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Foo Fighters Go Acoustic with Sennheiser

The Foo Fighters are touring their acoustic show this summer, visiting select locations in Europe and the United States. Having made the switch to Sennheiser for the band's rock shows early last year, monitor engineer Ian Beveridge and front-of-house engineer Bryan Worthen once again chose Sennheiser and Neumann mics for the band's highly anticipated acoustic show.

A combination of Sennheiser evolution series and Neumann wired microphones were selected for the instruments that the band is taking out on the acoustic tour. Unusually, Beveridge favors a Sennheiser MD 431 II – both regular black and custom chrome finished by Sennheiser - for Grohl's vocals and elected to mic both electric guitars using Neumann KMS 105s. Other mics on stage include e914 condensers for the glockenspiel/vibes and bellows, an e908B on the bongos, an e906 on the Leslie cabinet, an e945 on accordion, and an e945 on drummer Taylor Hawkins' backing vocals, with an MD 421 for the gong drum.

The decision to switch to Sennheiser last year was made by the monitor engineer, who has worked with drummer-turned-frontman Dave Grohl since he was 19 or 20, says Beveridge. "The MD 431 II was the mic that really got me going. An old friend of mine, John Shearman, who used to mix George Michael, recommended it to me. I tried it briefly about ten years ago then I filed it away in the back of my mind for future reference."

He continues: "I love that microphone to death. That microphone is so unbelievably flat in the high-end, and incredibly stable with moisture and temperature. On the rock show, we used to have terrible instability problems with other microphones, and I was going through maybe four, five or six microphones a show with Dave, swapping them out. Now, I keep the 431 for the whole show. Since we changed I can't remember having any feedback at a Foo Fighters show!"

Beveridge and Worthen are using Neumann KMS 105 mics on guitars rather than vocals, as might be expected. "It is a great sounding microphone, but there's absolutely no point in using it for vocals in our circumstances. Even on the acoustic tour it's loud up there. It makes a fantastic guitar mic and it's nice and flat. We use it on the two little combos that the guys play big semi-acoustics through," reports Beveridge.

As for the accordion, he says, "We needed something super-directional, so that's an e945. It's a case of gain before feedback, and trying not to pick up the rest of the band. We also have a 945 for Taylor's drum vocal. Those work well there."

Not surprisingly, Beveridge comments that he is not one to use a particular mic for a particular purpose just because everyone else does. "It's all about finding the right mic for the right use, or the right use for the right mic." As an example, he explains, "On the rock shows we do something very unusual, which is put e901s inside the tom toms, so they're all internally miked with kick drum mics. Bryan and I both thought we'd do something different and see how it goes."

He elaborates: "You just EQ out the tone that you don't like, and once you do that you end up with a huge, massive tom sound with zero cymbal spill. When you internally mic with the 901 you get almost too much impact. You get a lot of crack and snap. So you end up taking a lot of high-end out, which also minimizes cymbal spill. You end up with this big, giant tom tom sound. It works for us."

Beveridge reveals that any of the four band members may or may not be using wireless personal monitors on any given tour. "I've been using digital mixing boards for five or six years, so I keep several ear mixes on the console. If anybody wants an in-ear mix I plug it into a Sennheiser Evolution Wireless G2 rack and give them a pack. It's all there on the board, ready at a moment's notice. I love the G2s. They sound great."

The acoustic show has been selling out at pretty much every location it visits. "It's an amazing show," enthuses Beveridge. "We always knew it was going to be good, but none of us knew exactly how good it was going to be. The first time they did it, it felt similar to being back in the Nirvana unplugged days. You definitely felt like you were watching something important."

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Foo Fighters Go Acoustic with Sennheiser

8th August 2006

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