FOH Engineer John Kerns Praises Audio-Technica’s Performance On No Doubt Tour
(Audio-Technica | Posted 2003-02-12)
For the past 15 years, the unique musical style of No Doubt has kept them on the cutting edge of the rapidly evolving pop culture scene. Formed in early 1987, No Doubt started out playing the party-band circuit around their hometown of Anaheim, CA. The group’s diverse appeal and energetic performances attracted regional interest, and No Doubt were signed to Interscope Records in 1991. The band’s 1995 breakthrough Tragic Kingdom, which sold over 10 million albums worldwide, officially launched No Doubt as international superstars. While on tour in support of their latest release, Rock Steady, FOH (front-of-house) engineer John Kerns, who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Shania Twain, Sammy Hagar, Styx, Ringo Starr, and Stevie Nicks, chose a wide range of Audio-Technica microphones to cover just about every base on the stage.
“I actually began using Audio-Technica microphones a bit later than a lot of people,” recalls Kerns. “I had decided to try some different microphone options, and kept running into all these A-T mics at the TV shows and large events. I thought they all sounded great, so I contacted Audio-Technica and got a selection of mics to try when No Doubt went into production rehearsals. I immediately liked what I heard!”
Kerns used a broad array of A-T microphones on all aspects of No Doubt’s stage setup. For Gwen Stefani’s vocals on the large shows, Kerns chose the new Artist Elite™ 4000 Series wireless system, which comprises the AEW-R4100 receiver and AEW-T6100 hypercardioid dynamic microphone/transmitter. On Adrian Young’s drum kits, Kerns utilized an ATM23 for snare bottom and cowbell, AT3035’s for overheads, and AT3031’s on hi-hats. AT4060 and ATM25 mics were used for Tom Dumont’s guitars, and an AT4047 was employed for Tony Kanal’s bass guitar cabinet. In addition, No Doubt did a live acoustic show on KROQ radio for which Kerns chose the AE3000’s for percussion (congas, bongos, etc.), AE5100’s on hi-hat and percussion overheads (hand toys), and the ATM25 for kick and snare. Kerns also decided to use an Artist Elite 4000 Series wireless system with the new AEW-T3300 handheld condenser transmitter for Stefani’s vocals on this acoustic show.
When Kerns reflects on his experiences using Audio-Technica mics with No Doubt, he sums up his feelings by saying, “I gotta tell you, the consistency is great, the sound is great, and the durability is pretty amazing. I took only one of the AT4060 tube mics out with us, and I carried that thing all over the world — two U.S. tours, a summer jaunt through the European festivals, Asia, Australia, checked the mic on airplanes, freight, et cetera…it held up beautifully and never had a problem. In fact, all of the A-T mics held up great through the year!”
