Sticking your head in a 747 jet engine... a ‘differ-ence of opinion’ with your mother-in-law... thathotted up Subaru that bounces down Lygon St.on a Saturday night... Krakatoa blowing its top –all have one thing in common... none are

anywhere near as loud as being on stage at an AC/DCsound check.

I kid you not… and believe me I have heard ‘loud’before. I was beginning to think that some of the backlineguys wandering around stage with ear plugs were usingthem to stop their brains oozing out their ears. I mean, thiswas loud. Loud to the point that when the drum tech gavethe snare a tap, the level coming out of the monitors wasenough to make your whole body go into an involuntaryspasm. Loud to the point that you could count your organsas they individually lurched about in your carcass – I feltlike Wile E. Coyote after swallowing a lit stick of TNT.

When you take a look at the tour’s specs you begin tounderstand the extent of the power we’re dealing with.The stage groans under the weight of 16 Marshall stacksfor the guitars. Some 14 Firehouse wedges line the frontof the stage. There’s enough sidefill EV X-Array boxes toservice most concerts in themselves, while the drum fillincorporates at least 10 further X-Array cabs. Meanwhile,for those in the audience not getting their hair blow-driedby the on-stage sound, Melbourne-based Powa Audiosupplied 80 X-Array cabs flown left and right, along witha healthy complement of X-Array subs and EV amps.This is not a show for those ‘with child’... or ‘with pace-makers’ for that matter.

But AC/DC know what they’re doing. They’re unar-guably one of the true touring heavyweights, and have

been for many years. They fill arenas the world over, andpeople love the volume, they love the raw energy.

Meanwhile, it’s a testimony to the AC/DC soundengineers that they can subject such extreme SPLs on theaudience without them going away with their ears bleeding.FOH Engineer, Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd, finds himself on hissecond AC/DC tour and in the meantime has moments toman the board for Paul McCartney, Eurythmics, amongmany others. Monitor engineer, John Roden, also touredwith McCartney and the Eurythmics, but perhaps it was hisstint with Judas Priest in the ‘80s which would prepare himsomewhat for the 130dB on-stage onslaught of this tour –he actually came on board from the Australian leg onwards.Meanwhile, I also spoke to System Engineer, Dave Dixon,who has been using the new XTA Audiocore system con-troller with EV’s X-Array rig to great effect.

Front Of House – Pab BoothroydChristopher Holder: It’s a loud show, wouldn’t yousay Pab?Pab: It is a loud show, but then I think everyone appreci-ates why it’s a loud show – it’s part of AC/DC’s sound. Theonly thing I can try and do is convey that energy – thatAC/DC loudness which gives the show that electric atmos-phere. It’s loud, but it has separation, so you can hear allthe individual instruments sitting as cleanly and as naturallyas possible. In short, it’s a big, clean, meaty sound.CH: How do you stop ‘very loud’ being ‘very painful’?Pab: With very careful EQing. I try and get a roundsound by cutting the frequencies that hurt. But in the enda lot of what I can achieve is down to the sort of input Ihave from stage. It can almost seem louder than it is

For the best part of 30 yearsAC/DC have been fillingarenas worldwide with theirspecial brand of brain-splintering sound. ChristopherHolder collects his ear plugsat the door.

