Shure recently supported West Herts College students at an educational day of seminars and performances at Watford Colosseum.

Ahead of Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes third album release earlier this month, the band decided to support the college in their hometown with a masterclass and performance at the event.

The day consisted of three seminars. The first was a production talk with Frank and Dean from the Rattlesnakes on their approach to recording their third album with Cam Blackwood.  The second talk was with the band road crew and featured the bands tour manager Ian Dowdell, guitar teach, Elliot Russell and monitor engineer, Will Taylor covering life on the road. The final talk was with the bands manager Matt Greer, focusing on building a profile, the album campaign and developing an artist. These were followed by performances from three bands in the evening.

All of the bands were using Shure equipment, as sound engineer Mike Woodhouse explained: “As Rattlesnakes are long time Shure product users, we have a plethora of Shure gear aiding us in our live sound. Starting with microphones for this run we had a Beta 91A on the Kick, SM81 on the hi-hats and the old faithful SM58 across the front, on all drums, backing vocals and Franks vocal. The techs and I also use SM58 switch mics to communicate before and during the show. We have 4x dual PSM1000 IEM units, combined using the Shure PA821B active combiner and beamed across stage with the 8089 Shure Helical antenna.

“We also have 2 x Dual UR4D+ units for all guitar and bass, our guitar tech plays on some of the newer songs so having 4 x channels is great as we have a backup in case one starts getting RF interference. All wireless units are networked together with Cat5 so our monitor engineer can scan first thing and plot frequencies using wireless workbench for all IEM and guitar wireless. We always choose Shure for RF as it’s just unparalleled in quality and reliability.”

“There is a huge amount of creative and technical talent emerging into our industry right now, which is very exciting!” added Jack Drury, market development specialist pro audio, Shure (pictured above). “It’s our privilege as a manufacturer to work with institutions such as West Herts College, ensuring that their students have the opportunity to work with high tier wired and wireless microphones as part of their qualification. Perhaps more importantly than working with the equipment is the ability to share our experiences, knowledge and advice with the students, and ultimately help them start to build a successful career in the industry.”

Woodhouse concluded: “It’s companies like Shure that really need to interact with the up and coming engineers. With their support, relationships can build and hopefully flourish, creating a healthy support network group between Shure and the soon to be front runners for potential major acts. Getting involved early on is a great way to open young engineer’s minds to the finer details of microphone applications and the increased requirements for RF on stage.”