Take That, one of the biggest British Boy Bands in history, was once again breaking records and stealing hearts on their autumn and winter tour across Europe. And although the boys are now grown men, they sounded better than ever, courtesy of the array of Sennheiser and Neumann equipment that accompanied them. Front of House engineer Gary Bradshaw was happy to be back with the band. “I did two UK and one European Tour in 1993 and 1994,“ he recalls. “I was happy to be asked back for their first reunion tour twelve months ago, which led onto this one.“ Despite there only being four core members of Take That now, it’s far from a simple production. “There are seven musicians in the band, plus four string players,“ continues Bradshaw, “eight dancers, two of whom sing backing vocals, backing vocalist Lloyd and the four guys from Take That. We have a total of 67 inputs from the stage, 21 of which are radios. These include the main handheld vocal mics and two headset mics worn by two dancers, guitars and bass guitar, sax, all the strings and two radio percussion mics. Most of these radios also get used on the B stage which is usually positioned in the centre of the arena.“ The choice for all of these mics was Sennheiser and Neumann. All the main vocalists used Sennheiser SKM 5200 UHF mics with Neumann KK104 heads, paired with EM 3532 receivers. Neumann KMS 104s were used for backing vocals while the guitar cabinets were mic’ed with Neumann TLM 193s, with twelve channels of signals sent via Sennheiser SK 500 G2 bodypack transmitters to EM 500 G2 multi-channel receivers. The singing dancers wore Sennheiser HSP4 headset mics, while the microphone array was completed by Neumann U87s on percussion, Neumann KM184s for overheads and Sennheiser e908Ds and e908Bs for drum toms and the brass section respectively. The entire band used Sennheiser monitoring too. Twelve channels of Sennheiser EW 300 IEM G2 systems were routed through AC 3000 combiners and A 5000-CP antennae while four NET-1 controllers monitored the entire wireless system. With so much Sennheiser equipment on stage at any one time, it’s no surprise that Bradshaw is a big fan. “Recently all the tours I have been involved with have been exclusively Sennheiser,“ he explains. “These have included George Michael, Annie Lennox and Herbert Gronemeyer. The drum mics deliver a clear and punchy sound and are robust enough to withstand the rigours of touring. Having access to condenser mics that you usually only see in studios means the detail and transient response from stage is exceptional. The main vocal mics really shine. That combination of capsule and radio system is a winner! The crisp high-end response coupled with a very warm midrange means very little EQ is needed to get the vocal to sit nicely on top of the mix. “Credit must go to Mr Steve Lutley who generates the monitor mixes for the band and tailors the sound in the boys’ ears and is doing a magnificent job. Also, Guy Gillen looks after all the radio systems on this tour and makes sure the mics and in ear systems work perfectly.“ It turns out that on stage Sennheiser is winning more fans. “Right from the first days of rehearsal the four guys from Take That commented on the quality of the sound in their ears,“ explains Bradshaw. “Gary Barlow in particular raved about the sound of his own vocal. I think the boys noticed right away there was a big difference between the Sennheiser system we’re using this time and the non-Sennheiser system we used on the reunion tour two months ago.“ Sennheiser Artist Relations Manager Phil Cummings is delighted with the feedback from the Take That camp. “Working with an act the size of Take That has been an exciting challenge,” he explains. “From our standpoint it’s great to hear that Sennheiser products can continue to exceed expectations and impress people at the highest level of the industry, engineers and artists alike. It’s been great fun too. A big thank you to Andrew Lillywhite, Sennheiser UK`s chief engineer, for all his help with the set up and all the Take That crew for their co-operation.” Take That has raised the bar for reformed pop acts. For Gary Bradshaw, it’s still a magical experience. “I think the highlight for me is every night during the song Rule The World. The four guys walk along a catwalk from the A stage to the B stage, right in front of the main PA, to arrive at the middle of the arena amidst deafening screaming, singing all the way. We haven’t had any problems with feedback, and vocal clarity has always been maintained during this transition.“ The tour climaxed on 31st December, at a sold out O2 Arena in London as Take That saw in the new year while being broadcast live to an audience of millions on ITV1 on the programme Countdown To Midnight. Источник
