An evening of fun, an evening of excess and an evening of dreams, this is what Bruce Springsteen gave us on the most wonderful Independence Day France has ever witnessed. With the E-Street Band as tight as ever and the Boss rock-solid despite his 63 years, they managed to throw the breakers at the Palais omnisports de Paris in Bercy four times during the soundcheck! With Avid Venue and 160 L-Acoustics enclosures brought to bear, John “Coop” Cooper as Chief blaster and Soundlightup as a lucky witness, we can now certify that rock and roll is still alive!
Coop himself came and showed us in at the Palais Omnisport door and announced that the venue’s transformer failed and resulted in complete loss of power three times (four, if you consider the one that occurred during our interview – editor’s note). We thought to ourselves that we would have to make ourselves scarce and forget about the interview. John’s smile and serenity were quick to cheer us up, though. The show WILL go on, you’ll see! He led us directly into the backstage area where we did see the enormity of this tour, which looks almost cramped in a room that is actually quite large. We took advantage of our being near what we believed was the only console devoted to monitors to question him briefly on the monitoring before starting with questions on the front of house.
Mister passion in person, John
On stage: 18 artists, 104 sources on the patch and high levels
SLU : Can you tell us a little bit about monitors?
JC : We have two DiGiCo SD7s, one on the right and one on the left, because, with 18 artists on stage, one console would actually have been enough, but one brain wouldn’t have! (Laughs – editor’s note) We have 104 sources in the patch. I do not even know how many outputs Troy and Monty manage. I know Troy (Milner, Left-side Monitor Engineer) has about fifty busses because everyone is in stereo and Monty (Carlo, Right-side Monitor Engineer) must have even more, plus all of Bruce’s wedges and the sidefills flown vertically on the stage: four JBL Vertec 4888s per side. Bruce has four main wedges, two internal ones for his voice and two external ones for the musicians, not to mention the sidefills for the entire group. The sound that you hear (very loud – editor’s note) is the level of his amplifier. So we had to direct them 60° upwards to keep them out of the vocal mics… at least a little! The stage is very loud. To return to Troy & Monty, I do not know how, even with two of them, they manage to deal with so many mixes, I have a simple left/right to manage, sometimes a little more, and I find that to be plenty. I cannot picture myself keeping up with 16 to 18 stereo mixes. They do it every night, though.
SLU : The stage is really high.
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JC : It is designed to be that way, it allows us to have a little world below, and when we play in stadiums, it is indispensable. We call our underground space the “underworld” and this is where you find all the backline technicians who take care of keyboards, guitars, drums and so on. Every one of them has a passageway to hand the instruments up and receive ones that need to be tuned or simply put away.
The riggers?They worked a lot, but how else could it be when the with an in-the-round show?
SLU : We were told that Solotech is the supplier for the tour and that they are quite Meyer-oriented but, apart from eight JBL Vertec sidefills, I see only L-Acoustics …
JC : Now they have a few, and many more than before (laughs – note). As you know, historically Audio Analysts has been Bruce’s supplier and that company was acquired by Solotech last year. For this tour we took bids from four companies knowing that I wanted to have K1s and KARAs. One of the selected providers was, of course, Clair Brothers, because of its history with Bruce, but they were proposing their I5 line and I was really looking for K1 for the main rig.
SLU : What do you like about K1 and KARA?
JC : I think this is the best system available today, the best sounding. This is only my opinion, but what I look for is what sounds best, and I think I have heard almost everything. It is also the most reliable and predictable in its daily use.
From left to right we find the main system consisting of 12 K1s and 6 KARAs which are coupled with 8 K1-SBs and 4 LA-Raks visible at the top of the connection between the K1s and KARAs. Still on the right, there are 12 very arched Kudos, it is one of four lines dedicated to the audience at the rear of the stage and finally the side hang with 12 K1s and 6 KARAs.
SLU : Have you heard the new JBL system?
