around 70. “I send out four matrix channels, L/R Subs (sum of L/R, not an aux) and FF, which are then fed to my eight Lake outputs — Main L, Main R, Sub L, Sub R, Side L, Side R, FF and VIP (onstage speaker for our VIP guests).”
Having previously worked with the Crows, New was glad to rejoin them. “They treat their crew with immense respect and their touring schedule is very manageable. That said, I could not have done any of it without the support from Clair Global, DiGiCo and the fantastic techs we have out here with us — Sevrin Huette, Chris Hazleton, Shawn London and Norman Stallings. Long may it continue!”
From left, monitor tech Shawn London and monitor engineer Kory Carter. Photo by Steve Jennings
Monitor World
For monitor engineer Kory Carter, he’s a true veteran with the band having mixed them since 1996. “Yes, 27 years. It’s like family out here for sure. It’s been absolutely great working with the band, and it starts with Adam Duritz. He treats his people amazing. A lot of my crew have been here for a long time as well; it’s a great team to work with.” Carter is also the production manager for the tour and says being able to bring friends and family to the tours over the years makes the touring life a lot easier. “I am very proud of my crew and honored to have worked for this band for all these years.”
Carter is mixing the band on an Avid S6L, having chosen this model for their tours since the console first came out. “It’s very easy to use, I like the layout and ease to get around, but I guess using any console for as many years as I have, any console would be easy to get around… ha-ha.”
Photo by Steve Jennings
Carter says there have not been any major audio issues along the way. “But there’s never a situation where the stage volume, house volume and sound of stage and house don’t come into play with what the band is hearing and feeling on stage. Our stage volume is not excessive, but we are running all live amps and Leslie, so it’s not silent either.” All band members are on IEM’s except multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück, who is on Clair SRM wedges.
“Adam (Duritz) is on IEM’s, which are JH Audio hybrids made specifically for him. The rest of the band are on JH Audio Layla’s. IEM wireless systems are mostly Shure PSM 1000’s, but Adam is still sticking with a Sennheiser G3 (hard to get him to change anything).”
Photo by Steve Jennings
For Adam Duritz’ vocal mic, he’s using a Telefunken M81 to a Shure Axient transmitter. “The capsules are out of the box, but the wireless transmitters have been built with a 6dB pad in them. He has been using this mic for about 10 years or so. Before that, he was using a Shure 58.” The band primarily uses Telefunken mics on most everything. “Drums are pretty standard style when it comes to miking the kit. I do have two Shure Beta 91’s inside the kick for in-ear purposes only, one is suspended and facing the front head rather than the beater head, but other than that, it’s nothing fancy.”
Photo by Steve Jennings
Carter has a full rack of processing that’s all old analog gear for Adam’s vocal chain. “Basically his vocal never sees an A/D converter in his mix. Off of the Shure receiver I take the analog out, put to a Midas xl42 with a Neve preamp and BSS DRP901 inserted in it, and then to a Midas XL88 matrix mixer. I then send it to his Lexicon PCM81 reverb then back to the XL88 and to his IEM transmitter. There two complete vocal chains and reverbs in this rack. Again, this is just for him, and eliminates his vocal ever going to an A/D converter, thus no latency.”
Clair Global provided a Cohesion series system for the tour
All Systems Go!
Tour systems engineer Norman Stallings notes that Clair Global has been the band’s sound provider for years. “We’ve got a nice setup with Clair Cohesion 12’s, 12 deep main hang;, Clair Cohesion 10’s, eight deep for side hangs; three CP218 subs/side in cardioid per side; and six CP6’s across the downstage lip as front fills. Clair’s Cohesion series very transparent: picture a studio reference speaker for however many people will be in attendance. It’s extremely efficient, easily rigged and very pure sounding right out of the box; a truly versatile cabinet that generally makes for a great experience. We start with time alignment, making sure that the subsystems are aligned and working together. Then we roam a bit to make sure the coverage is correct for the venue and to our taste. Concerning EQ, less EQ or filtering is generally preferred, unless overcoming an ISS with the venue, such as a very resonant frequency or a standing wave.”
Photo by Steve Jennings
Counting Crows: Banshee Season Tour 2023
AUDIO CREW
- FOH Engineer: Tom New
- Systems Engineer: Norman Stallings
- Monitor Engineer: Kory Carter
- Monitor Tech: Shawn London
- Tour Manager: Tom Mullaly
- Production Manager: Kory Carter
- P.A. Techs: Sevrin Huette, Chris Hazleton
P.A. GEAR
- Sound Company: Clair Global
- Main Hangs (per side): (12) Clair CO 12
- Side Hangs (per side): (8) CO-10
- Subs: (3) CP218 (cardioid mode)
- Front Fills: Clair CP6
- Monitors: Clair SRM wedges (for David Immerglück)
FOH GEAR
- FOH Console: DiGiCo Quantum 338
- Outboard Effects, Plug-ins: 32-ch UAD Live Rack; (2) Empirical Labs Distressors
MON GEAR
- Monitor Console: Avid S6L
- Adam’s Vocal Chain: Lexicon PCM 81, Rupert Neve Portico II, BSS DPR-901 II, Midas XL 42, Midas XL 88
- Vocal Mics: Telefunken M80, M81
- IEM Hardware: Sennheiser G3, Lectrosonics M2T, Shure PSM 1000
- IEMs: JH Audio hybrid (Adam Duritz), JH Audio Layla’s
- Wireless Mics: Shure Axient, Sennheiser G3
More photos by Steve Jennings:
