Bob Strakele (FOH Engineer - Slipknot) interview
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- Опубліковано 31 сер 2022
- It is a very special interview with a very special user. Bob Strakele has been touring as FOH engineer for Slipknot for years and he has been using our Dictator compressor in live application for a year now. We asked him to tell us about his experiences and about his other outboards as well. We went through his rack and he told us many interesting facts. Thanks to him and the entire Slipknot crew for providing the wonderful rare opportunity.
Slipknot Official: slipknot1.com
Gainlab Audio Official: gainlabaudio.com/
Video by Krisztián Kovács
I met this guy while seeing Slipknot in Toronto. He gave me 3 guitar picks and the setlist.
Interview? More like a rig rundown. I didn't hear a single question. Would have loved to hear him explain how he goes about mixing something as insanely powerful as a Slipknot live show, such as: "How do you keep all the extra percussion tight in the mix without being too muddy?" - "What's your mixing strategy for having 9 musicians on stage and making sure everyone is heard?" - "Do you have any tips on how to mix two very high-gain and very detuned guitars so that they don't interfere too much with the bass guitar?" - "How did you end up in this position, was it something you actively strived for, or did someone else recommend you?" That's what I would have called an interview!
Agreed. I’m not an audio engineer, but that still would’ve been very interesting
Those would have been some really good tips. Low tuned guitars and percussion, how's he getting the clarity?
@@ArtGuitarLTX You can read between the lines a little also and try to piece it together. For example he likes Neve Red Silk on guitars for air and the Elysia Xpressor on percussion to smash it all together. It give a little clue to how he's thinking of these things.
From one FOH engineer to another, Slipknot sounded fantastic in Nashville this past week 👍
I had the pleasure to have Bob and his crew through our venue recently.
The depth and impact of his mix @ 102db LAeq over 5min ave... was freaking incredible.
Solid Mixing Engineer, with a Solid SE by his side.
Absolutely a legendary 👏.
Cool video y'all, always interesting to get a peek into what goes on behind the scenes, and of course get tipped off to some new ideas!
I was right there in Bratislava, Slovakia... the best show I've ever seen hands down
Nice shout out to Boris, the mad scientist who taught me to solder in audio school.
Very cool interview 🤘🏽
Bob is one of the best in the business. Loved him with A7X. Nobody mixes drums better.
Insane , just the amount of questions that were answered here is unreal
this is awesome !!!
Cool🔥🔥🔥 Keep it up guys!
I've been on a Bucharest night and it was sounding awesome! However, I have a pain that I have not received any guitar picks or setlists or grupie's bra...
excellent info!
Yeah!
🤘
Good on ya mate love the use of high end out board gear….yes including the 990. My fav was the 900…but broke my cherry on SPX 90s and Roland reverb ….you don’t talk about the ssl….I retired in July of 2015 and was not enjoying switching to digi….I still have an X-Large 200, and APB instorage
See the promo vids and yeah….but you and my friend Big Kev long time FOH for Green Day…he recently switched to SSL…use lotsa old vintage gear…..the question ….why??????
I met their last sound guy some years back, British guy, real pos guy. They used to carry a cadac with them on tour, which was absurd for smaller rock venues, his mix was over driven and noisy, tbf with as much noise that comes off the stage for slipknot it’s tough to manage, but the epic attitude that guy brought with him was the real show, especially considering how bad the mix was.
The British guy is my dad ,
🔥🔥🔥🔥💝
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Sweet
Damn this guy brings a whole big professional studio rig on the road! I wish I could make albums with those!
I thought these guys relied more on digital plugins/consoles these days.
Amazing engineer, Slipknot must be a nightmare to mix live.
This sound is brilliant!!⚡
Thanks for sharing. Interesting. I´d love to hear his take on certain venues where Slipknot played where the sound was just a mess. Like in Prague at the O2 arena in 2019 and 2022 there was a massive echo in the rear seating area. Sound was pretty decent up front though. I noticed that in general the sound was usually better at the open air venues like at the 2022 EU tour start in Bucharest the sound was great and it was also quite good the nights after in Plovdiv and Athens but the mix at first indoor show of the tour in Graz was already poor. But the worst live mix of Slipknot I have ever experienced was probably at Arena Leipzig in 2019.
