record and those drum
tones on the record
wouldn’t translate live; I
think it’s a different en-
vironment that works
with that situation.” On
Burnett’s drums was a
“dream combination”
of Telefunken, Neu-
mann, AKG, Beyer-
e S6L
H with an Avid Venu
FO
at
n
lla
Le
dynamic, Shure, and
Mc
m
Ca
Sennheiser mics.
From his spot in monitor world, Row-
I left it,” adds Rowland at monitors about the
land says one of the most intriguing things
Leslie. “It sounds fantastic.”
about working with Caesar’s crew was the
There was a lot of debate in preprod-
amount of talkback happening on stage.
uction about how best to mic the choir.
The drummer, Burnett, and the playback
They considered ultra-directional pencil
technician, Jordan Evans, are also Caesar’s
microphones, but the initial plan was to also
producers and managers, which shows how
hang the choir’s microphones from the rig-
small and close-knit the Toronto-based crew
ging, which obviously makes them hard to
around him is at the moment. They’ve both
aim precisely. They then considered large-
worked with Drake, Eminem, and other stars
diaphragm cardioid condensers, but hanging
and it’s through their independent label
also made that too difficult. Ultimately,
with Caesar, Golden Child Recordings, that
they ditched the idea of hanging the mi-
Freudian was released. “They’re knowledge-
crophones, thinking it didn’t help the show
able and everything is really thought out.
aesthetically and compromised the sound
In monitor world there are a lot of talkbacks
too much, and instead divided the 12-person
on stage because Matthew, who’s playing
choir in groups of three, each around an
drums, will also be talking to Jordan about
Audio-Technica AT4050 large-diaphragm
cueing and slowing down and stopping the
condenser microphone set to cardioid.
tracks, and he’s also musically directing the
With the introduction of those four
entire band while drumming,” explains Row-
AT4050s on stage, McLellan says he again
land. “So while playing, he’ll be talking to
ran into some issues with drum bleed. “But
Daniel, telling him what he needs to focus
I wouldn’t compromise Matt’s playing,” he
on or change or address or whatever. And
stresses. “I wouldn’t be like, ‘Can you chill
while he’s doing that, he’ll shout, ‘OK, go to
during this part?’ So I just have to watch the
the fourth,’ and all of a sudden, they’ll all go
bleed, watch my compression settings, and
into a different chord in the progression. It’s
just try to avoid having eight extra over-
incredible to listen to.”
heads on stage,” he says. “So I’ve carved out
As Caesar receives some stage direction
some weird frequencies that you wouldn’t
from Burnett and Evans, McLellan is also
necessarily want to take out of a vocal mic,
sometimes in his ear. The FOH engineer
but I have to. But with everything in the mix,
recalls that during one of the first nights of
it kind of suits it because it’s just too brittle if
the five-show run, when Caesar had been
you don’t address it.”
battling a minor cold, the singer began the
Speaking of the drummer, even
song “Death and Taxes” in his modal voice
though this is an R&B/soul show, McLellan
rather than the song’s usual falsetto. “That,
says he mics and mixes Burnett’s kit like a
to me, was a red flag that he doesn’t think
rock show. “You have this amazing drummer
he sounds good right now. So there is a
on stage and that right there determines
two-bar instrumental break and during that
how energetic the se t is. If you mute the
time, I talked to him, like, ‘Danny, I know
drums, the foundation of the mix is gone. So
what you’re about to do. You’re going to
I’ve dialed in, pretty much, a rock kit with a
bail on this falsetto part. I’m just letting you
gospel drummer behind it and it seems to
know you sound phenomenal out front and
translate well because it just brings another
you got this,’” McLellan recalls. “Just a little
level to the performance. The songs are still
reassurance, because he did sound good.
the songs, but it’s just a more exciting envi-
I’m not going to bullshit him; if he sounds
ronment. It wouldn’t translate on the
like shit, I’ll be like, ‘Maybe chill out for this
song.’ But if he sounds like gold, I’m going
to reassure him of that and tell him, ‘It’s all
in your head, bud. You have a sound guy for
a reason and I’m going to make sure you
sound good.’”
To fill the Danforth Music Hall, the crew
used the venue’s L-Acoustics Kara house PA,
with 12 boxes and four SB218 subs per side.
There are also some JBL and Adamson fills
for the floor and balcony. To help tune the
room, Rowland brought in VER Toronto’s
Jon Halliwell, with whom he’d collaborated
while on tour with Marianas Trench and
City & Colour. Halliwell pulled double duty
as PA and monitor systems tech. Once they
moved over from the Sony Sound Stage to
the venue for final rehearsals, Halliwell says
he only had to do a little bit of reduction of
the house system’s mids and tune the subs
a bit to suit the show.
“I did bring a [Lab.gruppen] LM 44 Lake
Controller just to have some of our own PA
system processing. I set up the [Rational
Acoustics] Smaart system and did quick
room tuning and I didn’t really have to do
very much. Everything was sounding pretty
good. We tweaked it a little bit for our taste
and I realigned the subs with the mains
a little bit, but other than that, we’re kind
of using it as-is,” Halliwell explains. “Daniel
Caesar’s sound, and urban music, it needs
to have a good, solid bottom and the vocals
are very important. So we tuned the system
with that in mind and the house engineer
basically has this system set up as a blank
slate so you can sort of come in and do any
kind of show. But it definitely needs some
adjustments for a particular sound.”
A sold out five-night residency at the
Danforth Music Hall was a big step up for
Caesar, but it says something about his de-
liberate, calculated approach to success that
he and his team opted for multiple intimate
shows rather than one night at the Bud-
weiser Stage or even the Air Canada Centre,
which was certainly an option given the
overwhelming demand for tickets. Those
who were there, seeing this burgeoning
superstar serenade them from the all-white
stage, surely knew they were seeing some-
thing that won’t come around again. Be-
cause even as he shuns the major labels to
maintain control over his career, it’ll be hard
to shun major venues much longer.
Michael Raine is the Senior Editor of
Professional Sound
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 33