Tusker All Stars 2012

TUSKER ALL STARS 2012

 I have been meaning to post this for the last 2 months but the time and the commitment to do it seems so hard nowadays; hopefully there will be more consistent writing more for MTAA.

East Africa's biggest music television event was the Tusker All Stars reality TV show and I was very thrilled when the call came through to work on the show. The most exciting thing was the brief from the show's creators Stevie Price, Victor Seii and Heidi Uys, they planned on creating a music tv show that was a love-child between Jools Holland and the existing music tv format, Tusker Project fame! The fact that the show was going to be pre recorded was a huge stress reliever, yet a lot needed to be done to match the dream and actual reality on the ground i.e a very tiny production budget and very short time lines to deliver 8 -45 minute shows

The idea was to have ex-TPF contestants, the stars, having a sing-off, backed by three bands i.e. Ma3, The Villagers and Aaron Rimbui and the Tusker Project Fame band. With virtually no competition or award elements in the show's format, Tusker All Stars was to solely showcase breathtaking performances, shot in front of a small studio audience.

 My responsibilities were

1. Music Director [one of three]

2. Live show mix/ Head Audio Tech

3. Post production music mix

We had two stages handling a total of 3 bands,and  with little time for change overs we decided to have two bands one one stage [The villagers and Ma3] the other band [ Aaron Rimbui and the TPF band] had another. For such a complex setup we relied on the Yamaha M7CL as it allowed:

• Creating  average of 15 stage mixes per show [ there were 8 shows ]
•  FOH stereo mix
• Multitrack recording using external ADAT cards
• 36 inputs per show [ 3 different bands + vocals+ BVs *+ Hosts]

On the last show we had a stage split that enabled the gallery to create a fall back stereo safety mix .

The entire gear list:

1.     Two yamaha custom kits

2.     2- 24* 8 channel Samson  multicore snakes

3.     2 combo peavey bass combos 115 

4.     2 peavey KB 2 amps

5.      1 Peavey KB 3 amp

6.     Korg [ Karma & Triton] and Yamaha S90 ES Keyboards  

7.     Alesis HD 24

8.     Beringer ADAT 8 i/o  ADA800 * 3

9.     Shure Drum mics PGDMK6 SET [ 2 sets]

10.   MARC AUDIO MH-115 [ * 8] - for monitoring and  FOH

11.    Shure PGX2 wireless mics [ 11]

12.   Yamaha M7CL 48 with 2 MY16-AT cards

13.   Marshall MG4 Series Guitar Amp

Post Production

• Logic Studio 
• Ennovator Music Studios and Complete Pictures were the facilities used for the final audio mix
• A bazillion number of plugins

Learning Points and Notes

1. Multi-track recordings are great, but always have a decent stereo safety recording in case the drive crashes or one of the interns forgets to arm the recording tracks!

2. AutoTune is your friend in post-production. 

3. If the source material is recorded horribly no amount of tweaking can clean it or improve it.

4. If you record non-stop from 8pm to 2.30am... something will inevitably go wrong

Weakest Link

Marc Audios -Having a pair each side for F.O.H, targeting minimum of 200 pax was not a great choice. This decision was above my pay grade!

   
  Equipment/ Backline Supliers 

LiveGigs
EnnovatorMusic
FM Audio Systems
Complete Pictures

 Crew

Director: Heidi Uys 
Producer: Stevie Price 
Music Supervisor: Vic Seii 
Music Directors: Aaron Rimbui, Chris Adwar, Tim Rimbui 
F.O.H Dome/ Head Audio Tech: T.Rimbui  
Assistant FOH : Anderson, Jeff 
System Techs : Dickson Marende, Frank Mativo 
Audio Post: Vic Seii, Monk, Tintin, T. Rimbui 
Runners: Lawi, David Ogola,
Interns: Mo Force Crew 

  check out the video from episode 6 below




Tim Rimbui
MTAA © 2011


*BVS = Back Ground Vocalists 

Photos: Courtesy of Tusker All Stars and James Quest