Mixing Jane's Addiction With The RNDI
Nomad Sound's Jamie Wellwarth, FOH engineer on the current Jane's Addiction tour, took a quick break before last night's show in Columbus, Ohio to chat about using the RNDI Active Transformer Direct Interface on stage with the legendary rock band.
We hear you've got a pair of RNDIs on tour with you - how are you using them?
I've got the first one on Perry [Farrell]'s vocal delay, which is absolutely essential for a Jane's Addiction show; he doesn't sing without it. It warms up the signal, makes it clear - it's awesome. I haven't used anything like it.The other is for 'Jane Says', the acoustic tune, for Dave [Navarro]. He's using an old Epiphone acoustic made just for him, which sounds good, but the RNDI makes even a [expletive deleted] terrible guitar sound great.
Why did you choose to use the RNDI, as opposed to another direct box?
I've used plenty of others, and actually did the first gig on this tour without the RNDIs, but once I put the [Rupert] Neve ones in, I was like, 'GAME OVER'. I had one fly date where I couldn't bring them, and I totally, sorely missed them. I thought, 'Oh my God, what did I do?' It sounded fine, I made it work, but with the RNDI I can keep most things flat, I don't have to process as much - it just sounds great right out of the box.
So what's your favorite thing about it?
It warms everything up to the point where it doesn't sound at all harsh or digital. It reproduces the sound in a way that accentuates it, makes it sound...well, beautiful.
Do you have any tips or tricks for direct recording / reinforcement that you'd like to share?
Tips or tricks? Not really...I guess 'know where everything plugs in'! Seriously though, use the proper gear for the job. I've never gone wrong with anything by Rupert Neve. You know what - if there's a trick at all, it's to get a Rupert Neve design. There! There's my trick.
Thanks Jamie!
Photos courtesy of Jamie's iPhone.