JC : No, but frankly I have used a lot of JBL products and JBL Vertec in particular, and I am now looking for something else. To be very clear, I have a goal: to deliver Bruce Springsteen’s music to his audience in the most pure and natural possible way without having to compensate for any specific material weakness. I am not asking for anything more, neither for me nor for anyone else, just the best sound for my artist. I have been fortunate in my professional life in that I have always been able to work with and mix the singers and the bands I like. I know many colleagues who certainly work, but without enjoyment and without any desire to listen to their artists’ music through their headphones on a day off. I do. I was happy to learn the craft and learn the ropes over the years, but my real drive is the passion for the artist, and I have more than an artistic technique. I am passionate about the performance on stage, which is the same performance that I must deliver in the best possible way to the public each evening.
Coop likes L-Acoustics…
210 enclosures on the tour, including 60 K1s!
This is the
A view of two delays comprising 8 V-DOSCs to cover the back of the room.
SLU : To return to Solotech, so they had only a few L-Acoustics in their inventory and now …
JC : To service this tour, which hits both stadiums and small venues such as Bercy, they now have about 210 enclosures, 60 K1s, 24 K1-SBs, 48 Kudos, 24, KARAs, 24 SB28s, 32 V-DOSCs and a number of lipfill dV-DOSCs. Tonight we have unloaded only about 140 enclosures (in fact nearly 160!- Editor’s Note). The two main arrays are composed of 12 K1s with 6 KARA downfills, and on the sides they are reinforced by 8 K1-SBs. For sides we have two other arrays with 12 K1s each. To cover the rear seats, we have 4 arrays of 12 KUDOs each. For infrabass, we have two sets of four SB28s stacked with one of the four enclosures turned 180°. Both stacks are hidden beneath the stage as well as a variable number of dVs we use for frontfills. Tonight we also have flown a central cluster of six dVs, to fill between the two main arrays.
SLU : This is perhaps the reason why the L-Acoustics staff is coming to visit you tomorrow, isn’t it?
JC : (laughs) Yes, they expressed some curiosity and want to come and listen to what we do! They are especially interested in the way I use the K1 as lateral reinforcement, whereas in L-Acoustics this is the role of KUDOs. We chose to use the K1 as main and side hangs and to reinforce the rear with a large number of KUDOs – 4 arrays of 12 enclosures. As we cover 360° of every venue on the tour, I chose to do it with with 6 points and, as here in Bercy, a seventh small center fill.
Side by side two softwares created by two sound reinforcement manufacturers. On the left, the new V2 LA Network Manager and, on the right, the old faithful SIM3.
Not too many subs
SLU : The number of subs seems very low compared to the number of full-range units…
JC : In the stadiums we put 12 on each side. Here in Bercy we have eight SB28s under the stage, and that’s enough. If I were mixing a big metal band I would not work in the same way, but for Bruce’s style, all I need is to find the same bass level near the stage and away from it and to have an effective coupling between the arrays. The SB28s only cover the pit, the privileged area facing the stage. Beyond that, the K1s and K1-SBs take over really well. Bruce himself does not like too much bass, and it doesn’t fit his music. He likes his sound to be warm and full, but not with an overloaded low end. We therefore do everything possible to properly match the bass near the subs to the bass from the arrays.
« Bruce does not like too much bass
SLU : The front of house console is close to the stage, it seems.
JC : We are at just 35 meters. It is right here that the coverage of the two K1 arrays of the main system meet.
SLU : A person invited by Coop and impressed by his Olympian calm might wonder how he does it…
JC : If this type of event makes you nervous, then you’ve really chosen the wrong job (laughs – editor’s note). There are hundreds of things that can drive you crazy every day. Here is an example: I remember one evening at a concert at the Giants Stadium (80,000 seats in NY – editor’s note) behind me I had the president of JBL, next to him the president of Harman and Albert Leccese, who’s since deceased, but at the time was the President of Audio Analysts, Ron Borthwick, the chief engineer at Clair Bros, and that was only one side. On the other, there was Bob Clearmountain and Bob Ludwig (I will not insult you by saying who these two are, whose pedigrees are as a starry as a summer night – editor’s note).You guessed it, I was surrounded, no expert ears here, everything was just fine (laughter!). And it’s in this case that you need to distance yourself and – like standing on stage and pretending the audience is naked – you just need to say, “OK, I’m here, nobody knows who I am and I am going to mix in the most beautiful way”. Also you have to keep that distance and keep this in mind whether you are in front of 1,000 or 100,000 people. If you let your mind work too much, you will quickly be overcome with anxiety and you will begin to pile up blunders.
