Every Dogg Has Its Day

Kicking off four dates in the UK as part of his world tour Doggumentary, iconic rap star Snoop Dogg brought his chilled-out charm and melodic rap to Liverpool’s Echo Arena. The Californian cool character last performed in the city in May, when he entertained fans at the more intimate O2 Academy. But this time around, Snoop Dogg was playing a larger venue, requiring the crew to take a different approach to the show’s production.
    And even before the King of Bling, who was touring in support of his new album, also called Doggumentary, came onstage at the Echo, the crowd had been stirred into a frenzy by more than three hours of performances from support acts such as DJ MistaJam and rapper Chipmunk. Just before Snoop’s set, video screens either side of the stage were used to heighten the atmosphere further by displaying a montage of footage of the Dogg himself mixed with clips from the classic gangster film Scarface, set to the dramatic backing track of classical piece Carmina Burana.
    When the Doggfather swaggered into the spotlight wearing shades and loose clothing - befitting his trademark laidback style - the audience erupted into rapturous applause. But despite the star attraction’s casual demeanor, an upbeat and energetic vibe continued throughout the show; as the West Coast rapper delighted the diverse crowd with his signature blend of R ‘n’ B, hip-hop and gangsta rap.
    For Production Manager, Steve Sunderland, who was overseeing arena production on Doggumentary’s UK dates alongside Production Manager Tony Selinger, it was the sixth Snoop Dogg tour he had worked. Said Sunderland: “I’m familiar with artist’s production preferences and it’s been useful to have worked with the outfit before because they operate in a different way to other mainstream artists. It’s very laid back, but we all have timed deadlines, so it’s a question of making sure everything happens.”

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
Providing audio for Motörhead for more than 30 years and working with artists such as The Pogues and Pete Doherty has given Sunderland - from the two-pronged audio and production company Audiolease - a wealth of experience in different areas of the industry. Back in 2005, he was approached to put together a bid for Snoop Dogg’s upcoming UK tour, which went down so well he was asked to do the same for the European, American and Canadian tours. “Each one has been slightly different - it’s a new album and a new vibe this time around. There are less people involved in this tour too, which makes life easier in many ways,” commented Sunderland.
    The band’s tight schedule, travelling from one city to the next in quick succession, prohibited any pre-production for the crew in the Liverpool venue. Due to Snoop Dogg performing in Marseilles, France, the day before the show at the Echo Arena, all liaisons between artist engineers and Sunderland’s technical team took place via phone and email leading up to the performance.
    Despite it being a reasonably smooth-running production to plan, Doggumentary was not without the odd challenge. On previous dates of the tour, a backdrop featuring album artwork was displayed. However, as the backdrop only had an American fire certificate, this presented the team working on the show at the first UK venue with a problem. Said Sunderland: “It’s been tricky to get the backdrop certified at such short notice for the UK dates, but we’ve managed it. This was not done in time for the Liverpool show, but Hangman Backdrops dropped everything to process it for first thing in the morning for the show at London’s O2.”
    According to Head Rigger, Neil Pettit, the flexibility of the arena’s roof meant the build and de-rig was problem-free. “The roof comes down to you so you can put the points in and send it up, with the chain motors taking everything with it. With four riggers in the roof and two on the floor, we had all points in place in around an hour and a half,” said Pettit. During the build, Thomas A Type was used to construct three straight 50ft trusses - one at two metres off stage front, one at six metres onstage and another at 10 metres onstage.
A SLICK CREW
Most of Snoop Dogg’s shows are sold to promoters as “production supplied”, explained Selinger, who has worked with acts such as Megadeath and Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Snoop just carries a minimum of personal equipment - two DJ decks, two mixers and two instant replays. The local promoters have to supply everything else from backline to video,” said Selinger.
    With the UK arena dates, it made sense to carry a full production so Selinger worked with Sunderland and Ed De Vroome from UK tour promoter Mean Fiddler to take the budget that set aside each day for production, add it together and use it to fund the touring production. “That way Snoop gets the continuity of the same sound, lighting and video for each show. This saves everybody money and gives the audience a better show,” said Selinger.
    For UK Tour Manager Tara Anne Redavid, the amount of input Snoop Dogg has in the production planning is of great assistance on tour. “It’s fantastic Snoop is more involved in the process than most other artists. Doggumentary is a great tour to be part of and more like a rock show in its appearance, the way it’s budgeted, how we roll as a crew and the intensive travel,” said Redavid.
    The slick crew from Eat to the Beat made life easier for Redavid and the whole production team due to their understanding of the pressures on the crew touring. “On this type of arena tour, you’re looking at a 7am get-in and the first thing people want is a cup of coffee. Eat to the Beat take breakfast sandwiches out to the crew on stage because they know they haven’t got time to stop for a bite to eat,” said Sunderland.
    The show was stress-free as a result of the professional and helpful attitude of the bussing and trucking companies involved too. The production bus was provided by Y-Not, with trucking put in the capable hands of McGuinness and Coach Services supplied the band’s three buses.

