VANCOUVER, BC — Monitor engineer Kevin “Tater” McCarthy weighed in recently on the band’s reliance of gear from Radial Engineering — and not just for the audio crew members. In stark contrast to the LP crew’s new exercise regimen, it allows for gain without pain.
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You have to stay on your toes when set up for a live show doesn’t include a sound check. In town at the band’s recent Vancouver show, Monitor Engineer Kevin “Tater” McCarthy ‘weighed in’ on the tour this time around.
“I really try to keep the exact same routine every day. LP really likes to keep the same team together and they do everything they can to make that happen. Everyone here has been with the camp for a while so that makes communication very easy.”
Radial products are part of the consistency that keeps this successful band pleasing audiences night after night. “In every department out here you will see a Radial product. lighting, video, pyro, and of course audio. There is Radial stuff in just about everyone’s racks. From SW 8’s (3) in Protools, Twin ISO’s (4) for wireless microphones, JPCs (2) for video, JD7 (1) on the bass rig, J48s for the acoustic guitar, and on and on. Radial products are roadworthy. Sounding great is only one part of the equation. It is the most important, but if it will not work every day it does not matter how it sounds.”
This time around the team has picked up a couple new V12 custom snake systems. “Previous multi core systems we were using were dropping many channels. Remember we split 96 channels 4 ways. That is a lot of routing. So we really were looking for something reliable, as when you drop a line we were having to change it in four places. Of course Radial V12 met and exceeded all of our expectations.”
McCarthy also muses on some of the losses experienced on the road to date: “On this leg of the tour one of the LP Security team is a personal trainer and he is trying to get us all is shape. He walks around to us and gives us daily exercises to do. So seeing people in their work stations doing sit ups and squats and stuff like that is a bit odd, but we are all thanking him for it. We had a bet between 10 of us. We lost a total of over 150 lbs. in 3-4 weeks.”
McCarthy also explains how his nickname came about. “Tater is short for Dictator. Just shortened over the years. Everyone used to say stuff like “go see Tater in audio”.
Linkin Park’s most recent work, Living Things, was released on June 26, 2012. The band has sold over 50 million albums worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards.
