FRAMINGHAM, MA – Filipp Sklyarov, who has worked as an FOH and monitor engineer for a number of prominent artists, discussed working with Bose Professional’s ShowMatch line arrays.
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Filipp Sklyarov has been involved in various aspects of professional audio for most of his career. Sklyarov’s unique skill set has been widely put to use as a front-of-house/monitor engineer, audio/video/lighting install solutions professional, a touring/production/stage manager and as 64 Audio’s mix engineer representative. As either FOH or monitor engineer for artists such as Kye Kye, Gungor, The Brilliance, Marc Scibilia and most recently artist and platinum-selling songwriter John Mark McMillan, Sklyarov has mixed on a wide variety of sound reinforcement systems. While out on tour with McMillan, Sklyarov shared his experience of mixing on a ShowMatch compact line array system from Bose Professional.
“The thing I look for in a PA is the ease of building a mix,” stated Sklyarov. “On the John Mark McMillan tour where I was FOH, a significant portion of the shows were situations where we were flying in for an event where the sound system setup had already been determined. In this case, when I came into the venue, I was intrigued that the PA was a Bose ShowMatch system. Because of the supplied console in the venue, I didn’t have a show file prepared, so I had to build my mix from scratch. Working with the ShowMatch system, I was able to pull up a mix very quickly. That’s the barometer I guess. How quickly you can start from scratch and make something you like happen, as opposed to the band sitting on stage as you’re dialing in a kick drum or snare sound for 20 minutes. Stuff can get pretty awkward at that point.”
He continues, “One of the key things in the way I mix is how the rhythm section – primarily the kick and the snare – drives the energy of the band. The impactfulness of a kick drum is always something that you can figure out. What’s hard to do though is to get snare sound that cuts through, without tearing your head off. I was able to dial that in perfectly. I actually have a video on my phone of that show that I took while I was mixing – looking at it recently, I was reminded how I was able to dial that into a place that I really, really liked.”
Sklyarov tells his clients that his goal is to always have energy coming from the stage and the P.A. without the sheer volume. “I don’t mix loud. I’m not mixing above an average of 102, maybe 103dB, as I know the majority of our audiences have decent hearing and I know the volume zone where I start to cringe. At this gig, John’s vocal, which is always very deep, throaty, almost like a growl, really cut through. Considering the fact that we came into the venue fresh, with zero show files, and did our sound check between the other bands, in the middle of the actual performance lineup — It went off really great. Some shows are memorable for the wrong reasons, but this wasn’t one of those. I loved the performance of the ShowMatch system. I thought it sounded great.”
