While there’s plenty of chaos when Slipknot take to the stage, there’s a precise formula when it comes to capturing their heavy metal carnage live. And the band’s front-of-house engineer, Bob Strakele, has given an unprecedented tour of his mixing console.
Strakele, who was also worked with AWOLNATION, Avenged Sevenfold and Erasure, explains that he has recently switched to Yamaha’s PM5 Rivage after 11 years on a Solid State Logic console. “I was just kind of ready to make a change,” he tells Kohle Audio Kult. “I went to the PM5 Rivage series by Yamaha, and I’ve done maybe 15 shows on it.”
The console is a Rupert Neve Designs collaboration, featuring tech from Bricasti and Eventide. As Strakele shows the host around, he explains: “It’s not just a GUI that looks fancy – it’s the real deal.”
While the number of channels coming out of the PA around “the high 60s, low 70s”, with 96 channels of inputs, Strakele only mixes the groups mid-show. “The fader levels pretty much stay flat,” he explains. “The groups… that’s where I spend the show.”