User:CrowzRSA/Sandbox/Sandbox 2/AHIG tour

Background

In early February 2008, Mick Thomson confirmed that they would be performing at the 2008 Mayhem Festival. Corey Taylor related: "This summer we are truly bringing Mayhem. Slipknot is excited to be a part of it, and to be able to bring the new chapter of our history to the masses. We are already working, building and designing a new show." The band began recording their fourth studio album All Hope Is Gone In late February 2008.

Lighting

Lawrence Upton acted as the tour's director, Philippe Vachon acted as the tour's programmer and lighting co-director. As Vachon explains, Upton wanted "very aggressive lighting that would attack and have punch" because Slipknot's music was very aggressive. Upstage provides the gear package, which include 10 Martin Professional MAC Profiles and 54 Martin Mac 2000 Wash units. Assistant lighting designer Dave Watson explained that the 10 Martin Professional MAC Profiles are used as "key lights", while 54 Martin Mac 2000 Wash units generate higher light output. Issues arose during the tour, specifically where members were barely visible due to the lighting. Vachon relates: "There is so much show in your face that we would lose the guys on stage; we had to beef up the front-of-house trusslot of white."

The rig consisted of a Front of House truss, two three-quarter angled trusses, and two straight mid-stage trusses. These were all located upstage, and had two sub-hung trusses directly below them. There are two Lycian Starklite medium-throw truss spots, and an accumulation of specialty lights. The specialty lights include 54 two-light Molefays, six PAR 36 rotating beacons, 24 Martin Atomic 300 Strobes, 2 six-light Molefays, and 10 four-light Molefays. The rig also has LED units, which are capable of being very bright, which are shined into the audience. Throughout the tour, 65 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12s, seven Color Blaze 48s, and twelve CK ColorBlaze 72s were used as the wall of light.

Instead of a media server, the GrandMA console is used for MA Lighting. Vachon explains that the GrandMA console is "the desk you can do the most with LEDs; if you want to go further, you need a media serverCTB and a pale lavender.” A full-sized GrandMA console was used assistant lighting designer. Two NSPs were also used, providing the necessary extra channels. As explained by Watson, The show's color palette was somewhat restricted. There is mostly white lights, but there was also lighter colors, which were what Upton used to get the most output. The original palette was also based on colors like amber, steel blue, sea green, and orange. Late in the tour Vachon would add additional bursts of color, which included intense oranges, reds, and violets.

Sound production

David “Shirt” Nicholls was positioned as audio mixer on a Digidesign Venue with both the Eventide Anthology Pack and Venue Pro Pack. Nicholls explains: “I couldn't be without the Venue. Also, I have my trusty A-T 4050 microphones; they take a battering on a Slipknot stage. It's not unusual to see one of the vocal mics (T6100s) go flying up into the seats only to be back up onstage the next day working fine — I'm sure they're bullet-proof!” The Meyer P.A., which accumulates 16 MILO boxes, nine Nexo CD-18 subs, and six flown HP700s on the ground per side, was solely provided by Thunder Audio.

System control is controlled by Meyer Sound Galileo. The side-hang featured 10 MICA boxes per side, with four UPJs for front-fills. Ron Hurd, the tour's monitor engineer, mixed the show using a Yamaha PM5D console. Hurd relates: “I'm not using any plug-ins or rack gear except for an [Apogee] Big Ben word clock. Six of the nine guys are on ears: Ultimate Ears with Sennheiser G2s.”