Four of the eight JBL VT4888s used as sidefills to complete the coverage of the stage. On the right side one of the two hangs of 12 K1s and 6 KARAs.
One of two delays composed of 8 V-DOSCs that cover the audience in the back of the room.
SLU : I saw a multitude of semis outside. This is a good way to measure the “size” of a show …
JC : That’s true, but like all great shows, we have a triple-team structure. One sets up, one operates and one disassembles constantly. This means 12 to 14 trucks. We have 24 semis, for sound, lighting and backline. Anyway, a normal stadium tour has, including generators, about 40 semis. We have tandem Caterpillar generator groups with two coupled diesel 3840s. Just one generator is enough to ensure complete security: we’ve never lost power. They are on their way, some by boat and the rest by air.
SLU : Is the tour going well?
JC : Very well. You should always know that, for Bruce, we agree to do something rather special. For example, we unloaded on June 20 at the stadium in Sunderland. The next morning, the day of the show, we were on the job at 6:00 am to get everything rigged . Guess what happened? It poured down non-stop until the end of load-out that night, show included. The next morning, at 6:15 we started on the stage in Manchester… and there we got downpours almost all day long! One day off and we were on the Isle of Wight for the festival, and well rinsed, I might say! You know, there are not many tours of our size that allow such speeds. For us the impossible is the norm, but frankly, we do it with pleasure. When we see Bruce on stage, what he is capable of giving, we no longer feel the fatigue. The least we can do is to keep up his pace!
A very secure show
Two FoH engines for one Venue
Coop
SLU : Who designed and created the sound system as I see it tonight?
JC : I would say that’s me and the Solotech technicians made my wishes possible. We talked a lot with the lighting and video crews so that the three could live together as well as possible. I also have the best audio team I have ever had. Including me, there are eight of us. Each monitor engineer has an assistant and, as for me, I have three system engineers, which is not a luxury because I don’t only mix the show, I also record each date on two Pro Tools, 104 tracks in all. I also have two FoH engines for my Avid control surface, and I think I am one of the few who does that with this brand. They are linked to each other in MIDI and everything I do on the first is immediately mirrored on the second. Of course the 104 audio lines are sent to both in parallel by the RME MADI Bridge. I use an APB-Dynasonics MixSwitch as an output matrix and to cover, in addition to the two mixes, a playback and also Bruce’s voice from one of the SD7 returns, in the very unlikely event that both FoH engines were to give up on me.
A closeup of the rack placed just below the Avid surface with, from the top, one Big Ben Apogee used to transform a black burst into a more digestible clock, an RME Octavio II, used to go supplement the 96 preamps of the Avid stagebox, APB-Dynasonics MixSwitch used to switch automatically between the two FoH engines working in tandem, a Millennia HV-3D, an excellent preamp used as a spare and, finally, four RME MADI Bridges used to distribute mic signals to the two FoH engines.
SLU : Your console looks a little full…
JC : I have only one input left out of 96 so I had to add a rack of 8 RME preamps. It covers only secondary sources of ambient mics. All microphones on the stage come in on Venue preamps . The split on stage to both engines is made via an RME MADI Bridge. Finally we work linked to a time code and to a common clock so we can work confidently with the people from video and take some audio on a Pro Tools. In fact, do not tell anyone that I still have a free input on my desk, otherwise someone will want it!(laughs)
Three “good” reasons to choose a Venue
SLU : Coop, explain to us why you choose a console, I guess you have mixed with just about everything in your career!
JC : First of all, I can have any model I want on this type of tour. The choice of a Venue is due to a number of reasons. First of all, this is the first console that allowed me to use plugins, and that’s very important for me, plugins from several different developers. Even though I use Waves a lot, I am also a fan of retro or even newer plugins . The second reason is the sound quality and the third is reliability. I’ve never had any problems with Venue aside from what I would call minor bugs. Among all digital mixing platforms on the market, I think this is the most stable and that is precisely what I’m looking for for Bruce. I am in touch with the people who are developing the next model, so I encouraged them to double the engine to operate at higher frequencies and have more outputs. I’ve always had a good relationship with them.
