I first met expatriate Australian concert sound engineer, Jon Lemon, in London a number of years ago. He was mixing one of my favourite bands, The The, at the Brixton Academy. They were fantastic that night and had such an awesome sound that I decided to take some friends and see them again the next night at the Kilburn National... and it was even better! A while later I was at the Glastonbury Festival in England mixing monitors for Jesus Jones. I saw Jon backstage and learnt that he was there to mix Sinead O’Connor, who was currently at the top of her popularity with Nothing Compares To You. After the Jones boys did their spot I popped out front with the masses to check out a few of the other acts. It was the first big show I’d heard using production company, Britannia Row’s, new Turbosound Flashlight system powered by BSS amps. Everybody’s sound was okay, but I noticed a bit of a hole in the coverage at the mix position which would have made it a little difficult for the person in control of the mix. Sinead came on and, wow, what a difference! I was totally blown away with the clarity of the sound and the balance of the CD-quality mix, featuring one of the best vocal sounds I’d ever heard, then or since! Jon started his professional life early, when as a 13 year old kid he worked weekends at Trevor Marshall’s, TrevMar Audio in Adelaide. Still as a teenager he traveled up and down the east coast doing sound for small bands and working pubs. A band called Rum Jungle (with James Blank and JJ Hackett) led him to work with Sports, and big name Aussie acts like Billy Thorpe, MiSex and Australian Crawl. A five year tenure at Jands followed before the offer of a stint overseas with John Williams’ Sky came through in 1984. Jon stayed in London cultivating the good contacts he had. In 1987 he struck up a working relationship with Level 42, who quickly became massive in Europe, block booking Wembley Arena and the like. After fitting out and running Mark King’s (Level 42’s front man) SSL-equipped studio he began working with names like The The, The Cure, Sinead O’Connor, Depeche Mode, and The Verve. More recently Jon returned to these shores to mix Nine Inch Nails on the Big Day Out Tour. Naturally I jumped at the chance to catch up and have a chat with one of the world’s best concert sound mixers. Trevor Cronin: How did the Nine Inch Nails gig come about? Jon Lemon: A representative from Nine Inch Nails rang up and said they wanted me to do this tour and I said I’d love to, but I can’t as I have another commitment with the Pet Shop Boys. It wasn’t long before the manager rang saying, “we want you!”. Apparently Trent [Reznor, Nine Inch Nail’s songwriter and front man] had seen four shows on The Cure’s Wish tour, and dug the sound, he also had seen some Depeche Mode shows in 93/94 and loved the sound on that as well. It was a case of Trent loving all the bands I’d done. Now, I have never left a band in my life, but in the end they made me an offer that I just couldn’t refuse. And, musically, it’s pretty hard to turn down a guy who, for my money, is in the same league as Prince or Robert Smith. The new Nine Inch Nails album is just unbelievable – the sonic quality, the depth and the lyrics are all amazing. That was why I ended up saying yes. TC: What sort of pre production work do you do on a new job like Nine Inch Nails? JL: An enormous amount. Trent is a hard working guy, and takes his audio seriously, you only have to take a look at his studio to tell. His studio in New Orleans has a 72-frame SSL, 196 channels of ProTools, and any 40 Nine Inch Nails FOH engineer, Jon Lemon, is another Aussie expatriate kicking butt worldwide. Trevor Cronin hears how the Lemon approach bears fruit.
Transcript
Ifirst met expatriate Australian concert sound engineer,Jon Lemon, in London a number of years ago. Hewas mixing one of my favourite bands, The The, atthe Brixton Academy. They were fantastic that nightand had such an awesome sound that I decided to
take some friends and see them again the next night atthe Kilburn National... and it was even better! A whilelater I was at the Glastonbury Festival in England mixingmonitors for Jesus Jones. I saw Jon backstage and learntthat he was there to mix Sinead O’Connor, who wascurrently at the top of her popularity with NothingCompares To You.
After the Jones boys did their spot I popped out frontwith the masses to check out a few of the other acts. Itwas the first big show I’d heard using productioncompany, Britannia Row’s, new Turbosound Flashlightsystem powered by BSS amps. Everybody’s sound wasokay, but I noticed a bit of a hole in the coverage at themix position which would have made it a little difficult forthe person in control of the mix. Sinead came on and,wow, what a difference! I was totally blown away with theclarity of the sound and the balance of the CD-qualitymix, featuring one of the best vocal sounds I’d everheard, then or since!
Jon started his professional life early, when as a 13year old kid he worked weekends at Trevor Marshall’s,TrevMar Audio in Adelaide. Still as a teenager hetraveled up and down the east coast doing sound forsmall bands and working pubs. A band called RumJungle (with James Blank and JJ Hackett) led him towork with Sports, and big name Aussie acts like BillyThorpe, MiSex and Australian Crawl. A five year tenureat Jands followed before the offer of a stint overseas withJohn Williams’ Sky came through in 1984. Jon stayed inLondon cultivating the good contacts he had. In 1987 he
struck up a working relationship with Level 42, whoquickly became massive in Europe, block bookingWembley Arena and the like. After fitting out and runningMark King’s (Level 42’s front man) SSL-equipped studiohe began working with names like The The, The Cure,Sinead O’Connor, Depeche Mode, and The Verve.
