Mixing sound from the stage is a rite of passage for most bands early in their career, but when you see a band gracing the pages of Rolling Stone magazine and supporting metal giants Slipknot, you’d be forgiven for assuming control of the faders would have been happily relinquished by the band a long time ago.
FOH engineer Danny Harvey working with vocalist – and MON engineer – Caleb Shomo. Photo: Wyatt Clough.
American 5-piece metalcore band Beartooth, founded by lead vocalist Caleb Shomo in 2012, are the exception to this rule with Shomo continuing to mix the band’s monitors from the stage as well as taking on the role of recording and mix engineer for the band’s 4 studio albums, including 2021’s Below.
For their late summer The Below tour, the band were joined by FOH engineer Danny Harvey for a 6-week run of dates across the US. With both audio quality and portability in mind, Shomo and Harvey opted for a dual dLive system, supplied by Illinois based V2 Productions, to meet the requirements of the tour. Harvey, who travelled from the UK to work on the tour, plumped for a 28-fader dLive S5000 Surface and DM48 MixRack, complemented with a Waves V3 card, to handle FOH.
Engineer Danny Harvey operating the dLive S5000 at FOH. Photo: Wyatt Clough.
“All the dLive systems sound great – before this tour I was on the C1500 at FoH, but having the extra faders and therefore control feels particularly great” explains Harvey. “With the inbuilt processing, I can control it how I like and achieve the power and punch I’m looking for. Beartooth are a loud Rock n Roll band, so need to be mixed loud and heavy, and the dLive makes this easy.”
For the onstage MON system, controlled by Shomo, a compact 12-fader dLive C1500 Surface and DM48 MixRack were chosen for both the quality of audio and the diminutive footprint. In between delivering his vocal lines, Shomo controls 5 stereo IEM mixes, side fills and 2 pairs of centre monitors from his position on the centre of the stage.
Beartooth performing at ZooMontana on their The Below tour. Photo: Wyatt Clough.
“After mixing the Beartooth albums on some of the world’s best consoles, my requirements and expectations for mixing in-ears have become almost impossibly high” adds Shomo. “The dLive system has been a game-changer. The preamps are completely transparent and the built-in components give me all the analogue feel I need without the hassle of outboard. I’ve never felt so confident creating mixes that make everyone on stage want to melt face night after night.”
Beartooth onstage at House of Blues Anaheim. Photo: Wyatt Clough.
