ST. LOUIS, MO — Lucinda Williams’ monitor engineer Seth Kendall specified a Neumann KMS 105 for the artist's vocals, which, when paired with a Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 wireless personal monitor system, lets him deliver monitor mixes that, in his words, “absolutely sparkle.” While serving as a systems engineer for Clair Brothers, Kendall had the opportunity to hear dozens of capsules against each other in preparation for a Beyoncé tour. From that experience, he knew that the Neumann KMS 105 super-cardioid and Neumann KMS 104 cardioid live vocal condensers could make a difference.
“When I went on tour as monitor engineer for Carrie Underwood, we used a Neumann KK 104 capsule on her vocals,” Kendall said. “I loved it. It was much easier to deliver an excellent ear monitor mix with the Neumann than with what she was previously using.”
“With the ‘industry standard’ vocal mics,” he added, “I find that I have to do a lot of creative EQing just to get the vocal to sit correctly in the mix. And that’s bad, because too much EQing tends to fatigue the listener, especially with ear monitors — and the last thing a performer, who is already under a ton of stress, needs to deal with.
“The Neumann KMS capsules have a shimmer to them — a ‘color,’ in the favorable sense that studio engineers use the word. The vocal sounds amazing, wide open and detailed, without having to work too hard to achieve it. That makes my job a lot easier.”
Everyone on stage but Williams’ drummer uses Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 wireless personal monitors.
“The Sennheiser G2, and now G3, systems are the only thing anyone’s really using these days,” said Kendall. “It’s the only thing that really works. And after a performer has been on stage with a tiny Sennheiser belt-pack receiver, it’s hard to ask them to strap on what feels like a brick in comparison. The Sennheisers are frequency-agile, robust, and sonically transparent. The wide stereo image allows me to place instruments distinctly from left to right so that the performers can mentally isolate their instruments while still maintaining a synthesis of everything that’s going on.”
At FOH, mix engineer Kevin Maddigan also credits the sound of the Neumann KMS 105.
The tour recently finished a three-month run, kicking off in Anaheim, California, before heading to Europe for a series of dates. After a late-August break, the tour headed across the U.S. to celebrate 30 years of Lucinda Williams’ music, with extended dates in select cities that featured performances from her back catalog.
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