SLU : Why did you first choose this brand?
JC : The first time I could get my hands on a Venue was pretty special (laughs). Maybe you’ve never noticed, but we kind of do things at the last minute in our business (oh yes, we have noticed – editor’s note) and I remember we had a last minute rehersal planned and could not get the gear from the shop there in time feeling there was an opening, I quickly contacted some friends in what was then called Digidesign to ask if somewhere on the east coast there was a desk available the following Monday because, of course, it was on a Friday night, which never makes things easier. Stroke of luck, I was informed that Tony Bennett would end his show in Atlantic City the next evening and Monday morning I could have it all. I then pushed my luck a little further and also requested a Pro Tools rig for recording and – it was six years ago – someone to connect everything and explain how it worked. They said “OK, we’ll send you a Pro Tools from New York with a senior technician “.”How much will that cost?” I said. “Unless you wanna keep the drives with which you record, it is free for two weeks,” they said.
One of two Pro Tools for recording shows every night, tucked in its 4U Magma rack case just above one of the FoH uninterruptible power supplies, very handy when the power is playing tricks!Some equipment, like the racks, still carries labels featuring
SLU : It was earned…
JC : Of course, who could resist such a commercial policy? With it, we could stop carrying around the remote recording system that had been with us on previous tours; I also got the Virtual Soundcheck, a very useful function that did not exist at the time. I had to sort out the opinions of people who were constantly telling me that this or that console sounded so much better, had more stuff, had more outputs, thus making me ask myself the right questions as to whether I needed any of it; if I really wanted to complicate my life or if this alleged superiority would be heard in stadiums. Finally, was it worth the trouble? I asked these same questions with all the products I’ve been offered since and the response has been that I do not always feel the urge to get into a new adventure. DiGiCo SD7 is a great desk but, I felt the digidesign platform was the way to go for me. For me, sound quality should balance with reliability and convenience. Being able to pass a show between a Profile and D-Show or an SC48, according to its possibilities, is a plus that I asked Avid to keep on its next line.
SLU : Because of your switch between engines, your console output is analog…
JC : That’s correct, but tranquility has no price. We convert to AES in one of the Dolby Lakes, back there in the area where I no longer venture (laughs)! I used to always run my own system, but for this tour, honestly, I had to quit. It has become too technical for me, especially because I can count on a trio of experts in the field, Etienne Lapré, Klaus Bolender and John Bruey. I much prefer to concentrate on mixing and recording each show, which is already not an easy task.
Atop the drive racks, LTO cartridges waiting to be loaded with the countless tracks and songs recorded each evening.
SLU : I see indeed that recording is becoming increasingly important in live work.
JC : It is essential in Bruce’s case. Just think that every show of the tour is recorded by two machines in parallel. Each individual disc is then archived on an LTO cartridge. The first goes to the Sony underground storage center in Stone Mountain, Georgia where they keep all of the Sony artists’ recordings, the second goes to Bruce Springsteen’s own archive in New Jersey, where he has been keeping his entire career and shows for thirty years. He has a FileMaker Pro database which allows him to find each title easily, as everything that enters the underground storage repository is give a specific barcode. You can imagine the variety of materials and media that he has archived…
A kit of standard microphones
SLU : Is there anything special as far as microphones on this tour?
JC : Nothing special, I am using the market standards, the good old timeless, indestructible SM58 for vocals, SM57 for guitars and some reconditioned Sennheisers, some Heil PR22 and PR28 mics for toms, some Shure KSM137s …
When Coop says he does not splurge with transducers, he does not lie. Here is a view of Max Weinberg
Almost completely reclined to shoot for the stars, and not for the vocal mics, these two Voxs have very separate miking, with a plexiglass panel isolating them.
SLU : There’s nothing strange!
