The band has just come off the road after a four-week UK tour, and will be touring Ireland in December, as well as playing a number of gigs across the country. Dennis has worked with SLF for more than four years, and in that time has worked hard with the band to develop engineering and mic techniques to get the very best sound, and capture the full excitement of their performance. Dennis's vocal mic of choice is the Artist EliteĀ AE5400 cardioid condenser, perhaps not what you would immediately expect a singer like Jake Burns to use.
"Jake's vocal range has a lot of hi-mid frequencies, and being punk, the guitars are very hi-mid as well," says Fernandez. "I went through a lot of different mics before settling on the AE5400. After having tried so many dynamic models, it sounded a lot fuller, but it responded in the same way a really good dynamic would - very in your face, but also very clear. It gave a lot of gravity to his voice and clearly reproduced all the low- mid in his voice that I just wasn't achieving with any other mic."
Dennis has subsequently extended use of the AE5400 to all vocals, miking up bass player Bruce Foxton and guitarist Ian McCallum. Fernandez previously 'understudied' with Metallica FOH engineer, 'Big' Mick Hughes. Among the many techniques he picked up from 'Big' Mick was the use of the AE2500 dual element mic for kick drum and bass cabs. The two capsules, one condenser one dynamic, are perfectly phase aligned, and each has an independent output to allow balancing of the signals.
"I was having phase problems miking guitar cabs with separate dynamic and condenser mics, and losing a lot of body in the sound, " says Fernandez. "So I thought of trying the AE2500 with its fixed perfect alignment between the two elements, and I was totally knocked out by the sound - totally brilliant." 'Big' Mick also uses the AE2500 on guitar cabs for exactly the same reasons.
Dennis has an extensive A-T kit which travels with him for use with whoever he is working for. Other regular gigs include Casbah Club, Kathryn Williams, and recently he has also worked with Rufus Wainwright. Fernandez has praise for Audio -Technica microphones across the range: "They are extremely well engineered and hard wearing. They survive an awful lot of punishment compared with some other well known brands. They are extremely versatile and highly cost effective across the range."
(Lee Baldock)