More recently Jon returned to these shores to mixNine Inch Nails on the Big Day Out Tour. Naturally Ijumped at the chance to catch up and have a chat withone of the world’s best concert sound mixers.Trevor Cronin: How did the Nine Inch Nails gig comeabout?Jon Lemon: A representative from Nine Inch Nails rangup and said they wanted me to do this tour and I said I’dlove to, but I can’t as I have another commitment withthe Pet Shop Boys. It wasn’t long before the managerrang saying, “we want you!”. Apparently Trent [Reznor,Nine Inch Nail’s songwriter and front man] had seen fourshows on The Cure’s Wish tour, and dug the sound, healso had seen some Depeche Mode shows in 93/94 andloved the sound on that as well. It was a case of Trentloving all the bands I’d done. Now, I have never left aband in my life, but in the end they made me an offerthat I just couldn’t refuse. And, musically, it’s pretty hardto turn down a guy who, for my money, is in the sameleague as Prince or Robert Smith. The new Nine InchNails album is just unbelievable – the sonic quality, thedepth and the lyrics are all amazing. That was why Iended up saying yes.TC: What sort of pre production work do you do on anew job like Nine Inch Nails?JL: An enormous amount. Trent is a hard working guy,and takes his audio seriously, you only have to take alook at his studio to tell. His studio in New Orleans has a72-frame SSL, 196 channels of ProTools, and any
40
Nine Inch Nails FOH engineer, Jon Lemon, is anotherAussie expatriate kicking butt worldwide. Trevor Croninhears how the Lemon approach bears fruit.
outboard or effects pedal you could think of. Then there’s another room within thatstudio with another 48 tracks of digital. Impressive stuff. He’s completely into hiswork, there’s no two ways about it.
There was an enormous amount of rehearsing for the MTV Music Awards in lateSeptember early October – they started rehearsals six weeks beforehand in theBahamas with the backline crew. Then I came in and they did the MTV Music Awards.Then there was another month of rehearsals on a stage in a theatre in New Orleansbefore we went on to London to start a European run in three or four thousand seattheatres. I think we now feel on top of things enough to kick off the forthcoming tourin The States.TC: So do you approach a live show as a blank canvas or do you constantly referback to the recorded material?JL: When a lot of punters go to a gig they need to feel or hear a connection with theCD to be fulfilled. From my perspective I ask the artist what type of approach theywant to take to the sound of the tour. Because there is usually a reason why they wantto use someone like me – either they’ve heard one of my shows or associate me witha certain style. An act like Nine Inch Nails has some very complex recordings behindthem, so you’re not going to capture the album sound completely, but, in saying that,Trent knows that you’ve always got to have the hooks and the catches present in thelive show, and from there we can let it take on a life of its own. Generally, most peopleallow me to put my own slant on things. Lots of artists don’t mind – once they knowthat it sounds quite reasonable out the front, they’ll be happy to go with it. But I doprefer working with people like Trent who take an active interest in the sound. Wekeep talking about things and keep honing things, and it makes the tour more interest-ing over a long period of time.TC: What gear do you prefer to use?JL: On this tour I’m currently using a Midas XL4 console, and I’m quite happy with it.The board that I was using prior to that was a Cadac, which was amazing, but virtuallydouble the rental price of an XL4. Midas still make great quality products, so I’mhappy with the XL4. Outboard-wise I’m using quite a lot of Smart Research compres-sors. We have a lot of radically dynamic stuff going on, from percussion sequences tobass sequences, so the Smart compressors work well for me. Then I have Focusritemic preamp/EQs, which I now actually use just for the EQ section. I’ve got EmpiricalLabs Distressor compressors which I love, and Summit DCL200, and TLA100A com-pressors. I’m a big compres-sor guy – for example, I usea lot of dbx 160x compres-sors on all the guitars – justlight compression that holdsit all together. By way ofeffects I’ve got a Lexicon480L, PCM70, TC Electron-ic M5000, a fairly ‘hottedup’ Eventide H3000, and aRoland SDE3000. Fairlysimple, just enough to getthe job done.TC: What would you seeas being the majoradvances in audio technol-ogy in recent times?JL: I think the ‘80s saw a lotof advances in digital tech-nology, which made effectsunits and digital processorsfar more accessible. The‘90s were much more aboutspeaker technology –starting off with the Tur-
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bosound Flashlight system in 1991, which wasa really big advance. Then a couple of yearslater the L-Acoustic V-DOSC linear arraysystem came out which never really took offuntil a year or two ago. I think that was just acase of bad marketing, because the systemhasn’t changed.
