On the Digital Edge

Mixing the Steve Gadd Band at the Catalina Jazz Club

It’s been a very long time since I worked a club gig. There have been many occasions when I have worked at club venues while on tour, but always using our tour audio FOH and monitor setups. So I am a bit out of practice. Still, I jumped at the chance to spend four nights at the Catalina Jazz Club (Hollywood, CA) mixing for my friends in the Steve Gadd Band. This fantastic jazz ensemble consists of Steve Gadd, drums; Walt Fowler, trumpet/flugelhorn; Jimmy Johnson, bass; Mike Landau, guitar; and Larry Goldings (now Kevin Hayes), keyboards. These men, of course, are each regulars in James Taylor’s All-Star Band and they are a significant part of my road family. I was extremely flattered when the guys had asked me to participate, and I was happy I could be there for them.

After literally shivering my way through the National Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington DC, I jumped into a rental car on the following morning and headed up I-83 North toward Lititz, PA. My final destination was the headquarters of Clair Global. Once there, I would spend two quick days in the shop prepping for an upcoming show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. This holiday event was produced by CBS Radio and featured individual performances by Sarah McLachlan, Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor.

Three months after my shoulder surgery, it was time to go back to work. Physical therapy has been going very well, and the range of motion in my left arm has almost returned to normal. Believing I was strong enough to get back behind a console, I accepted a job mixing FOH for the National Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington, D.C. Having spent nearly all my career as a touring specialist, I have never been extremely comfortable doing this type of one-off special event, and I often decline when these positions are offered. There are many engineers who have far more experience in this specialty and may be better qualified to pull off these potentially chaotic productions. Then again, I had worked a couple of events for the production company that contracted me, and both experiences were very positive.

Okay, I’m back! Please accept my apologies for being absent from last month’s issue of FRONT of HOUSE, but I do have a legitimate excuse. At the end of August, I underwent a much-needed surgical procedure on my left shoulder, and I just recently regained the ability to type with both hands. I have now been liberated from the bulky, intrusive sling apparatus that has imprisoned my left arm and dominated my life for the last four weeks.

A friend of mine in Vancouver, Canada, occasionally sends me surprises that are always very cool. These products are never big and loud, nor are they flashy and expensive. The items that arrive from Peter Janis at Radial Engineering are colorfully packaged, yet always contained within a simple metal box. Each product is of the highest quality and extremely efficient in accomplishing its particular application.

On the road with the James Taylor tour, one learns early about the intensely personal relationship that James has established with so many of his fans. Over the decades he has been performing his songs, he has deeply connected with his audience through his writing, singing and the power of his personality. In my 40 years of touring, I have never witnessed an artist be more free with his time for interacting with the fans. During the intermission at each show, James sits on the front of the stage shaking hands, signing autographs and posing with audience members for selfies before the band pries him away to perform the second set. After the show he usually does a meet-and-greet backstage. Finally, as he leaves the venue and heads to his bus, James spends additional time with everyone who has been patiently waiting at the stage door. Never have I seen James Taylor refuse an autograph request or otherwise deny a reasonable request from a fan. His stamina, devotion and patience are truly remarkable.

David Morgan checks out Clair’s Cohesion-12 line array system for James Taylor’s 2016 tour.

This year’s North American James Taylor tour opened in Lubbock, TX in early April. Not only was I eager to once again mix what James often calls “the best band anywhere,” I was excited at the prospect of working on Clair Global’s new Cohesion-12 system. Over the winter, our production team had agreed to upgrade the touring system to include two 16-deep arrays of the Cohesion-12 cabinets that we would use as our front facing columns. The production would be retaining two 12-high arrays of Clair Global i-3 enclosures for our side facing columns.

Tonight I have a little time off, and I am watching a Stanley Cup playoff game between the San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators. The game is being played at the SAP Arena in San Jose, CA. The Sharks’ hockey fans love that building. It’s loud and reverberant, with lots of hard reflective surfaces, and virtually no acoustical treatment — perfect for amplifying crowd noise to intimidate the visiting team. The very conditions that make an arena so perfect for hockey games make it an extremely challenging environment for live music shows. The building makes live music sound hard, unconnected and overly bright. It has never been one of my favorite concert venues. Plus, I am a devout fan of the rival Los Angeles Kings.

As is the case for any computer-based product, a digital audio console is a system in a continual state of evolutionary flux. In my article from the December 2015 issue of FRONT of HOUSE, I presented my initial impressions of Avid’s VENUE S6L live console. In that “On the Digital Edge” discussion, I expressed great satisfaction with audio produced by this new system. From input to output, the 96k S6L is very powerful machine. However, due to its work-in-progress status, I chose to delay discussing many of the specific features and operations until more agility and refinement had been added to the console/computer system.

This past January, my good friend and legendary acoustic designer, Sam Berkow, contacted me about an interview he had just completed for a podcast website called Sonic Garage. After the interview was concluded, Sam had provided Troy, Sonic Garage’s interview host, with a list of people in the audio field whom Sam believed would be interesting interviewees. Sam let me know that my name was on that list and wanted to know if I would participate. He gave me the website address and contact information for Troy at Sonic Garage.

Note: Last month, David provided a quick tour of The Blackbird Academy’s new live audio school in Nashville; this time he returns to delve a little deeper.

In August of 2015, I journeyed to Tennessee to mix a fantastic show with Andrea Zonn, vocalist and violinist in James Taylor’s band. She performed all the songs from her newly released CD, Rise, on the Music City Roots broadcast. This refreshingly eclectic music show is performed and recorded at The Factory in Franklin, TN, just southwest of Nashville. After Andrea’s performance, I took some time to interact with the Blackbird students. Last summer, Blackbird Academy’s Live Sound division was up and running and I looked toward participating in one of the classes.

Somewhere between a university course study and a fantasy camp for audio pros lies the educational territory occupied by the Blackbird Academy. Located at Blackbird Studio, this institute of specialized learning is nestled into what seems to be an unassuming residential neighborhood in Nashville’s Berry Hill area. However, in these few blocks, more than 40 recording studios are hidden within the walls of wood frame structures that were originally constructed years ago as military housing. Even Blackbird’s street address, Azalea Place, conjures an image of the Old South. While there’s a definite sense of history here, it is not about events that have been recorded in textbooks, romanticized in novels, recreated in movies or captured in songs. The history of this small region has instead been stored on magnetic tape, vinyl, CDs and hard drives.