Nickelback tours with Midas in US

USA - Multi-Platinum selling post-grunge rockers Nickelback are currently on an extensive sold-out tour of the US to promote their new release "The Long Road". The Canadian band is touring with three Midas consoles provided by Las Vegas sound reinforcement specialists ProMix Electrotec. There is an XL4 on FOH, a Heritage 3000 on monitor duties plus an XL3 monitor sidecar. EQ is handled by Klark Teknik DN360s. FOH duties belong to Nickelback's longtime Road Manager Kevin "Chief" Zaruk, and the monitor consoles are manned by Mark "Sparky" McNeill. Chief discussed the tour and how Midas has made a difference in Nickelback's live show: "I've been working with Nickelback for almost seven years now. This is the biggest tour we've done to date and it's going extremely well. We've got forty crew, five trucks and seven buses out with us. We also have three of my favourite mixing consoles. We started working on a much larger scale right when the song How You Remind Me took off, especially in terms of live production. I was able to pick any console I wanted, and I went straight to the XL4. I loved it - it sounded so warm and responsive. The XL4's EQs and preamps also brought distinct advantages to mixing this style of music. (Frontman) Chad Kroeger can sing so loud and so clearly that we often encountered a little natural distortion on the vocals. He has a really strong 2k - 3k range, which is great, ideally something to be emphasized rather than compromised in the mix. Some consoles just couldn't handle it; if I EQ'd it out it sounded too dull, if I left it in it sounded too harsh. One of the first characteristics I noticed about the XL4 was that the element of harshness in that specific part of the vocal mix was gone, and Chad's voice was able to come across in full effect. In fact, the vocal EQ on the XL4 is currently flat, except for a little low end rolled off. The preamps and EQs in the Midas consoles are simply awesome. They stay clean all the way through the high end, which really sets them apart, and make for a very musical console that you don't have to tweak and wrestle with to get a decent sound. With Midas it helps that quality sound is a built in feature, rather than something you have to dial in or do without."

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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