Computers have done a lot for gettinggreater efficiency out of a PA system. Rightnow I know we’re heading into the world ofdigital amp, which is pretty intriguing. I have
seen Function One from the people that designed the Turbosound gear. Also thewhole DSP advances from the likes of XTA and BSS is changing things. So in the nextfew years I see people concentrating more on amplification, and speakers will keepmoving forward along with that.
I’m one of those who believe that a console is a console – I think it is going to behard for people to crack the market with digital work surfaces connected to analogueracks – like the Harrison ShowConsole or even Yamaha’s PM1D, which is totallydigital. For me flying faders and enough mute memory and all that kind of stuff isgreat, and sure there’s times I would love to have on-board reEQ’ing – but that’s whyGod made the BSS Varicurve, just insert one where you need it.TC: What is your approach to system EQ?JL: I’m a big believer in letting the system designer do his stuff. If it’s stacked and flownright, and the amps are spot on, with the crossovers set correctly, then I’ll hardly EQ.TC: Even at smaller venues where you have to DIY?JL: It comes down to experience. Certain components and certain amplifiers are onlyreally only going to deal with so much, so you need to readjust your mix a bit.Generally with a good sound system, the less EQ you use, the more headroom you’vegot, and the better it breathes, the more natural things sound. I like things on stagesounding the way they do to your ear.TC: Do you grab the vocal mic and talk into it?JL: Yeah always, I’m a voice man. I know what my voice sounds like, and I’ve got myfavourite real-time analyser which I’ve had for years. I can listen to the pink noise andknow where it should be anyway, as most decent sound engineers do. I’m not a bigone for playing CDs through the system unless I’m walking around to listen forcoverage, I’d rather listen to my voice, then pink noise. TC: What approach do you use to obtain your vocal sound?JL: With Trent I use a Shure SM58 and anyone who sees the show would understandwhy. In the 16 shows we’ve done, we’ve been through around 30 SM58s, as a fair bit oftrashing goes down on stage. So we have three new SM58s ready to go on a switch
“In the 16shows we’ve
done, we’ve beenthrough around 30 SM58s”
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box, so if one getslaunched into theaudience, he’ll justswitch to another. Ialways use active splits– our system is BSS –both to the monitorsand to me. From therethe vocal goes into anEL8 Distressor firstand then into a BSS901 compressor – justto pull little bits andpieces out. Trent’s apretty dynamic singer,he could be whisperingone minute andhammering it hard thenext, and the Distres-sor seems to be thefastest compressorwe’ve come across tocope with that.TC: What abouteffects?JL: I keep things fairlysimple, using no morethan what the musicneeds. For drums I usehalf the side of aLexicon 480L, and I
use half the side of the TC M5000 – which has replaced an AMS RMX16 reverbbecause I’m sick of pulling them out of racks and keeping them working with rubberbands and sticky tape! The M5000 has some good programs on board that you canmanipulate easily. Vocal-wise I use the other half of the 480L, the Lexicon PCM70 fordelays, and a PCM70 for music delays as well. The other half of the TC M5000 doessome weirder stuff. I also use the odd foot pedal here and there for distortion – one’s aPiercing Moose [from Way Huge] and the other is a bass pedal called a Depth Charger[by Pitbull], they’re good!
Trent likes distorted vocals at times and I’ve tried everything. Alan Moulder, [NineInch Nail’s producer], was using Neve modules for distortion on the album, but therewere always gain problems in a live setting. Then one day I was walking by the guitartechs and I saw these pedals and I thought I’d check them out. They were great, I canget all the gain I need out them without worrying about feedback.TC: What are the other microphones you’re using? JL: I’m into using lots of different mics, most of which are mine. I’ve got about half adozen matched AKG 414s, a Beyer M88TG on the bass drum, a Shure SM57 on thetop snare, a 414 on the bottom, an AKG460 on the hi-hat, a Shure SM98 on the toms,and 414s on the overheads. On guitars I’ve got them using Palmer guitar simulatorsinstead of mics, and you get a big fat sound out of them – especially with the kind ofguitars that these guys use. They use a little mounted radio unit that takes the speakeroutput of their guitar amps and wings it to the Palmer which simulates a speakersound. They’re great... they’re expensive, but they’re brilliant. As I mentioned, we use aShure SM58 on vocals. Not to say the SM58 is the greatest sounding mic ever –there’s more subtle and better mics out there these days – but it works for us. WithSinead O’Connor we used a SM58, but that was because it suited the way that shesings. With Bryan Ferry I used an AKG5900, with The Verve we were using Electro-voice EV757s, and with Robert Smith we were using the 757 as well. I’m not ‘hard andfast’ on microphones, it’s whatever is good quality and whatever works for theperformer. AT
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