BUENA PARK, Calif. — The last time Paul Simon took to the road was the "Old Friends" tour in 2004. This summer's tour in support of his new Warner Bros. CD Surprise features a few surprises in its own right, among them: a new touring band, a support band (from the world's best dobro player, Jerry Douglas) and live effects generated from an on-stage rig.

L to R: Rachel Adkins, Larry Mignogna and David Morgan seated at front of house. Photo Credit: Alex Anton

Some things, however, remain the same from Simon's 2004 tour (and 2003 tour, for that matter), a few of them being FOH engineer David Morgan (who's been with Simon for 20 years now) and Morgan's FOH console of choice, the Yamaha analog PM5000. Morgan is also using a Yamaha digital DM2000 in conjunction with the large analog console.

"My original spec was to do the entire show on the analog console with an analog sidecar," says Morgan. He had used the PM5000-DM2000 combo since the first "Old Friends" tour, as well as with Bette Midler and on last summer's James Taylor tour. But as long as Morgan has been working with Simon, he never had a support band. Nor had Morgan ever had to contend with live effects generated by a Pro Tools rig onstage. Andy Smith, recording engineer for Surprise, worked with Simon and keyboard player/Pro Tools programmer Andy Snitzer over the winter to re-create co-producer Brian Eno's effects from the Surprise CD for the live ProTools rig. Simon and Snitzer worked out the effects/enhancements for the show in February and March rehearsals.

"Essentially, we're using the Pro Tools as a band instrument," says Morgan. "What Paul and Andy have done basically is to create one very long session that is the show. Instruments and effects come in and out of the session as the show progresses. Andy is generating 16 channels of Pro Tools producing effects for Paul's guitars, Paul's voice, Mark Stewart's guitars and Vincent Nguini's guitars. Andy plays live keyboards and saxophones through the Pro Tools rig as well."

Paul Simon's touring band is: Steve Gadd and Robin DiMaggio (drums), Mark Stewart (woodwinds, guitar and vocals), Andy Snitzer (keyboards, woodwinds and Pro Tools programmer), Tony Cedras (keyboards, accordion, guitar, trumpet and vocals), Bakithi Kumalo (bass), and Vincent Nguini (guitar and vocals).

The addition of a second drummer for Simon's group (Robin DiMaggio), as well as the addition of the Jerry Douglas band to the tour, also pushed Morgan to add extra inputs covered by the DM2000. "In some of the venues we've been playing," he says, "we've had limited front-of-house space, so adding the DM2000 became the ideal solution." Morgan is also running three Yamaha AD8HR outboard mic pre amps for a total of 24 extra mic pre's, with gain controlled remotely via the DM2000. All-in-all, Simon's show is running up to 70 inputs from the stage.

Rachel Adkins and Larry Mignogna at PM5D monitor console. Photo Credit: Alex Anton

"I've given Jerry Douglas the on-board preamps and the 1 – 24 inputs on the DM2000. I've set up the remote layer so his engineer, Bernie Velluti, can easily mix on the 2000 surface. Bernie has 20 inputs plus four groups." (The Jerry Douglas band, in addition to Douglas himself, consists of fiddle, acoustic/electric guitar, upright bass, and drums.) "On remote 2, I've put all of my effects returns – eight stereo pairs coming back from my outboard electronics rack and all of Robin's drums. I also use four groups on my remote layer. The remote feature of the DM2000 figures heavily into our ability to easily mix the show with a hybrid of an analog console and a digital console." (The PM5000s audio is fully analog, but it incorporates digital scene recall, fader control, and other digital control features.)

Morgan started out using the Yamaha PM1000 in the 70's and has been with the line through all its subsequent versions. He's mixed for Steely Dan, Bette Midler, Donald Fagen, and James Taylor (currently his "An Evening With" tour).

"The PM5000 is everything I ever wanted in a desk from Yamaha," says Morgan. "Fans of Paul, Steely Dan and James Taylor know good audio and they expect it when they come to these concerts. I want a console that's really transparent; one that doesn't get in the way of the band and the sound system." The Paul Simon touring rig includes a 44-box Clair i4 line array system, powered by Crest amps and driven by a Clair i/O loudspeaker control system, developed with Lake Audio. "The 5000 is as sonically accurate as any live console I have ever heard, and it's a great match for the clients I mix."

Morgan has been working on three Clair Bros.-owned PM5000s since September 2003, during which time he has never experienced one hardware or software functionality problem. (For the current Simon tour, he's back on Clair's 5000 no. 1 console, the board he originally used in 2003.)

In monitor world for the tour, engineer Larry Mignogna is using a Yamaha PM5D cascading to a DM2000. "We're using all wedges, no in-ear," he says, "and 12 mixes with no outboard gear. We share the DM2000 with Jerry Douglas, using 1 – 24 preamps. For my monitors, we go through three Yamaha AD8HR preamps." Jerry Douglas uses in-ear monitors. Rachel Adkins is monitor engineer for Douglas' band.

"When Rachel uses the DM2000," says Mignogna, "we have to disable the cascade between the PM5D and the 2000 on both consoles. Cascading the consoles cuts off the outputs to the 2000." Mignogna's experience with Yamaha consoles extends to his work with Alicia Keys and the PM1D.

The Paul Simon tour wrapped on July 30th, and Morgan will use a Clair Bros. PM5000 for "An Evening with James Taylor." For Taylor's "One Man Band" tour in the fall, he'll mix on the PM5D.

For more information, write Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc., P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; email infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamahaca.com.

About Yamaha:
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. offers a complete line of professional audio products for the commercial recording, production, broadcast, project studio, live sound, and sound reinforcement markets.