Three-time Grammy Award winners Maroon 5 took off on a concise but intense tour this year. UK + Europe 2023 was the 15th concert tour by the band in support of their seventh studio album, 2021’s Jordi. The tour began on June 13 in Lisbon, Portugal and traveled through Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, and France. It came to a conclusion on July 4, 2023, in Birmingham, England.
However, per a statement, Maroon 5 also have a completely different live identity: their ongoing residency at the Dolby Live venue at Park MGM in Las Vegas. They will perform at the venue from July 28 through August 12. On the road, they’re a stereo band; in Las Vegas; however, they arrive as an immersive experience through Dolby’s Atmos format. What stays consistent throughout is DiGiCo, the suite of audio consoles that the Maroon 5 mix team deploys to manage every show’s sound.
Implementing the DiGiCo Consoles
Specifically, Vincent Casamatta mixes the front of house for Maroon 5 on a DiGiCo Quantum5. Marcus Douglas manages the band’s monitors on a DiGiCo SD5, while Dave Rupsch handles lead singer Adam Levine’s vocals using an SD10. Clair Global supplied all three consoles, which reside on an Optocore network loop and share two SD-Racks.
The addition of Dave Rupsch to focus on lead singer Adam Levine’s vocals in mid-2021 emerged as a game changer, says Casamatta. Ironically, adding a console actually reduced the amount of overall gear needed to manage the sound. This is thanks to the desks’ onboard processing and highly flexible workflow options. “With everything on the loop, we have less gear and it sounds and works better than it ever did,” he says. “It sounds so much better not going through a splitter. The whole package has been really, really solid.”
Flexible Solution, Intelligble Sound
While the DiGiCo Quantum5 ostensibly mixes the same show for Maroon 5 regardless of whether it’s Prague or Las Vegas; Casamatta says the shift between stereo on the road and immersive in Las Vegas has subtle but significant distinctions. “I need my stereo show on the DiGiCo to exist at all times behind the immersive mix and vice versa,” he says. “So I’m literally booting up the same show file whether I’m mixing an immersive show or have a stereo two-bus mix happening. It doesn’t matter. And that was a huge mandate of mine because I didn’t want to compromise. No matter what format we were doing, I wanted it to be the same mix. The Quantum5 made that easy.”
To accomplish that, Casamatta taps into the Quantum5’s flexibility by using a combination of subgroups and MADI. This helps assure that each of the audio “objects” used in the Atmos mix retain the same processing used in the stereo mix on the road. “I have a lot of groups anyway in my stereo mix, and I was able to utilize those to create objects out of them,” he explains. “I already have a complete kick bus and a snare bus and a vocal bus. So, I can just send those out as objects into the immersive environment.”
Dave Rupsch might have what looks like a dream gig: running monitors for just the lead vocalist for every show. Actually, he says, the ease with which he does his job is a combination of being naturally “on the same page” with singer Adam Levine and the layout of his DiGiCo SD10 console. This console feeds the singer’s JH Audio Roxanne IEMs on a Shure PSM 1000 wireless system, the same units the entire band uses. “The whole workflow is definitely streamlined by all of us being on the same loop,” he says. “Without a splitter, I’m getting Adam’s vocals right from the source, so the sound quality couldn’t be more pristine.”
Eliminating Challenges
Rupsch says how he approaches his task doesn’t vary much between on the road and in Las Vegas. Here, he also mixes three horn players and two backup vocalists. However, the latter location can present some challenges. “Adam spends a lot of time on the stage thrust, and it’s not unusual to get some PA bleed into the vocal microphone there,” he explains. “But in Las Vegas, there are three PA hangs that shoot directly onto the thrust. So, there are a lot more artifacts, such as differing arrival times, plus there’s slapback from the back wall of what is a smaller venue than most of the shows we’ve been doing.”
To counter that, “Super Dave” Rupsch brings in a Neve 5045 Primary Source Enhancer analog processor through an I/O on the console. According to him, this substantially softens the artifacts. He then combines that with a switch from Levine’s longtime Shure SM58 vocal mic to a newer Shure KSM-11. “That combination of the 5045 and the much tighter mic capsule solves the problem,” Rupsch says. “I also like the computer landing pad on the SD10, which is really convenient for dialing in other plug-ins and fine-tuning the filters on noise gates. The console’s got a lot of features, but because everything’s so easy and intuitive to use, I can keep the focus on Adam’s vocals.”
Delivering an Immersive Experience
Marcus Douglas has moved up the ranks in the Maroon 5 universe, starting as the monitor tech in 2015. He then became the band’s sole monitor engineer in 2019. This occurred shortly before Adam Levine’s monitor mixes were separated into their own silo. The SD5 Douglas uses for band monitors was also his first extended experience with DiGiCo desks. Douglas adds that he was glad to have the introduction. “The SD5 sounds great and has a very easy, intuitive workflow,” he says. “I could walk right up to it and get started immediately.”
Douglas likes the fact that everything he needs are onboard and always right at hand for the five band members onstage. These range from gates to compressors to effects. “I also like the Con-Send feature that we use on the loop. This integrates the talkback and shout speakers without having to use up any extra channels. It seems like DiGiCo really thought of everything.”
Casamatta echoes that, adding, “DiGiCo did a great job of giving engineers tools to make artistic and aesthetic choices without needing outboard gear. It’s the complete package.”
Click on “View Slideshow” for images of the DiGiCo consoles on the Maroon 5 stage. All images courtesy of DiGiCo.
