Kaiser works for Delicate Productions of Camarillo, California, serving as PA tech or system tech for Selena Gomez, Train and as monitor tech and crew chief for The Foo Fighters, among others. After moving to the Killers' camp last year, he took over the helm for their 2014 tour. However, Kaiser was not fond of their previous FOH console and knew instantly that he'd need to make a switch.
"Delicate is a great partner of Hi-Tech Audio [supplier of the SSL Live console for the tour] in San Francisco, where I'm based," he says. "Louis Adamo, president of Hi-Tech, called to say they had a new SSL console, so I went down and played with it. I found it fluid and the surface very intuitive. I also had a chance to take a class for engineers and production companies. After I took the class, I found the console even more intriguing. One thing that stuck in my mind was actually taking it apart and looking inside at how it's made - it's built like a tank. Plus, with the name SSL, you can't go wrong; that's a great name in consoles."
As Kaiser is part of a new breed of engineers, The Killers' previous mix platform just wasn't his style. "There was too much button pushing to get to certain places and it was too spread out," he continues. "There were fader banks on either side, so I had to do a lot of left and right movements. With Live, it's more centralized. I don't have to move around the console and I can stay in one spot, hit one button and quickly do what I need to do."
Kaiser, who will occasionally use other consoles for events supported by Delicate, finds SSL Live to be more convenient to work on due to its flexibility and the manner in which an engineer can customize the fader banks. "It's very intuitive and user-friendly," he adds. "There are a lot of options as to how you can set up SSL Live."
The Killers recently headlined the Hangout Festival on the sandy beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama where the console was put to the true test of the weather. Kaiser notes, "despite the heat, high humidity, wind and sandstorms that we encountered that weekend, the console was just great."
(Jim Evans)
