Crossing the continent with his ‘$ome $pecial $hows 4 U Tour’, Drake brought his trademark mix of rap, R&B and dance music to European arenas, igniting capacity crowds at every stop. At the helm of the show’s sonic arsenal was Demetrius Moore, Drake’s Front of House engineer since 2010.
“The beginning of the show is mostly his R&B records, so it starts with more of an intimate mix, like you’re in a theater, and the crowd sings along,” says Moore. “Then after five songs, it’s the first rap song and it hits you in the chest! The dynamics change to a more bass-heavy rap show that moves the crowd, and it takes off from there.”
The tour’s audio workflow centers around a pair of DiGiCo Quantum 852 consoles for Moore and monitor engineer Chris Lee, with both desks on an Optocore network that also supported three SD-Racks and one SD-MiNi Rack.
“My desk, I use it as an instrument,” explains Moore, noting how he used a variety of plug-ins and multiple snapshots per song to get the sounds he needed. “It’s definitely an effect-heavy show. The first song is ‘Marvin’s Room,’ and if you listen to the album, there’s a reverse gate reverb delay that is the whole vocal sound of that song- which we have to recreate live! It’s three effects: The vocal goes into the reverse gate, which goes into the reverb and that goes into the delay. I sat there for I don’t know how long, tweaking it until it was as close to the record as possible. It was a little bit of a challenge trying to get it exact, but we’re damn close. Not every song has crazy effects like that, but there are a lot throughout the show.”
No matter how crucial specific sounds were, however, the key to every song was still Drake’s voice. “I always start with the vocal,” notes Moore. “To quote Prince, ‘If the first words out of an artist’s mouth when they hit the stage aren’t heard, you’re a horrible engineer.’ They came to hear the artist, and what are you going to do- wait ’til the third song to get it together?”
Ensuring those first words were heard loud and clear, Drake’s vocals were captured with a Sound Devices Astral HH wireless handheld mic. The artist also heard himself wirelessly, via JH Audio in-ear monitors connected to a wireless pack.
Those monitors were necessary, as audiences were there to let loose. “I definitely don’t try and mix over the crowd,” says Moore with a chuckle. “I let them get it out of their system. I treat them as another instrument, as an equal part of the mix. If you heard a song without the crowd, you might be like, ‘Man, that part is a little loud,’ but come to the show and it actually sits in pocket with what the crowd is doing. Third song of the show, the cheering is so hot that I have to make sure that this sample—the most recognized part of the start of the song—is heard. They’re cheering, but once they hear it, they segue, going from yelling to singing the melody of that sample.”
