Former Spinal Tap bass guitarist Derek Smalls delighted fans by inviting them to ‘rock til you sit’ at Lukewarm Water Live, a one date tour of the US West Coast.
Derek Smalls, famed for his struggles with stage props, attempts to smuggle vegetables through airport security and a Big Bottom. Increasing age may have brought Derek a subtle change of hair colour but, with a Yamaha PM7 digital mixing system on monitors, he delivered the full majesty of rock.
Playing songs from his 2018 solo album Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing) alongside classics by his former band (formerly known as Spinal Tap), Smalls - known to some as comedian Harry Shearer - invited a star-studded line-up to perform alongside him and a full symphony orchestra.
Gabriele Nicotra, monitor engineer of the event, narrates how the show went
The monitor engineer of the event was Gabriele Nicotra, who has also worked with Ed Sheeran, Mark Ronson, John Grant, Lorde, Siouxsie Sioux and Judith Owen. Referring to the show, he said that this was the first time he mixed a show on RIVAGE PM7. He thinks that a system as RIVAGE PM7 improves on the things we all like, without radically changing the surface and screen layouts.
“RIVAGE PM7 is instantly familiar enough to not need a course to learn how to use it"
"My first day on it was the first day of production rehearsals with the band. It was so comfortable that nobody was aware that I was learning a new control surface!” – Gabriele Nicotra For him, the live orchestra was mainly for the ‘wow factor’, as they had a recorded orchestra on playback that they mixed with the live one. They did feature the live orchestra more on quieter numbers, as the timeframe of rehearsals was really tight and it was all a little stressful. However, they had great intonation and the bleed was not too noticeable on those songs.
With Derek coming from a band whose lead guitarist famously demanded ‘one more’ from his amplifiers, it’s no surprise that just one - or even one live and one recorded - the orchestra was not enough. There was also a ‘live satellite linkup’ with the Hungarian Studio Orchestra to contend with.
This was also the method used to feature some of the special guests who Harry wanted to appear, but could not be at the show itself. With names like Donald Fagen, Steve Vai, Snarky Puppy, Rick Wakeman and Jane Lynch involved in recording the album, he didn’t want to miss the opportunity of having them as part of the show, one way or another. ‘Live via satellite’ was a neat solution to involve as many people as possible.
It was also a challenge to keep track of the special guests who did appear live, like Steve Lukather from Toto, Dweezil Zappa and Waddy Wachtel, who all had very limited rehearsal time. They were used to a lot of personal attention, so Gabriele had to make sure he could make them feel comfortable while still focusing on Derek, the band and the orchestra. He only discovered that some didn’t want to use in-ears when they arrived on stage for rehearsals, but he had budgeted for it and had a couple of spare wedges that they could throw in for them. Naturally, the show’s climax was the Spinal Tap classic Big Bottom, featuring an unprecedented number of bass guitars on stage at the same time.
“We had never rehearsed it with all the guests, which made for an interesting experience on the day”
About that moment, talks Gabriele: "I was able to copy and reuse the guest mixes from the other parts of the show, so they all had a workable mix. The new Isolate feature on the RIVAGE PM7, paired with Recall Safe, made it easy to pick and mix certain parts of various snapshots to copy into the final scene on the fly.” It may have only been a one-date tour but, as any would expect, there were plenty of comedy moments - both intentional and unexpected. “Harry is a very funny guy, as is the show’s musical director CJ Vanston, and we all laughed so much. Staying focused on the job proved a little complicated at times, but that is a good problem to have,” Gabriele smiles.
RIVAGE PM7 meets and exceeds expectations regarding previous systems
In the serious business of audio production, however, the RIVAGE PM7 system delivered everything Gabriele needed, with no problems whatsoever. Gabriele thinks that PM7 is what we have all been waiting for, it’s incredibly powerful and versatile. Since the long-gone days of the PM1D, when they all had to accept limitations or learn to use different consoles from different manufacturers. These all came with some kind of compromise - be it less stability, less ‘fun’ factor (some of them look like they would be at home in a power-plant, they’re very uninspiring to mix on) or less sonic quality.
Gabriele also speaks openly about RIVAGE PM7: “It has given me more of what I already liked about the CL series. I love the higher sample rate, the new plug-ins, and the Rupert Neve Designs SILK texture control. I also love the higher channel count. I did a show with Derek in January this year, using a CL5, and it was maxed out before even adding an orchestra, so we had to share in-ear mixes for all the guests appearing on stage.”
“Now that I have experienced RIVAGE PM7, I will always want to use it.”
He concludes: “The RIVAGE system puts Yamaha back in the driving seat. It unifies the best features we have all learned to expect, introduces some excellent new ones and gives us more of what we liked from previous Yamaha models. And that’s all while keeping the interface familiar enough so that anybody with experience on previous models can easily navigate around it.
