(05/10/2014) Overnight success was slow in arriving for Ohio garage rock duo, The Black Keys (TBK). The band was active for over a decade in small clubs on the Midwest indie circuit before the big time finally caught up with them in 2010 with the release of their sixth album, Brothers, and its quirky hit single Tighten Up . We accidentally took off, remarked TBK's drummer, Patrick Carney.
We weren't expecting that. Nevertheless, they've had to get used to it as record sales and popularity have climbed steadily ever since, to the point where their eighth album, Turn Blue, released in May 2014, debuted at number one in Canada, the US and Australia, the band's first record to top the album charts anywhere. The band is currently in the midst of their Turn Blue worldwide tour complete with a full panoply of Sennheiser microphones specified by their long-time FoH engineer, Jason M. Tarulli, and fully endorsed by monitor engineer Rob Elliot.
copyrighted by Chris Isaac Tarulli has been with the band since their early days, starting out in small Ohio clubs and living out of the back of a van. He clearly did a good job as Carney and the other half of the duo, guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach, have remained loyal to him throughout. Tarulli experienced the meteoric rise to fame right alongside the band, learning as they learned how to transition from small and medium-sized clubs to sold-out 10,000-seater arenas. Naturally, that has had a certain impact on the kind of gear available to the band It's great to be able to choose what we want after so many years of having to make do with anything and everything! said Tarulli. As far as Sennheiser is concerned, this is the first tour where we've had Sennheiser gear throughout, and so far it's been great.
The Black Keys' production manager Anthony Pitcher is a long time Sennheiser friend and was instrumental in cementing the relationship with Jason Tarulli and Rob Elliot. I've used the Sennheiser line exclusively for years, said Pitcher. It wasn't a tough sell with my audio team they're brilliant engineers who already had a thorough knowledge of the product line. It was just up to me to bring it to the table for this band.
Overall, I'm really into the classic sound and feel of Sennheiser mics like the MD 441, 421 and the e 906, said Tarulli. I went for a combo of e 906 and MD 421 for Auerbach's main guitar rig, with the 906 placed near the centre of the cone to get all the mid/hi-mid details plus the crunch and fuzz that comes from the Marshall amp and Fender guitar, and the 421 placed midway or nearer to the outer edge of the cone to get the low-mid warmth. Blended together, that makes for a nice, full, big-sounding guitar. I've got a 906 on the rhythm guitar because it's a great mic for guitars, (actually, I think the 906 is an all-round great mic, period. You could use it for almost anything loud and it would sound fantastic) and a 421, the classic bass guitar mic, on bass. You can't really go wrong with this choice, the 421 has excellent low/low-mid response.
copyrighted by Chris Isaac For the drums, Tarulli explained that as Neumann microphones had been used for making the records, the idea was to carry some of them over for the live drum sound in conjunction with Sennheiser equipment. He opted for an e 901 and e 902 for the kick drum, stating them to be respectively, a good, solid inside kick mic to get the sound of the attack and the drum shell tone and the outside mic to get more of the drum head sound. He went for an MD 441 on the snare ( a solid mic with good rejection ) and a Neumann KM 184 on the hi-hat which he described as a small condenser mic that gets the sizzle of the hi-hats without sounding thin. He also went for KM 184s as overhead mics. The KM 184 is an excellent small-diaphragm condenser with good detail the cymbals are full sounding, not thin or washy and it also complements the microphones on the rest of the kit for a more natural feel, he explained.
For the rest of the kit, Tarulli decided on an MD 441 for the cow bell: Overkill? Maybe! he laughed, but it really makes the cowbell feel full and even. Also, I can push the fader up when things get quiet to add a little extra ambience to the snare. His final choice regarding the drum kit was an e 904 for the tom-toms, which is perhaps the choice he is the most pleased with. The biggest problem I had for a while was with the tom mics, he recalled. I love mics like the 421 for toms, but mics that size can be difficult to focus and the stands can be clumsy and take up too much real estate on the drum riser. Most drummers can't help but hit them . sometimes fatally! The 904 solved all my problems it's compact, clips easily onto the drum, won't come loose or fall off, even after the occasional wild hit from a drumstick, and sounds great.
Last but not least, Tarulli decided on e 945s for both the tambourine and main vocals. The 945 is a good all-round mic with excellent rejection and proximity effects, he remarked. The tambourine comes through really well, even in the midst of a loud stage, and it does the same job for the vocals, resulting in nice clear vocals and a crisp-sounding tambourine.
The final word went to Sennheiser Canada's Chris Isaac who handles artist relations and has been looking after the band: It's great to have The Black Keys on board, he said. They are a fantastic rock duo with great stage presence who never fail to bring the house down with their live performances wherever they go. They also happen to be really cool guys, along with their team, who are a pleasure to work with.
The Black Keys are currently working their way round the US before breaking for Christmas and a month off. In February they will embark on a second European
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
(05/10/2014) Overnight success was slow in arriving for Ohio garage rock duo, The Black Keys (TBK). The band was active for over a decade in small clubs on the Midwest indie circuit before the big time finally caught up with them in 2010 with the release of their sixth album, Brothers, and its quirky hit single Tighten Up . We accidentally took off, remarked TBK's drummer, Patrick Carney.