PACKING SOME PUNCH
The upbeat theme that carried through many areas of the tour’s production also extended into its lighting design. Said Selinger: “Mr Dogg doesn’t like things too bright on stage so it’s always a challenge for the Lighting Director to create a dynamic show that has a laidback feel.”
    LD Alex ‘Junior’ Cerio’s main priorities included keeping the mood happy, whilst not distracting from the main performer. “Therefore I didn’t want trusses and trusses of kit. It was kept quite simple and open and very much about the man on stage.”
    During the show, Snoop and his entourage walk all over the stage so a decision was made to create a stage wash using bars of six Pro Can PAR 64’s. Moving heads lighting the show were 18 Robe Robin 600E spots, 12 Robe Wash 700E ATs and six Martin Atomic 3000 strobes, with four on the back truss and two on the mid. Two Robe Haze 500 FT Pro hazers were positioned either side of the back of the stage, with all follow spots supplied by the venue.
    Generic lighting from the front truss - providing face illumination onto the stage - was produced by 30 Thomas Par 64’s, four Avolites ART 2000 dimmer racks, four ETC Source Fours, six Thomas 4-Lite Molefays and two sets of Thomas Par 64 ACL bars on the back truss, with dimming via an Avolites ART 2000 T4 rack This alongside all other lighting kit was supplied by GLS Light and Sound.
    Said Lighting Technician from GLS Light and Sound, Karen Brown: “I regularly work on Motörhead tours, which are old school and have less moving heads, meaning focussing takes longer. As well as the moving heads on this show, the ACLs create an effect in the form of fingers of white light that produce flashes of light that pack a real punch.”
    Cerio, joined the Doggumentary tour for its UK dates, fresh from touring as LD with David Guetta - one of many artists Snoop Dogg has collaborated with. He partly chose the Chamsys Magic Q 200 as a lighting control console due to his familiarity with it after using the desk for Guetta’s show. “The Magic Q is a very modular system and adaptable in what it allows you to change, giving you a large canvas to play with. Its flexibility has made me fall in love with it.”
    A fairly simple rig was made up of three trusses, which were staggered to get as much efficiency as possible. Crowd blinders were all over the front of the truss, with Source Fours on key members of the band. Snoop Dogg had follow spots that stay on him for the majority of the show. “The downstage truss is completely generic and Robe Robin 600 spots and 700 washes were chosen for the back and mid truss for the output they offer for their size,” said Cerio.
    LED lighting was not selected for the show, with the crew believeing it would not gel with the vibe of the performance. “I see this as a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll show in its principles and having a lot of generic lighting is the best way to go. As much as LED is lighter and less power consuming, we know the venue can facilitate large rigs so we don’t need to squash the number of amps,” said Cerio.