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AC/DCAC/DCLive

because of the style of what the band’s playing and per-forming. After all, there’s no distortion pedals, or effectson stage, a lot of the sound is down to the volumecoming out the Marshall stacks.CH: The nature of the sound might be the raw energyof the guitar cabs, but is a lot of what the audienceactually hears the backline? I mean, Angus andMalcolm (on guitars) have something like eightMarshall cabs each, I can imagine with those turnedup to ‘11’ it’s hard to compete sometimes?Pab: Yes. A lot of what many people hear is backline, andin many ways I’m simply here to augment the stage orbackline sound. But hopefully in a positive type way.Obviously in the bigger gigs I’ve got more control, if I cantune the PA so it’s a little bit sweeter rather than beingmore raw.CH: With the sort of volumes you’re seeing on stage, itmust be quite a job getting Brian Johnson’s vocal justright?Pab: Brian has a very interesting characteristic to hisvocal, and singing style. It can be powerful but it can alsobe every weak. The harder he tries the less he gives. Ashe tries to give you more and shouts, he’s tightening histhroat, which means that you’re trying to push, push, pushto compensate. Then suddenly he’s in between a songspeaking normally and you’ve got gain for days – you’vegot to pull the fader down! So compression/limitingcomes into effect there.CH: What’s the compressor you’re using on Brian’svocal?Pab: The Summit TLA100, which is a great devicefor vocals.CH: And what sort of work is the compressordoing?Pab: Well, the system is running at a pretty optimallevel and I don’t want any peaks hitting limiters on thesystem. But, I’m careful with compression, in the sensethat I don’t really want to lose the dynamics. With aband like this, where there’s a lot of stage level andspill, you’ve really got to be careful about playing withyour floor or ceiling level. So, whether it’s Brian’s vocalor when Malcolm and Cliff step up to do their backingvocals I’m being very careful with compression. Thecompressor is just catching peaks – it grabs it, dealswith it and then it’s gone again – working fast andminimal. For backing vocals I use the dbx’s Blue Seriescompressor – I’ve been a big fan of those since theywere launched. There’s a VCA-controlled amp in there,

it’s clean, it does what you want... beautiful.CH: Regardless of the compression, are you ridingBrian’s fader much?Pab: I ride the vocal fader all night, you have to. AndI’m hitting the mute switch as soon as he stopssinging. Because, as soon as he takes that mic awayfrom his mouth, it opens up a massive overhead inthe middle of the stage, which is hitting anythingbetween 120dB and 130dB. For example, even whenhe’s singing and wandering across stage past Angus’sand Malcolm’s stacks you hear the whole flavour ofthe sound change.

CH: So it’s hard enough to stay on top of his vocal onstage, but he actually comes out into the crowd on acatwalk as well. How do you deal with that problem?Pab: Yeah, that’s a nice thing they threw at me! “OkayPab, this is what you’ve got to deal with: Brian’s going towalk out into the audience maybe 25 or 30 feet – almostout to the mix position. And he’s going to sing... veryquietly, with 120dB of band coming out the PA.” Try andlift the vocal out of that situation. That’s interesting!CH: So how do you do it?Pab: I’m careful with the positioning of the PA and how ithits that catwalk. We use hi-Q boxes, and keep things rightwhere they need to be. I’m also careful with my EQing andgain control. When he comes out into the crowd I just grabthe EQ on the channel strip and dosh out a bit of 1.5kthat’s hot – so the quality suffers a little but you maintaincontrol. Some nights it’s great – I can hear his voice clearas anything, without ringing. Other times, I’ll grab thatfader, pull it down, and admit defeat: ‘I surrender’, whiteflag comes up, ‘I can’t beat it tonight guys’. I mean I couldget fancier and fancier with this band and have presetchannels and feedback eliminators, but you haven’t gottime to deal with it on a show like this. Brian is up anddown the stage and on the catwalk swinging on bells... so isAngus. It’s a high gain show, it’s full on, it’s Revlon, it’s F1,you know!?! It’s great... we love it.CH: What about the PA? Are you happy with EV’s X-Array system?Pab: Via the production company, DB Sound in Chicago,

FOH Engineer, ‘Pab’ Boothroyd at the mix position.

