Live Sound For Toto 2024 tour with Ken Freeman
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Ken Freeman was nice enough to go over his live mixing set up before a recent Toto concert.
#toto #livesound #musictechnology #inconcert #frontofhouse #avidprotools #mainstage #mixingmusic #audioengineer #musiceducation
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Clair Brothers? No D&B? Oh my! Well Ken, amazing job you do, thankyou sir.
Toto has a live sound second to none thanks to Ken.
Having seen Toto and Journey on this tour - just a few days ago - I have to say the Ken Freeman did a FANTASTIC job! Toto sounded much better than Journey did, so much so that I was shocked at how bad the Journey mix was. Neal Schon's guitars were almost inaudible, and the backup vocals were nonexistent. In contrast, Toto sounded clear and every instrument and voice was balanced against the whole.
It was amazing, considering the fact that they were playing in a big, boomy room with lots of echo.
When I showed this to my class, I took some zoomed in screen shots of the eq curve on all the drums and bass. Serious Hi Pass filtering going on. When he mixes my film scores we do some of that but not this drastic… thanks for watching and the comment.
Exactly! I noticed/heard the same mix difference here in Winnipeg MB Canada yesterday March 4 2024. The Toto mix sounded significantly better than Journey's mix! It was immediate, the sonic difference, to me, as well, with every voice and instrument! Nonetheless, both bands gave 110% performance for the audience!
"Yeah simple for you!" 😂7:35
He’s a real cool and king gentleman. How awesome to see him take his time carefully to explain everything.
That was waaaaay over my head but so cool to see
My wife and I saw them third row stage right in Minneapolis a year ago at the State Theater, the sound was soooo fantastic: mixed beautifully, volume perfect, clarity wonderful!! At the end of the concert I was waiting at one of the exit doors for my wife who went downstairs to the powder room. I looked over to the sound and lighting guys(people were just ignoring them), so I went over and let them know just how excellent that they had done! I believe it was Ken that I spoke to, he looked surprised that someone acknowledged them, smiled and said thank you. Truly one of the best concert performances and sound engineering that I’ve ever been to. No headache, no ringing in the ears!!! Thank you Ken!!!
Thanks James. My watch gives me a loud sound warning if I’m close to my dog when she is barking. When I was at the show Ken mixed the entire show and the only time I got a loud sound warning was on the last chord of the entire show… thanks again for watching. Ken has read the comments here and appreciates the kind words.
Awesome! I've never seen a band that sounds as true to the record as Toto live. Bravo! Even on a house PA (Symphony on the Prairie, Indianapolis area) it was phenomenal.
Hey man I used to go to symphony on the prairie in Indi back in the late 80’s. Wow. I haven’t thought about that in a long time.
Anything Ken will organize in terms of gear and mixing will be state of the art, clean and very very simple to use. I am, once again, impressed ! Way to go Ken !
When I saw Toto in Los Angeles (at the Crypt), the sound was amazing. So clear, detailed, not too loud (as most concerts are). It was perfect. Keep the levels where they are! You got it dialed in!
Top touring bands always have the best, and Toto has the best sound engineer in Ken!
Two of the major state of the art digital mixing systems running the same stage in parallel, Avid S6L and Digico side by side, Epic!
I was at this show. Ken outmixed the shit out of Journey's guy... Journey sounded absolutely brickwalled... Great work Ken. Thanks for the vid.
Ken is the MAN !!!!!!
Amazing🤩... I am just a bit sad because I've missed Toto in Moosburg- Austria, because of the bad weather...
Thanks for watching. Hopefully they can come back to an area near you at some point!
This was fascinating. Thank you! 🙂
Ken is the quintessential FOH sound production tech. Wouldn't be Toto w/o Ken. Cudos brother, another fantastic presentation.
That rocket ship makes my Midas M32 look like a bicycle.
Very interesting video. Ken sounds like an amazing person.
He’s the best! Thanks for watching.
I've heard some incredible good sounding mixes from a M32 (or even a X32)
Amazing survey…mind-boggling!
Digico !!!
"This is quite simple"
"Yeah, simple for you" - My thoughts exactly, wouldn't even know where to start if something messy started coming up.
I love It
Wow, some real information. Thanks.
Nice!
Thanks for the tour!!
Do more of this videos...... great job...
👏👏👏
Hey Pete, I use to work a lot with Buddy Hyatt. he use to play with Toto. He’s now in Tennessee. Running sessions with many of the best players when they’re not touring.
Formidable
Amazing and informative video thank you. Would have been great to witness the band playing a song and observing those mix actions during, but would have been hard to converse I suppose-!
I have a few of those I shot for my class but the iPhone does something odd with the audio on a video when you zoom in or out by changing the lens, it goes from stereo to mono so I can’t really post that. Ugh… thanks for watching.
@@PeteCalandrathanks!
I had an opportunity to see Toto and Toto/Journey on this 2024 tour. First in 2000 seat auditorium with proper acoustics, second in 20,000 seat arena. In both cases sound was exceptional, probably best in decades with proper volume without needing ear protection Glad to see that there are still people out there that understand this.
And yes, Toto sounded much better than Journey 8-)
Nice run down
Cool video.
Drum Click to Drum Group....nice. Hopefully he spots that prior to stage
I saw them in Sunrise. Toto sounded perfect. Journey had some problems in the mix. First of all the high end eq boost on the kick drum was extremely distracting, not necessary for the instrument. I also couldn't believe how low the guitar was. I may know what is happening with that. Neal has two 4x12 cabinets aimed directly at the mixer's position so the engineer may be getting so much of that directly off of the stage that he takes it out of the PA. Similar situation on an Aerosmith show I saw years ago. I think Arnel sounded great. I also think the BV's were in a good spot but, the main downer was the guitar level.
