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Skan prove integral to Muse’s “Will Of The People” world tour

Touring in support of their ninth studio album, English rock band Muse are back on the road with long time audio vendor Skan PA Hire. The band have entrusted their nuanced repertoire to FOH Engineer Marc Carolan since 2001. “I’ve only missed one show since”, confirms Carolan. “It’s been incredibly satisfying working with them, and to hear their evolution.”

Carolan, who is supported by FOH Tech Eddie O’Brien, has used Skan PA Hire for global touring duties since 2003. He mixes on an Avid S6L, using an analogue outboard and select pieces that have worked in his favour over the last twenty years. “Usually, it’s things for which there is no comparable digital equivalent”, he explains. “For instance, the Neve 5059 summing amp, and plug-ins-wise, the McDSP and the new Soothe Live. I have also added a Live Professor platform, which gives me access to things like Softube and FabFilter.”

Carolan’s work is heard through main hangs of D&B Audiotechnik GSL. “Skan’s Matt Vickers is the architect behind the system design, and his pre-production makes the day-to-day work much easier for us”, says Systems Engineer Matt Besford-Foster. “He’s very good at thinking about things in a resource based mindset and in understanding the desired creative output.”

The full system comprises GSL mains, GSL sides, with KSL 180s, SL Subs on the ground and Y10Ps for Front Fill. It’s deployed in a LR-LR-LR configuration, maintained within the Front Fills. “We run the fills in the opposite way you might expect, utilising the narrow dispersion in the horizontal plane, as this enables a great stereo image across the barrier line”, notes Besford-Foster. “It feels as though you’ve got Matt Bellamy’s guitar amp right there in front of you, with the rest of the band surrounding it.” The system is driven by Lake LM44s. “Though Lake is mainly used as a matrix for the various system inputs, we output them into the four elements - L/R, Sub and Fill - and convert to Dante to run to the amplifiers”, says Besford-Foster.

“Muse are exceptional musicians, but they’re also very technical when it comes to audio. They know what they want to hear, yet have trusted me to get the right results”, adds Matt Napier, Muse’s new Monitor Engineer. “I was given free rein in how to approach it, and being both new to the camp and at the beginning of a new album campaign, I decided to start everything from scratch. I did a lot of research before the first rehearsals and built my session file in a lot of detail in order to cope with any requests. Marc was invaluable at the start as I bombarded him with questions.”

For IEMs, the band uses generic Westone’s UM Pro 30s. “The only speakers are a couple of subs located by the drum riser to add a bit of weight to the stage”, says Napier, who operates from a DiGiCo Quantum 7. “Compared to some previous tours I’ve done, it’s relatively straightforward; for just four musicians on stage, it’s impressive how big a sound they create.”

Napier also has two Universal Audio UAD Apollos running Avalon 737 plug-ins that create the “saturated” vocal sound which goes to FOH. “We have the Main Stage on a Mac Mini attached to the Apollos running Isotope Vocal Synth for the Vocoder vocal FX, and we run some analogue Sans Amps for that heavy, vocal distorted sound”, he says. He also uses dual redundant Waves servers.

Napier also looks after the tour’s RF coordination. “I wanted to switch the band over to Wisycom IEMs. The RF mics and guitars are Shure AD, and I have a TTi handheld that allows me to scan in the morning. Coordination is through Professional Wireless IAS software”, he concludes.

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