there’s always been a good relationship with EV and theband. On the Ballbreaker Tour we went out with an EVMT system, and this time around we’ve got the X-Array. Ihave to say, I’ve really noticed the difference. The MTsystem is not a bad system for a band like AC/DC,

because it’s very powerful, and, I’ll say‘raw’ in the nicest possible way. But with X-Array, and with the XTA Audiocoresoftware running the whole control side ofthe PA, it’s amazing. It’s been an eye-opener for me. I’ve dealt with the XTA 226processor since the beginning, and loved itfrom the first time I was shown aprototype. With Audiocore, the PA is zonecontrolled, so, rather than the old methodwhere you go up into the balcony: “bitbright up here, hey Harry! knock back thehorns in block five”, and you turn the ampdown a few clicks. Fine, nothing wrongwith that, but the Audiocore gives you farmore accurate control. Dave Dixon, oursystem engineer, knows what I want, and Iknow what his vibe is. Obviously you haveto have that sort of trust there. He mightsay, “listen, I know 250Hz might behowling away at FOH but it ain’t out therein the room, so deal with it.” So I deal with

it. Which is a bit like last night’s show. We tried a fewthings. We moved the mixing position and beam steeredthe PA to suit the fact the mix position was off centre.Which you can do with this X-Array system. You can doall sorts of thing by playing with the multi-delay timeswithin the whole array.CH: So once it’s flown you can do a lot more work withthe system, rather than re-rig it?Pab: Totally. Dave has a remote which speaks to theAudiocore master computer, which is in turn linked to allthe 226 processors in every amp rack. He can walk thebuilding, recall a block and change EQ, delay that block,just delay horns or the mids or the bass in that block. Hecan do whatever he wants.

That total control is great for an act like this. You gointo a ‘barn’ with a glass wall down one side, and to beable to keep things away from that glass wall can only bea plus. Whereas, with an old system, you’d go in there,and sure, you can turn down some amps, but basically it’sa big PA in a big barn rattling around. We’ve hadcomments on how clean and separated the sound is.Almost to the point where I get paranoid and think,‘maybe it’s time to mess it up a little bit and keep it a bitmore AC/DC’!CH: Let’s cut to the chase Pab: is AC/DC the ‘loudestband in the world’?Pab: I don’t think that’s for me to say.CH: Really? I thought you’d be just the man to say!Pab: Believe me, I don’t make a habit of going to showsand judging who’s the loudest band. I try and stay awayfrom that sort of stuff.CH: Okay, but surely there’s an unofficial rating amongtouring bands about who’s louder than who?

Pab: Of course there is. You see the T-shirts don’t you?“Prodigy, (or whoever it is), six billion decibels at thedesk... on the moon”! F##k off... who cares? What I’d liketo say is AC/DC is the ‘best sounding loud live band’around. They’re at the top of the tree, and I’d like to thinkI do them justice carrying that across.CH: So they don’t necessarily set out to rattle brains?Pab: No. It’s the natural dynamics of the music, it’s theway they write – it all stems from the stage, the source. I’mjust another pawn in the game you know. I couldn’t changethe sound that much really if I wanted to. Even if I turnedthe PA off you’d still hear it! I’m not joking. Today at theline check Angus’s guitar tech did a quick thrash at showvolume. It was 121dB at the desk. Last night I was trying tokeep the whole show at 117dB! I have limited control. Myaim is to round the sound out, clarify it, and givingeveryone in the auditorium a good show.CH: Does the band wear ear protection?Pab: No, they just go for it, they have for years, and theyall seem to have perfect hearing.CH: What about yourself ? Are you afraid of getting acase of the ol’ Pete Townshend when you’re doing thisnight after night?Pab: I’d be amazed if I survive another world tour withthem! I had my hearing checked after the BallbreakerTour and all was well. I lost a little bit of 4k but thathappens as you get older anyway. Nothing out of theordinary.CH: There again, if there was a hearing problemyou’re hardly in a position to admit it!Pab: That’s right, I suppose. No engineer is going toadmit it are they? What are they going to do, slit thethroat of their own livelihood? But I was so concernedafter the last tour that I went to a very qualified audiolo-gist, and had several tests done. I had the printed reports,and I would be very happy to take them along to aninterview if the question had come up: “You were onAC/DC pal, sure your ears are okay?”.CH: Does that sort of question ever come up?Pab: No. But it doesn’t stop the paranoia setting in. I dohave ear plugs and I freely admit to using them. I have9dB pads and 15dB pads. I’ll whack in the 9dBs if myears are a bit tired, like in Europe when we did a lot ofshows consecutively. Your ears get tired and sore by overuse, or you may even have just rubbed your ears, orequalised the pressure in your ears by blowing thepressure out your nose – your ears inevitably get abused.But you should look after them. For example, shovingyour finger in your ear and having a good ol’ scratchdoesn’t really do your ear drum much good. I try not toput anything into my ears, and that includes a cotton bud– fine for wiping the outside, but stick nothing in yourear. I even get wary about screwing in custom-mouldedear plugs.