That's the difference between direct sound and reflected/reverberant sound my dude! The further away you are from the source (in that case, the PA and the band on stage) the more reflections and "room sound" you will be able to hear, and in the case of large arenas and stadiums it often ain't pretty.
@@jordanmetcalfe8302 yeah, makes sense. I just think it´s a pity that the overall sound experience for such a major act is often poor for thousands of people in the arena who paid at least 80 dollars/euros. that´s why i very much prefer club shows anyway (the overall intensity and atmosphere is much better as well and the concerts feel much more unique) but some bands you love are just way too big and slipknot is one of them.
O2 arena is always like that it sounds like a bunker. I had seen multiple shows there.
This is an inherent problem with large closed arenas. And probably why AC/DC wrote their songs the way they did. The quick songs all become mush, and the slow songs shine. It's also a short sightedness on the PA/systems engineer to not spec out spot speakers for the audience who're far away from the stage. Long story short: don't sit too far away from the stage. The closer you are to the sound console, the better the sound will be. Even with PA rigs worth many millions of $
@@greyanaroth system technicians do sometimes spec delay hangs depending on the layout of the venue and it’s capabilities for flying speakers, and the budget for the tour.
❤🔥🤘
Actually he explained all of that with his out board gear…
I wish he told us if he has a channel called “keg”
"...right bunch of circus freaks. There's like ten of them, and one of them hits a bin with a stick"
Always felt like their guitars don’t shine enough live. Last time I saw them in 2022 the drums were overpowering
I've been at the show in Graz (A) in the end of July this year. It was a sound catastrophe!
Fuck yeaaaah💀🖤
He looks like half Corey and half Matt Heafy. Great guy tho!
looks like Tortilla Man's twin
M A S T E R great man
Wait, it's not a guy with a case of beer sitting behind a mackie!? All my illusions have been shattered...
Well that was super confusing
Still a badass video though! super new to learning about mixing music 😁 I watch The Band Guide on UA-cam to try to learn mixing on GarageBand but you was saying stuff that I was like “whatttt” lol. Seems super cool though
Wow, what a long list of amazing gear to kill the audience hearing, like it happened in Tallinn, Estonia, 2022
I’m curious, why wouldn’t bands use their own set up for FOH? wouldn’t u risk making them sound bad or at least not how they want to sound?
What? It's exactly what they do unless it's a festival. But still, all festivals nowadays (at least in Europe) use hi-end FOH, so the specific brand doesn't matter much.
@@itnefer4787 but as I said if the gear they use at gigs isn’t how they wanna sound or ruins the dynamic of their natural sound then it would be bad. No?
@@jasonjellie9342 what are you missing? This guy and this gear travel with the band. They hired him because he does a good job.
@@jasonjellie9342 "if the gear they use at gigs isn’t how they wanna sound..."
Are you implying Slipknot doesn't rely on their own FOH at their own gigs? I don't think you understand how it works.
@@itnefer4787 well that’s why I was curious. From the info given it implied that it wasn’t their natural gear and it was just some random gear thrown together by FOH tech
So much amazing gear, yet slipknot still sounded horrible at pukkelpop (be) unfortunately :(
The last two times I saw Slipknot in an arena the sound was SO bad; Corey's vocals could barely be heard, the guitar tone was abrasive, and the drums were out of whack (sic). Same venue both times... more fool me I guess! The last time I saw them with Chris Fehn, he'd actually come down off the stage and barked at the FOH team to sort their s*** out! We left after 4 songs it was that bad.
Sad times.
I saw them at Knotfest in Sydney, awful sound 🤣 but never know, could be a ‘one off’ lol
So, without a special effect box, the band sounds small and boring?...OK, got it
Just saw Slipknot. Mix was horrible. Just sounded like one big blob of sound.
Whats up Pfaff? You have many names i see
Yeah!