VANCOUVER, BC – Revived after a decade-long hiatus, the Lilith Fair festival tour of 2010, featuring headliner Sarah McLachlan and other female solo artists and female-led bands, toured 23 North American cities this summer. Many of the performers, including McLachlan herself, relied on Sennheiser and Neumann microphones for their live performances.
The tour revived the concept championed by McLachlan, Terry McBride, Marty Diamond and Dan Fraser in the late 1990s. The tours in 1997, 1998 and 1999 raising over $10 million for women's charities. The 2010 tour, which included more than 90 acts in all, raised $500,000 more.
Newcomers for the 2010 outing included Mary J. Blige, Miranda Lambert, Cat Power, Colbie Caillat, Jenni Rivera and Heart, among others. The 2010 festival also featured artists who participated in the original Lilith Fair, among them Sheryl Crow, Indigo Girls, Court Yard Hounds (Dixie Chicks), Erykah Badu, Emmylou Harris and Tegan & Sara.
Sennheiser wireless technology, together with Sennheiser and Neumann capsules and wired microphones, dominated input and output lists and gave the festival hundreds of wireless links for the tour's three stages.
McLachlan closed the show at every date, and she finished her set with an invitation to the artists who had performed earlier to join her on stage for a finale. All of the guest vocalists used Sennheiser SKM 2000 wireless handheld transmitters with MMD 945-1 super-cardioid dynamic capsules.
Continuing a 15-year tradition, McLachlan used one of three hyper-cardioid Neumann KMS 150 condensers strategically located around the stage, her choice depending on the instrument she was playing.
"Like Neumann's studio microphones, the KMS 150 captures quiet details with a full-frequency, natural tone," said Gary Stokes, McLachlan's longtime FOH engineer. "The proximity effect is less pronounced, and although I probably get more bleed than I might with another mic, the bleed sounds wonderfully balanced and doesn't detract from the mix as much as other mics."
A pair of knuckled cardioid Neumann KM 140 condensers provided the pick-up for McLachlan's customized piano, and, like many artists at Lilith Fair, she and her band counted on Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G3 wireless personal monitors.
Between SKM 5200 handheld transmitters with MD 5235 capsules, ew 300 IEM G2 personal monitors, and ew 572 G2 instrument systems, country duo Sugarland contributed 36 channels of Sennheiser wireless equipment to the RF landscape of Lilith Fair.
Two SKM 5200s featured Sennheiser's Command function. With the push of a button, lead singer Jennifer Nettle and lead instrumentalist Kristian Bush could toggle their microphones over to an alternate set of outputs on their EM 3732 Command receivers, routed directly to monitor engineer Steve Ledet and the band's in-ear systems.
The Command outputs could be programmed in many ways. In this instance, pressing the Command button mutes FOH, allowing Nettle and Bush to discretely communicate with Ledet (e.g. "more snare drum") and the band (e.g. "double the intro").
Sugarland, meanwhile, used Sennheiser MD 421 dynamics on the bass rig and the Leslie cabinet. Noted Dave Haskell, FOH engineer and production manager, about the MD 421: "I've used those things for a hundred years on drums, and I'd use more of those mics if I could find a spot to stick ‘em!"
Indie rockers Metric, fronted by Emily Haines, delivered four shows in the middle of the Lilith Fair tour using the same complement of Sennheiser and Neumann gear that they always go out with.
FOH engineer Trevor Coppen recounted the collection, which includes Sennheiser e 906 on guitars, e 901 and e 902 on kick drum, e 905 on snare top, e 914 on snare bottom and hi-hat, e 904 on rack tom, and an MD 421 on floor tom.
Haines sang into a Sennheiser SKM 2000 with an MMK 965-1 capsule, the same capsule used in the three wired e 965s for backing vocals. Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 wireless personal monitors and a pair of Neumann KM 184s on drum overheads rounded out the list.
"I've been working with Sennheiser for a long time," said Coppen. "They're always there for us, including a time we had a one-off in Tokyo and Sennheiser arranged to have our full mic list there when we arrived. They consistently go to lengths that make me feel like we're in a big family together."
Indie-pop singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson used a Sennheiser MD 431 II. "The MD 431 II provides excellent rejection of all other ambient on-stage noise," said engineer David Mann. "At the same time, it has a smooth response that really highlights everything that's wonderful in Ingrid's voice."
Michaelson's backing vocalists used Sennheiser e 935s. "As of last year, we have everyone on the new Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G3 wireless personal monitors," Mann added. "The musicians love them because they sound so great, and I'm a fan of the new functionality. Despite the heavy RF traffic of Lilith, I was always able to find friendly frequencies quickly and reliably."
Miranda Lambert also used Sennheiser gear – the SKM 2000 handheld transmitter with an MMD 945-1 capsule. Her production manager, Chris Newsom, agreed with Mann regarding Sennheiser's new wireless personal monitor system.
"The band was on Sennheiser's ew 300 IEM G2 wireless personal monitors for years," Newsom said. "We recently switched over to the new G3 system, which I think has everything that made the G2 system awesome, most importantly great stereo imaging and a warm musical sound. But in addition, the G3 brings new functionalities for the monitor engineer that are especially appreciated in the tight time schedule and inherently unpredictable nature of a big tour like Lilith Fair."
For more information, please visit www.sennheiser.com.
Photo Credit: © 2010 Getty Images
