Red, White & True:
Sound Man Earl Neal on Wireless

In this issue, we are profiling Earl L. Neal, audio engineer and 20-year veteran of the pro sound industry. He's spent the past four years working for Sound Image, a California-based sound company that handles tours that range from Brian Wilson to Brad Paisley (and just about every other act you can name).

Earl has spent the past several months on tour with country legend Toby Keith. He agreed to take a little time with us to talk about his wireless system experience past and present.


You're touring with Toby Keith.
We're on a break right now. We do the tour in two legs. The summer leg starts in June or July and runs through Thanksgiving about 80 shows, generally. Then, we'll start up again right after New Years and continue through March. I just did our last winter leg last Monday.

Let's talk about how you got started.
I'm from Higginsville, Missouri, a small town just east of Kansas City. I've been mixing sound since my freshman year of high school working with local bands. A friend of mine and I started a mobile DJ service and that's basically what I did to get my start. I worked the DJ business part time while I was going to college.

Was your college major related at all to sound engineering?
(Laughs) Not in the least. I have a degree in Aviation Technology. My minor, though, was in music production.

I moved to Nashville in 1992 and got my first real road gig and started making my living as an engineer at that time. My first national act was Jack Robertson. He was on Step One Records, the same label that had Clinton Gregory and a couple of other acts. I worked with Jack for about a year and a half and then I went to work for Twister Alley. I was with them for about two and half years and since that time I've worked with artists like Lone Star, Patty Loveless, Lenny Kravitz, Rod Stewart and Aerosmith.

You've covered a few genres, haven't you?
Yeah, when I started working at Sound Image four years ago, they started working me in more capacities than just country music.

You've been running sound for about twenty years and you must have had a range of experiences with wireless mics in all that time.
The first time I ever used a wireless mic was in the mid-80s with a local band. We also had a wireless mic for our DJ company. All of them sounded pretty poor by today's standards and they were either VHF or FM at that time. The range was short and there was always interference either a CB radio or a local radio station was walking on you. VHF television or something. There was always something in the way. It was never a beautiful thing.


But performers and engineers still used them, in spite of dropouts or interference...
Absolutely! Remember the bit in "Spinal Tap", where Nigel's guitar wireless picked up air traffic controller communications? That's exactly the kind of stuff that was going on back then. There was no UHF wireless, first off. And secondly, the FCC wasn't paying any attention to space for wireless microphones. It was the last thing on their list of worries.

Fast forward to the present. What the maximum number of systems you've used onstage?
We have thirty-five wireless systems onstage with Toby (Keith) microphone, instruments and in-ear personal monitor systems. And it works great because we use the Wireless Workbench. I put in the different systems that we're using. It'll do a scan in about thirty minutes and create a list of possible options for frequencies that should be good in that area.

Up until UHF-R came out, I used the Shure website more than anything else. They have a wireless frequency finder there and you just put the zip code in and you can find the white space that's available.

When do you do that? At sound check? Before sound check?
Early in the morning, as soon as I can get in the building and get everything set up. It's kind of a hands-off thing. You get the scan started and then it does its deal until it generates the paperwork for you. I'll take that and then I go back to the Shure website and compare it to the information that's there just to make sure that we're not going someplace that we shouldn't go.

What about overseas? You've done world tours, no doubt.
When you're moving around Europe, you're sometimes two hours from another country. Every country has an equivalent of our FCC and they each have their own idea of the best way to handle things for instance, the frequency bands that they allow TVs to operate in. Unless it's a huge act that's doing a full on European tour, we rent locally. The local sound company can tell you which frequencies are going to be good. Otherwise, you just turn the equipment on and try to find space.

With thirty-five wireless systems, that can take a lot of time.
When you're overseas, you gig often because the promoters spend so much to get you over there. We travel overnight and gig the next day. Whoever is handling the wireless gets the gear up and running as quickly as possible to find open air. I've been on tours where we've had a 'wireless wrangler', but in the States, it's usually the audio crew chief or the monitor engineer who is in charge of handling all the wireless.

What kind of act warrants a 'wireless wrangler'? The Rolling Stones?
It's got to be an act of that scale and magnitude. For instance, if Aerosmith is doing a world tour and playing in places like Kuala Lumpur or Argentina, they may have a person like that, working a city ahead, contacting local people and making sure that he knows where he's going to be on his wireless the next day.

That sounds like a full-time job.
It is, and even something as great as the Wireless Workbench isn't going to help you in Taipei unless you have a bunch of gear made for use in Taiwan.

Shure Notes thanks Earl L. Neal for taking the time to talk to us on what was clearly a much-needed break in a busy touring schedule. Learn more about Sound Image here. More about Earl? www.burnlounge.com/earlneal.