MAGNIFYING SHOTS OF INTEREST
As well as playing an integral part in the build up to Snoop Dogg’s entrance, video featured prominently throughout the performance. Video Director Rob Mills - from Absolute Audio Visual Solutions, the company that provided all video equipment - first worked with the artist on his 2007 European tour. “As video was so important to Snoop last time, I put the same emphasis on it again. For the cameras shooting the show, it’s my call to choose what might be of interest. After all, it‘s not just about magnifying an image on the screen. Whenever I see the lights above the audience go up I get a camera shooting them and mix it together,” said Mills.
    On the UK dates, Mills worked alongside three video engineers - Ben Hodson, who controlled the robotic camera and imagery sent to the screens; FOH Camera Operator Charlie Gration and Projector Operator Josh Challans. Meanwhile, Mills directed the camera operators as to what should hit the screens and when.
    Prior to the show, Mills and his team prepared images - such as the artwork for Snoop Dogg’s new album - that could be used as graphics to display on the screens. These were used as a fallback to make sure the video crew always had content to put up on screen.
    “Video seems to be more key on a hip-hop tour than a rock ‘n’ roll tour and artists often have more content to use, so screens and projection are crucial. Originally, we were just going to show pre-recorded video footage and then a decision was made, due to the venue size, to add cameras,” highlighted Mills.
    Either side of the stage, Stumpfl Monoblox screens measuring 16ft by 9ft were flown off the truss to act as the main projection screens for the audience. A mixture of graphics and video filmed by three manned Sony DXC-D50 cameras and three Sony EVI D70 robo cams was then displayed using a pair of Christie HD8K projectors.
    To get two of the manned cameras in the pit high enough, they were placed on risers, whilst the FOH camera followed the primary artist. The robotic cameras were used to create general interest shots of the DJs and the band and could also look back out from the stage to the audience to get another perspective; giving a more dynamic shot without having to turn around a manned camera.
    Said Mills: “The Christie projectors are so robust, which is the reason we chose most of the equipment for the tour. Absolute’s primary industry is corporate and the projectors are great for that too because the image quality is phenomenal. The Stumfl screens stand up to the punishment of being in the live environment.”
    Two systems were used to control the video content - the Panasonic MX70 vision mixer switched between the cameras and the Barco Screen Pro II HD controlled other content and ensured all images were stable on the projectors. Hodson used a rack of four JVC 10-inch preview monitors to line up the robotic cameras, while Mills worked with a larger rack of screens to line up the bigger cameras.

CRANKING UP THE VOLUME ON STAGE
“The main requirement was to get it loud on stage but with no feedback and using the Yamaha PM5D monitor console we’ve chosen, it gets loud and still sounds great,” explained Monitor Engineer Marlon John, who joined Snoop Dogg’s tour crew eight months ago after working with artists such as Jay-Z and Lil Wayne.
    To achieve the high-volume, feedback-free sound, purely L-Acoustics monitor wedges were used on stage, with the PM5D generating 12 mixes for the band. This included two downstage mixes on V-DOSC wedges for backing vocalists and a main mix for Snoop Dogg.
    In addition, a V-DOSC wedge was placed by each of the two keyboard players, one by the bass player, one wedge and a dV-DOSC sub by the drummer and DJ and L-Acoustic ARCS were placed four per side for side fills. Said John: “L-Acoustics has manufactured the best line array speaker boxes over the past 10 years. They give you a great sound pressure level and for a hip hop show like this you need to be loud because that’s how Snoop likes it on stage.”
    A large number of wedges were positioned downstage to allow the vocalists to hear themselves wherever they were. “Due to the energy on the stage and the level we need to get the music for the vocalists, we use a lot of side fills too,” explained John.
    When the tour moves on from the UK, John plans to help the overall sound by using in-ear monitoring for the keyboard player and drummer - with the other musicians and vocalists remaining on wedges due to their preference for the feel of the speaker on stage next to them. Said John: “The stage is running at almost 110db per night and if I can take away some noise in the background for the musicians and keep it just at the front it will help audio at FOH and sound better for the audience.”