Also, don’t feel bad if you think your ears need abreak. I know that sometimes during the show I’ll putheadphones on and not actually listen to anything, butjust put them on for a minute. I’ll let a loud song go by,get my breathing back together... take some more drugs...drink some more whisky!

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Some of the FOH goodies, includingSummit, Avalon and dbx compression.

Monitors – John RodenCH: John, I was on stage earlier for sound check, andonly now are my internal organs returning to wherethey’re meant to be. Does the high stage levels causeyou problems?John Roden: The volume is the fun and the challenge ofthis job. The monitoring requirements are, in themselves,pretty simple. So getting the high levels is really thechallenge: if I can squeeze a quarter of a dB from here, aquarter here, then an eighth of a dB here or there, it alladds up and makes a big difference. But being so loud

I’ve noticedthat if Ichangesomething onthe kick drum,say, itmarkedlychanges every-thing else. I’vealways knownthat if youchangesomething it’sgoing to makea difference tothe big picture,but at this kind

of SPL, you notice a big change. I might only breathe ona fader and suddenly I’ll get a huge thumbs up from theband. That’s the most interesting thing I’ve discovered.Also, when it goes pear-shaped at this kind of level it goeshorribly pear-shaped. Not just slightly off, horribly off.CH: You mentioned that the setup is actually quitesimple. What are you dealing with exactly?JR: What I’m doing is basically the kick, snare, hi-hat andvocals – that’s it. So I’ve got eight critical channels:backing vocals, Brian’s vocal, two kick, two snares and ahat. Although, on top of that I do have a wedge eitherside of the drum kit, one with Angus’s guitar in there andone with Malcolm’s guitar – which gives the drummer adirect feed of that signal. But as you can imagine, I don’thave to deal with guitars and bass, because that’s already

there on stage in abundance. But it’s worth noting thatalthough it looks like Angus and Malcolm are standing infront of a bunch of their own Marshalls, there’s a coupleof Malcolm’s cabs in Angus’s stacks and vice versa.CH: I counted 14 wedges on stage. But with Brianwandering around so much is there any element ofneeding to follow him with his own vocal in the wedges?JR: I don’t have to follow him, because he wears one earpiece, which is blisteringly loud. In fact, it’s so blisteringlyloud I managed to get it to feed back when I was out with amic doing a soundcheck today. Admittedly, one side was ofthe in-ears was dangling around, but it was feeding back! Heuses the in-ears monitor as his main pitching source.Although, I’ve managed to get the vocal to a point where itis audible on stage, but that wasn’t easy. I’ve got a SabinePowerQ which I insert on his vocal, and it helps by notchingout troublesome frequencies. The Sabine is great because atthese sorts of levels because you need to be so very carefulwith all your EQ – input EQ and outboard EQ – the moreyou cut, the less power you have available to you.CH: What’s your typical regime when pulling togetherthe stage sound?JR: My starting point is always getting my vocal mic,cueing up into my wedge and making it sound good on mystrip. I’ll go up to the stage, bring up the level till it feedsback, get rid of that frequency, bring it up a bit more, andget rid of that other frequency. I only do it twice. Then Ibring the Sabine PowerQ into play. That unit has a ‘searchand destroy’ setting which they call Turbo mode. So I put itout on the stage, tell everybody to ‘get out of the way, thisis not going to be very pleasant for a minute’, shove thefader to the top, and let it do its thing. The filter is so finethat tonally you don’t notice the difference. But because ofthe Sabine I can get more off the fader – I can push thefader up to +5dB and it’s still very stable. CH: You’re using EV’s X-Array for side-fills, but whatare the wedges you have out there?JR: They’re Firehouse wedges, and they’re the best I’veever heard – and I’ve heard some good ones in my time.Firehouse is a small company based in New Jersey. BrianOlson is the guy, he’s always specialised in monitorsystems. I think he first developed these particular wedgesfor the Rolling Stones, then they went into commercial