Thanks for watching and the comment. I did not stay for Journey so I can’t comment on their sound but yes, Toto’s sound was fantastic.
saw toto/ journey in louisville Toto sounded great journey was mmm couldnt hear backgrond vocals and guitar was louder that arnel 🤷🏼♂️
I ran sound for a band back in the late 80’s. The tech was like a bunch of effect pedals compared to this! I hate hearing a band that is distorted at a venue.
Using MainStage? These days, I would go with Gig Performer for a new setup.
Thanks for watching and the comment. MainStage works for him and I think he would have to reprogram everything to use GP. I had not heard of that program and did look it up. It looks great and starting from scratch, I think it would be an excellent program to host fx. He has 13 years of work fine tuning his set up. Luke likes it which is the most important thing in Ken's situation. Thanks again.
I agree. If it ain’t broke… But for a new setup in 2024, or if there’s a feature that is a must-have, GP is excellent. (I’m a user with no financial ties.)
I started out using Gig Performer as a pedal board replacement. Now, I’m using it for a one-man live setup that plays audio and MIDI backing tracks, hosts bass, keys and drum instruments, does looping, hosts plugins, and mixes FOH and IEMs. I’ve split the tasks among multiple instances to keep each section straightforward and to use multiple cores. I haven’t done lightning control, yet. It’s been a game changer for modest live setups.
It wouldn’t replace the Toto setup. (It can do all the signal processing, but doesn’t offer that level of user interface.) The big thing I can get is an album style mix with effects, busses, and side chain compression, etc., so I can play soft or loud and get a punchy bass, a big guitar/keys sound, and have the vocals push through, without wild peaks or excessive limiting.
It’s like another world, compared to an old-fashioned garage band setup, where no matter how loud each member plays, you can’t hear them!
Random thoughts: Remember in the old days when you turned off the littlelights and looked at the band for cues, and looked at the audience to see how your mix was doing? Now if you look up and away from the console for a split second your concentration is thrown off. If the drummer creams the snare mic, you, instead of intuitively reaching for the snare fader (where it's always been, for years), you have to scroll through 4 pages to find it and mute it.
An iPhone screen lit up in front of you is annoying, right? Try sitting anywhere behind the digital consoles nowadays.
When I saw Paul Simon do his Rhythm of the Saints tour, with each instrument and voice going through ProTools before even getting to the console, I was amazed at the clarity and detail of what was essentially a live reproduction of the studio recording. For the first three tunes. Then it became clear that the musicians were phoning it in.
Or, a Justin Timberlake show with everyone on a click that was synchronized to the 3rd decimal point.
This isn't audio - it's a sequence of 0's and 1's that simulate audio. When you hit the OFF switch on a digital console it's instantly OFF. Poof. Gone.
Shut down a Midas H3000 and watch the console lights fade out. It takes over 12 seconds to go dark as it releases the energy of the show back into the ether, to hopefully be discovered again the next night.
Thanks for your thought out opinion. As far as the actual mix goes, he's not looking at a screen when mixing, he has his hands all over the faders like he would in any mix scenario that is not automated and has things mapped so that he can easily change levels as he sees fit. He can also walk around during the show to see how things are sounding in different spots with his iPad and make adjustments and while he did not do that during the show, he definitely walked outside the mix area for a few seconds here and there to listen. Most of the screen work is done during pre production prep and sound check.The players in Toto are so good that they don't require huge mix moves during performance. He mostly tends to what ever person is doing the lead part be it vocals or instrumental solos. I realize that you do not like this way of working but For this and and most big groups, consistency from space to space is key for their audiences enjoying the show and having virtual studio racks of effects in the mixing board and available thru MainStage helps achieve that. I am old enough to have gone to concerts at Madison Sq Garden in the 1970's (Led Zeppelin, Who, Stones, Tull, Dylan etc) and live sound sucked then compared to now.
@@PeteCalandra I saw all those shows, too, but in LA, and yes, the sound was mostly awful (but I'll never forget the sound of Bonham's snare echoing off the back wall of The Forum). I currently own a Meyer/Midas system, but it's a second gig for me, basically street fairs, concerts-in-the-parks, and theater shows. I went digital a few years ago and though I appreciated the versatility of the consoles they were/are not intuitive to me at all. I've been used to inserting my compressors and gates and EQs with real copper into real copper on hard-wired channels. I can visualize the signal flow down to the PCB level; I can't visualize the flow on a chip. I'm back to analog, and hiring an extra guy to help lift/move it all.
I've heard that the RHCPs are going back to analog. And you know what Luke (and Carlton and Bonamassa, etc) play through at The Baked Potato in LA? A 57 stuck in front of his amp, through an old Ramsa desk. Sounds great!
You dont know much about electronics, do you?
I always thought putting subs in the air wasn’t a good thing?
I have to know. What song does Ken use to test the PA every nights? 😏😅
Good question! I'd did not think to ask!
@@PeteCalandra totally should have lol... you get the joke yea? almost every uses I Will Remember as one of their top three lol
Very cool but u2 isn’t
Does someonw know how he EQ and cut Luke signal, in terms of low cut and hi cut?
Hi Pietro while we did not look specifically at what he does for Lukes guitar, I can tell you it most likely changes for each song depending on the sound Luke requires. I did see what he did for the drum kit and it had high pass filtering (as well as some other eq) for all the drums. Thanks for watching.
@@PeteCalandra thank you, really nice and interesting video. Maybe I'll try to ask him while in Lucca this summer. Bests
Soundguys have it made... they do nearly nothing and get PAID.
He actually works quite hard. So good, he makes it look easy!
P