JC : Oh, do not expect to see a surge of Royer ribbon mics or stuff like that with me. This tour is a steamroller bordering on a jackhammer when it comes to the levels on the board. I wish I could place large diaphragm condensers on the guitar amps but the bleed would be so much that it would be suicidal. I have three guitarists on stage playing as hard as they can throughout the show…
On stage, they play very loud…
SLU : Despite the size of the room, is the sound that comes from the stage giving you trouble?
JC : No, not necessarily. I live with it and I cover it, which sometimes makes me run it a bit louder than I like but there is a threshold below which you hear a color and the origin which can be problematic. Also, covering the stage sound reduces phase problems between direct sound and the reinforcement, which is necessarily delayed by the digital chain of the microphones. It is true that if you ‘re in the front row, you can perceive some differences but from the fourth row on, you’re in the coverage of the main system, and everything is in order. That said, I’m sure there are perfectionists – and, luckily, I am not one – obsessed with the phase or the reflection or “how do you accept this little echo from the bay window…” who will always be disappointed. I spent my life learning how to circumvent these problems and now I’ve come to ignore and live with them. It is true that this venue (Bercy – editor’s note) does not seem great but, hey, it is useless to fixate on things that you can not perfect, or you’ll miss out on those that you can. You have to concentrate on the essential, on what really matters to your audience, and that is the music.
Coop: a real passion for music …
SLU : You like music …
JC : Yeah, more than anything. It moves me deep within my being since my childhood. I’ve never played an instrument, but I believe I have a good ear for music. I’ve also always had the chance to work on the music I love and in which I believe. I can even go as mere spectator to attend concerts without being obsessed with the sound.
SLU : You can turn off the “Coop” in you whenever you want?
JC : Absolutely. If you ask me a critical opinion on the sound, I can give it to you, but I’d rather just enjoy the songs. It happens sometimes and during Bruce’s concerts; I become an average spectator for the space of a song. I lift my fingers from the groups on the desk and I listen, I enjoy myself too. I have colleagues who sometimes do too much or not enough, but when your mix is done and everything is moving, what good does it do to tinker with what’s already working, adding that unnecessary ingredient? Let your artist have fun and enjoy his show! For example, at times Bruce voluntarily moves the microphone away from his mouth to give his voice a more ethereal, almost ghostly color. He absolutely does not want me to chase after him with some gain to catch it! I had to learn to recognize and respect his choices. Two years ago during a concert at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, in addition to Bruce on stage, I had John Fogerty, Billy Joel, Sam Moore …
SLU : Did you mix or listen to them? (laughs).
JC : Holy sheet! Can you imagine being the guy who mixes all those legends at the same time? I could not believe it, all those stars that rocked our youth on stage with Bruce introducing them, singing with them, while I’m at the console… I still can’t believe it (Coop is really in seventh heaven – editor’s note). The day I get bored with what I do, I will have to find another job quickly. My job is pure emotion.
The time to do the line check arrives and Coop requests a few minutes to do it. We take the opportunity to photograph as much as possible of what is probably, as of today, the largest L-Acoustics installation ever seen in Bercy. Besides the front with K1s and KARAs and the KUDOs in the rear, John forgot to mention a few delays for the back of the venue, a mere detail, just two hangs of 8 V-DOSCs that, together with the front fill dVs hidden in the structure, brings our count to about 160 enclosures. Now I understand better his very conservative choices of mostly dynamic microphones…
The house lights go out. Yes, but no, it is much more than a house blackout, much more, .The sound system has just shut down and only Coop’s FoH position, saved by its UPS, remains lit like a ship in the middle of the waves of audience that continue to arrive. I watch John’s eyes, he seems fatalistic and relaxed while behind the scenes they are getting ready to give, once again, some juice to the room. As he announced in welcoming us, the power in the building keeps acting up this 4th of July, but he is confident in his team to find a solution before the show. In three minutes flat, Bercy lights back up and we find the courage to grill John for a few more minutes…
And legendary artists
SLU : Tell us how you met Bruce and how you got to be his FoH engineer for so many years …
JC : During a break as FoH engineer for Contry artist Wynonna, they sent me as the system for Natalie Merchant, whose manager was Jon Landau, the same as Bruce. As it happens sometimes, Natalie’s engineer ended up leaving the tour, and Travis George, the tour manager, asked me to take over and mix for Natalie. As Jon liked my work, he asked me to take over the FoH for Shania Twain, another artist of his, which I declined as I was already booked. The same fate happened to me shortly after when I was offered to mix around 132 dates of Bruce’s Reunion Tour between April 1999 and July 1st, 2000. For family reasons I had to turn it down. In late 2001 I picked up the phone and I called George Travis who is also Bruce’s tour manager. “George, I don’t know what your plans are with Bruce, but I’d love to mix the Christmas shows that are coming.” 11 years and 500 concerts later, I’m still here, I have not missed one of his shows and frankly I would like to keep on working for him until the end of his career.