CH: Pab, there’s a lot pub and club acts, andtheir sound engineers, who want to achieve apowerful AC/DC sound, but without the milliondollar price tag. Is that achievable?

Pab: At the end of the day you’re only as goodas your source. Whatever is going on in front ofthe mic... you’re only as good as that. And thebetter the source, the more controlled and themore tuneful the results – it’ll just make your lifeeasy. I always say, it’s pointless getting alemon, putting sugar on it, eating it, andsaying, ‘it’s sort of sweet now’. It’s still sour. It’sdown to the source. The trick is to get the thingsweet in the first place. And the sweeter it is,the sweeter it’ll be for you right the way downthe chain, all the way to the PA. And you mightsay, ‘that’s all very well, you can work with

AC/DC pal’, but I started at the bottom as well.

CH: Is it a matter of the sound guy needing tointervene more, saying to the band, ‘if youwant a good sound this is what you need todo’, rather than sprinkling sugar on thatlemon?

Pab: You need to do what’s best for the sound,and the band aren’t always the best judges ofthat. Personally, I had a very good mentor. Hewas a guy called Peter Grainger, a soundengineer who became very famous with DireStraits and unfortunately was killed in anaccident. He was a very good friend of mineand taught me a lot of tricks. Even today I canhear him saying, ‘go back to beginning – forgetall the stuff you’re doing down the chain – goback to the source and sort it out’. Because if

a tom-tom on stage is going ‘ker-kwang, ker-kwang’, no matter what you try and do downthe chain it’s still fundamentally going ‘ker-kwang’. But if it’s going ‘doof doof’ – nice andthick and solid – then you just push the faderup and it’ll come out that way. Take time tomake sure that your mic positioning and thesound of the source is right, because every-thing after that will be a lot healthier.

CH: And what about the guys who have toendure the ‘five minute setup’ routine? Anytips?

Pab: Just make sure you’ve got a good strongvocal and build around that.

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Pab on beefing up a pub gig

“See what I have to put up with!”: Monitor Engineer, John Roden.

productionafter that.Firehouse useTAD driversand arepowered offthe Microtech3612.CH: Is it agood show tobe on then?JR: I think it’sa great show.Monitors isalways a

white knuckle ride at the best of times, because you’renever sure of what’s around the corner. I enjoy thataspect... but this is really white knuckle. At the SPLs wehave on stage you’re really only one slip-up away from aspectacular meltdown. In fact, the whole show is on theedge. The pyro stuff, the lighting, it’s all ‘balls to the wall’– it’s a good show to be involved in.CH: Have you taken any measurements as to how loudit actually is on stage?JR: Angus’s guitar alone at Cliff ’s backing vocal mic is120dB. So my guess is the stage is running full throttle atbetween 125dB and 130dB. I’ve been out there whenthey’ve been playing, but never with a vengeance. I knowwhen they’re playing with adrenalin it goes up a gear. Nota place for the weak hearted!

