Pearl Jam goes digital but stays with Midas

Karrie Keyes has been mixing monitors since 1991. For the band’s 2010 tour in support of the current Backspacer album, Keyes made a significant change in her mixing regimen, taking a digital console on the road for the first time. Previously, Keyes was among the many hardcore devotees of the sound quality of Midas analog consoles, usually opting for a Heritage desk in recent years. So it is not too surprising that the choice for Pearl Jam was a Midas PRO6, supplied by Rat Sound. “This is the first tour I have used a PRO6 on,” she reports. “I found it extremely easy to learn, and felt comfortable on it after the first show.”



Between in-ears, sidefills and wedges for six band members and three members of the tech crew, Keyes describes her utilization of the 32 outputs on the PRO6 as “nearly maxed out. I am using 29 outs now and have three left, which I will fill up on this next (European) leg.” Several band members augment their stereo in-ear mixes with wedges and sidefills. Vocalist Eddie Vedder’s setup is described as “one ear, vocal wedge mix, stereo sides, plus mono sidefill for vocal” – with another channel available should Vedder decide to use earphones in both ears.

In terms of setup and routing, Keyes says the PRO6 handles this relatively complex set-up with ease. “I really love that the matrixes are actually just straight outs. I have the in-ears on the matrixes and my wedges and sidefills on the Aux Sends,” she notes.

The adjustment to using a digital console was simplified by Midas’ analog-style design layout and the PRO6’s flexibility. “The key to mixing monitors for Pearl Jam is keeping my eyes on Ed and the band the entire show,” states Keyes. “Pearl Jam has a lot of cues, but they are not scene cues that can be programmed. They are mostly EQ and volume changes, and a lot of them are for more than one person at the same time. So I needed to get these cues to the surface easily, not having to look, scroll, or search through layers. With the PRO6, I have everything I need on the surface at the push of a button. That’s hugely important to me.”

Keyes uses a combination of VCAs and the PRO6’s unique POP Groups to keep everything she needs instantly accessible. “I use POP Groups for certain songs, to put the instruments on the surface for access to the mute and fader,” she says. “But I mainly use the VCAs, set up by band member, with a couple more for riding gain on guitar solos and such.” For fast, accurate channel equalization, she is using the Klark-Teknik DN9331 Rapide graphic controller, a rack-mountable PRO6 accessory that gives her a traditional 31-band surface for dialing in the console’s on-board KT graphic EQs.

Coming into a long-time, established situation like Pearl Jam, the PRO6 was expected to live up to the Midas legacy of providing great audio. “The sound is great,” Keyes reports. “In the past, we have not been able to get Ed [Vedder] on a digital because of the sound, but he has been on the PRO6 with no issues. We have found no issues with latency, and the band loves the sound.”

Keyes’ experience with the PRO6 has proven to be relatively painless, and seems to regard it as a definite step up from her previous analog setup. “There are lots of little things that let me know this product was really thought through when Midas designed it,” she notes. “The video screens are wonderful. I can see them even in the sun, but they are not distracting either.” She also notes that her setup time is much faster when working with the PRO6, attributable in part to eliminating the 500 feet of cable required for the analog console – now handled with a single Cat5 cable.

As the band prepares for the European leg of the 2010 tour, Karrie Keyes will now be specifying a PRO6. “I felt pretty comfortable with it after the first show,” she summarizes, “and the factory support from Midas is amazing. The main thing for me was learning how to get it to act as an analog console, and I’m happy to report that the PRO6 can do that with ease. After one tour, it’s already like I have always mixed on it.”

Further information: www.midasconsoles.com

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