SLU : And apart from Bruce, who do you work for?
JC : For Lionel Richie – quite a guy – Sheryl Crow, a very lovely singer and, when I am available, for Ringo Starr. What can I say, he’s a legend himself. Of course there’s a lot of us who work for these three artists, depending on our work schedules. I, of course, consider myself privileged because Bruce and three more great artists personally ask for me, which is extremely flattering. This does not prevent me from working with many other companies and artists and, who knows, maybe I’ll work again for Solotech.
SLU : Going back to Ringo, so you have had the chance to mix a bit of the Beatles…
JC : Actually two (laughs): for Ringo’s 70th birthday, I had also Paul McCartney on stage! I don’t want to brag, but I have had the amazing chance to work this job at this level.
SLU : When did you begin, exactly?
JC : In 1975. I finished my studies in 1976 and started to live off of it in 1977.
SLU : One last question: What did you think when you discovered your first line array?
JC : It was in the mid-90s, a V-DOSC, and I owe it to Brad Snow and his company, Snow Sound, in the north-eastern United States. I was floored. For the first time in my life I heard good sound everywhere in the room. Yet I have worked for many years with excellent designers with traditional speaker systems with optimized couplings, but what Christian Heil makes is by far the best in terms of waveguide and God knows it has since been imitated, but without, in my opinion, anyone succeeding at it! Meyer makes very good products and also d&b, but L-Acoustics is the champion and… (walkie-talkie sounds – Editor’s Note)…and now I gotta work (laughs).
The Concert
Thousands of people waver, others perhaps a little less, with fingers crossed in the back. For the record, no interruption disturbed this magnificent show – 3h35′ of one standard after another like a parade and punctuated with an “encore” of more than 45 minutes. I didn’t doubt for a moment: Solotech has hit hard in its first collaboration with the Boss. Maybe it’s the Canadians who have a good ear or the company who knows how to select the best system engineers, but that huge amount of material nevertheless delivered a consistent and flawless coverage. One can only congratulate the Boss’ team, who have managed to successfully combine almost the entire L-Acoustics range. Something that, instead, did not happen on a previous Celine Dion tour at Bercy with Solotech, using Mica and Milo. Maybe because of the size of the room, which is small if compared to the usual stadiums, or maybe because of the levels on stage, the overall level was too high with 103.7 dBA Leq measured over 90 minutes of the first part and 104.3 for the whole of the encore. For the record, the next day the concert averaged 3 dB less. The power delivered by the K1 arrays with exhilarating ease seems to never end and its treble literally gushes out of the enclosures with precision and clarity. It should be handled with care. Coop creates a good mix with a voice that fits precisely in a perfect symphony from start to finish. Maybe it’s a little too compressed or over-produced, taking away part of the rock’n’roll, beat-driven brute force of the E-Street Band. This is especially true, I think, on Max Weinberg’s snare, which was a little too inside of the bass and the kick drum and that, for my taste, could have been a bit drier and more dynamic to take better advantage of low end of the K1 and K1-SBs on the sides.
The house lights finally come back up. Numbed by the rare intensity of a damn good show, the audience leaves with a big smile. The same smile is on Coop’s face as he turns to us, his eyes rimmed, and says : “The three hours we have just experienced are on me, I prefer to be paid for the remaining 21!”
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