System Engineer – Dave DixonCH: What you have here in Australia is pretty much thesame setup as you’ve had in The States and Europe?Dave Dixon: Yes. The FOH system we have in Australiais from Powa Audio, and it duplicates exactly what we’vebeen touring worldwide.CH: So how are the main left/right clusters configured?DD: They’re flown four deep and six wide. What you’reseeing is columns of XF cabs, then XB cabs. Then thebottom row are the half boxes – the XCN then XB cabs –following the low/high box columns. CH: So rather than them being full range cabs, you’ve

got the lows in columns, and coupling for more controlI suppose?DD: That’s right. Having a column of low end cabsincreases your mouth area, which produces a better, moreefficient bottom end.CH: Tell me about the XTA control system.DD: Each amp rack powers four lows and four highboxes. And each amp rack has got an XTA unit in there tocontrol four cabs. So what that allows you to do is zone awhole room – you can totally zone control it. Blocks oftwo high packs and two low packs are hitting a certainarea in the room. I can tinker about with that block asrequired – as opposed to having one control for the wholeof one side of the PA. Out here at FOH we have the XTAcomputer, but we also have the portable computer with aradio link to this PC. So I can go anywhere in the building,listen to the PA and control it from that seat rather thancoming back to FOH. CH: Which gives you considerable control and flexibility.DD: That’s it. The XTA software enables you to do every-thing from time aligning it, EQing it, anything you need todo in a live situation. XTA are the first company that I’vecome across that is doing it this way, and it’s an excep-tional tool. Certainly makes my life a lot easier.CH: Are you able to do most of your system checksbefore the show, or do you find yourselves in the crowdwith your remote fine-tuning the system?DD: Actually, we don’t seriously EQ the system before thefirst song. And this is where the extreme volumes comeinto play. Because, in sound check, the backline guys –even though they’re great techs and performers – can’tplay with the energy and volume that AC/DC play at.Once the band hit the stage, it changes everything. So, wedo a very basic EQ before the show and then duck whenthey start up! That’s when I really get to work.CH: And once you’re satisfied with the sound in theroom, do you adjust the overall level as the show pro-gresses etc?DD: You can’t change things too much because anythingyou might do has knock-on effects. Everything at thisvolume is on the edge and you have to be careful. Not onthe edge of feedback exactly, but just on the edge of... theedge! I mean, if John on monitors changes things wereally hear it, and vice versa. Not to say we don’t makeadjustments, but we have to be careful.CH: And I suppose at these sorts of levels there aregoing to be certain anomalies which you’re not going tohear at FOH?DD: Well, with this EV system and the Audiocore we’regetting good, smooth coverage, but sometimes Pab won’tbe able to hear certain things because he’s standing infront of an enormous volume coming from stage. Forexample, he can tend to not have enough guitar in thesystem because he’s faced with a wall of 16 Marshalls. Ican go up to the side of a building and not hear enoughguitar, tell Pab that, and he’ll push up that instrument.We’ve got a good working relationship and that’s all partand parcel of being a good system engineer.

AT

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Although AC/DC tour with their own gear (consoles, outboard, etc) supplied byDB Sound out of Chicago, the EV X-Array system is hired in region to region.Powa Audio did the supplying of the cabs and amps while AC/DC were inAustralia. But when it comes to AC/DC, John Bosua, co-owner of Powa Audio,goes back even further.

John: “I actually did FOH for AC/DC in the ‘70s. It was at the time when they werestarting to become pretty famous, and I was on the road with them for about threeyears.

“In those days we had the big old W bins – they must have been about seven footwide... massive. We had the 4560s, JBL horns, that sort of stuff.

Even in those days it was a loud show. With two of those big W bins a side, 10 ofthe 4560s a side, and two 90 degree and a 60 degree horn a side we had quitea bit of horsepower.

Foldback had barely been invented in those days. I did one vocal send from FOHand that was monitors.

But it was good times, and they’re fun guys to be around.”

Powa Audio – Reminiscing…

System Engineer, Dave Dixon, and his XTA Audiocore software.