INCREDIBLE AUDIO COVERAGE
According to Sunderland, ensuring audio is of the highest quality is essential, allowing Snoop Dogg’s voice to “float over the top”. L-Acoustics equipment, supplied by Audiolease, was again chosen to make up the PA system, projecting every beat and lyric to the audience. “We felt it was the ideal for a venue of this size, with superb clarity and range. It offers incredible coverage and gives the whole arena as close to the same level across the board,” said FOH Systems Engineer Dave Camm.
    L-Acoustics V-DOSC cabinets were positioned 13 per side on the main hangs to cover up to around 180°, with three dV-DOSC subs underneath. The side hangs comprised three V-DOSC and six dV-DOSCs to give the extra coverage needed to reach all the way round to the sides of the arena. Four Dolby Lake processors were then used to control the entire speaker system.
    “It’s all about the amount of coverage. When planning a tour, you take into account the venues you’re going to and assess which warrant a lot of equipment being taken into them. We tailored the kit specifically to suit the Echo Arena venue but further boxes will be needed further along the tour. For example, tomorrow we have 22 more cabinets at the O2 show,” said Camm.

A SPECIAL TYPE OF LIVE ENERGY
For former studio engineer for Studio609 and tour manager for BET Brandon Henderson, who is currently working as FOH Engineer on the tour, Digidesign’s Profile console was the ideal choice for the 40 inputs he was working with. “I prefer digital because everything is in front of you. The desk makes the drums sound amazing and has a great range of plug-ins, cues and processors,” he said.
    Believing Snopp Dogg’s concert should be “like the album but with an extra live energy”; Henderson strives to match the album’s production values of albums at FOH. He explained: “I‘m using the Bomb Factory plug-in, extra-long delay and the standard reverb. For the drums, I also use a plate verb for the drums too so I can give it a place in the mix.”
    The show was recorded with a mixture of AVID Pro Tools and Logic combined with the video crew’s footage if the artist wants to see what the performance looked like: “I use Logic so I can bounce it out offline instead of real time. If I were to record each track individually, I use protools I link the board up with my laptop with 1 firewire cable and have all the tracks record separately then I have to cool editing functions of Pro Tools at my finger tips,” said Henderson.
    On stage, a wired Shure SM58 was selected for the DJ’s vocal mic, whilst the vocoder on stage utilised the Shure SM57. On the toms and snare, the SM57 was chosen again, with two Shure KSM 32’s positioned over the drums. A Shure Beta 91 was placed inside the kick drum and a Beta 52 was set up outside to give the desired low punchy feel.
    In true Snoop Dogg style, the rap royalty’s wireless vocal mic was configured by Telefunken Elektroakustic to feature his name in chrome. It was then adapted with a Shure UR-2 transmitter and sported the Telefunken Elektroakustik M80-WH capsule. According to Telefunken’s Artist Liaison Jason Scheuner - who worked with Snoop Dogg’s longtime FOH / Studio Engineer Dave ‘Dizzle’ Aron to adapt the mic - early versions were inadequately constructed and the oversized bling interfered with the wireless transmission.
    Said Henderson: “I feel privileged to work with such a beautiful instrument and the capsule on it sounds awesome. Buying quality equipment such as this means you don’t have to do much to it. Shure transmitters are very reliable and durable, which is important because they’re going to take a beating on a show like this.”
    Like all of the crew on Doggumentary, Henderson wants to be an integral part of the show every time he mixes. He elaborated: “You’ll see me bobbing my head along at FOH because I’m enjoying it so much. It’s not just a job for me, I want to be involved in the production process and to make the audience feel what I feel.”
    And from the crowd’s reaction at the Liverpool Echo Arena, it was clear that everyone felt part of the Doggfather’s performance.
TPi

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