McDSP

One of America’s most popular Rock bands, Linkin Park, set out on its Projekt Revolution Tour this summer to rock out for millions of fans after having sold over 50 million albums since their birth in 1996. Front of House Engineer Ken “Pooch” Van Druten and partner Dylan Ely work together to bring not only a sonically perfect performance, but to also mix, record and edit a live show that fans can download shortly after the show.

Van Druten and Ely’s fast turnaround workflow relies entirely on AudioSuite versions of their go-to plug-ins, which include a handful of McDSP plug-ins. Van Druten says, “I’ve used McDSP stuff quite a bit in the studio. Analog Channel, Channel G, FilterBank, CompressorBank, all your stuff. Analog Channel is something I feel is very unique to you guys and I don’t think anyone’s nailed that analog simulation thing quite as well as McDSP has.” Van Druten and Ely tag team mixing, mastering, and editing with Ely focused on between-song noise, crowd noise, mixing andmastering, while Van Druten concentrates on the in-song track editing. Whether mixing live or in post production, Van Druten and Ely give McDSP plug-ins kudos for their ease of use and always being able to pull up great presets right on the spot.

“The presets are great starting points that are close to what I need. That makes me feel confident in using the plug-in. I feel the people designing it “get it”, they are not just crunching numbers and writing code. They actually listen to their plug-in and they know music, they understand what sounds good,” Van Druten says.

The live show is recorded with Pro Tools HD, using Digidesigns VENUE live sound system. Van Druten uses Channel G and ML4000 for the concert mix mainly for guitars and drums. “I was checking out the ML4000 multi-band on the mix buss, and it’s really cool.” With much experience as FOH engineer, Van Druten credits McDSP for bringing him new plug-ins that are even better than what he’s been used to. “When you know something you’ve listened to for a long time is replaced by a particular plug-in, and it makes it sound even better, it’s great. I’ve had that experience a couple of times with McDSP plug-ins.”

Both Van Druten and Ely had their heels dug into the analog board, but have finally come to terms with the new generation of digital. They swear by digital simulations of analog gear, such as that present in McDSP products, but fear that the next generation of engineers may never even touch a piece of rack gear. They encourage next generation engineers to learn to love plug-ins not because of how they look, but because they emulate high-quality sound.