SEATTLE, Washington - March 2022 - With Pearl Jam currently in the process of rescheduling its four-month North American Gigaton tour, which was postponed amid coronavirus concerns two years ago, frontman Eddie Vedder recently tested the touring waters with a brief road trip to support his new solo release, Earthling. Backed by a stellar band of fellow Earthlings -including Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Glen Hansard (The Frames), Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction), Josh Klinghoffer (touring Pearl Jam/RHCP member), and Andrew Watt (Grammy Award-winning producer of Earthling)-Vedder's tour spanned nine shows across six US cities throughout February.
Not only did this trek serve as the singer/songwriter's first solo tour in more than a decade, but it also marked the first time that Pearl Jam's longtime front-of-house engineer, Greg Nelson, manned his mix from behind a new DiGiCo Quantum338 mixing console supplied by touring sound company RAT Sound. Meanwhile, on monitors, Karrie Keyes, who has been with Pearl Jam from the start, moved from her usual SD5 worksurface to an ultra-compact SD11 to exclusively focus on Vedder, while Brett Heet mixed in-ears for the band on an SD5.
Although Nelson has been Pearl Jam's mix engineer for 18 years, his first tour spent behind a DiGiCo desk was with the Goo Goo Dolls in 2013. I did that tour on an SD10 and loved it, so I started mixing Pearl Jam on an SD5 that year as well, he recalls. Around 2017, I switched over to another console brand, but after a couple of years, I found that I really missed the workflow and sound of the DiGiCo. By that time, the company had just come out with their 32-bit input cards, which made my decision to go back to the SD5 very easy.
In early 2021, Pearl Jam did some shows and Nelson transitioned over to a Quantum7. While I loved all the things that Quantum gave me, I missed the SD5 surface because I use the center screen for mixing, he says. I asked RAT if they could upgrade the SD5 with a new Quantum engine, but they in turn asked me if I would be interested in mixing on a new Quantum338. After getting my hands on one for a day, I absolutely fell in love. The worksurface is perfect for how I mix and it had all the amazing Quantum toys to play with.
Key among those Quantum toys is the Spice Rack processing section. I am really loving the Naga 6 six-band dynamic EQ, which I use on acoustic guitars and some background vocals, Nelson reports. I also use as many of the Mustard processing channels as I can. With both of these tools, I've eliminated a lot of the plugins I was using before. I still have some outboard gear that I use and have fun with, but with Mustard and the Spice Rack I can get by with carrying far less. And let's talk about those three big 1000-nit screens-they're beautiful! Everything is so clear and much easier to see for my lousy old-man eyesight!
For Vedder's Earthling tour, Nelson reports that he mixed approximately 65 inputs coming from the stage, which were shared on an Optocore loop with Keyes and Heet down in monitor world. For Keyes, the switch to an SD11 proved to be the right choice for this run as well.
Ed has a complex monitor system, so Brett and I thought it was best to divide up the duties so I could focus solely on Ed while he could give his full attention to the band, which proved to be a good call, she says. Ed does not use IEMs. Instead, he has seven vocal and instrument mixes put across wedges, ground sidefills, and flown sidefills. I had the full input list so could access anything that was needed, and I was able to put my workflow in a format that was much smaller but still easily accessible. We were playing sold-out theaters on this run, and while Brett's SD5 had to be crammed onstage, I could go just about anywhere-including the front row, where I occasionally mixed from. I've started using the SD11 for Ed's other solo gigs-his smaller, more stripped-down ones-and it's worked out quite well.
When Pearl Jam's tour picks back up in a couple of months, Keyes will transition back to a SD5 to mix the main five-piece band, with fellow monitor engineer Tommy Caraisco mixing touring sidemen Boom Gaspar and Josh Klinghoffer, the tech mixes, and the support band. But as for Nelson, it's the Quantum338 from here on out based on his first experience with the new desk.
The crowds were so excited on the Earthling tour, he says. I was able to quickly get a solid mix together with almost no rehearsals, and I got such great feedback the audience. Pearl Jam's input list is closer to 90 inputs, so I'm just barely going to fit that tour onto the Quantum338, but I've been having so much fun getting back to mixing again, and this console has been a big part of that!
For details on Eddie Vedder's tour and Pearl Jam's upcoming tour dates, visit www.pearljam.com. RAT Sound can be found online at www.ratsound.com.
DiGiCo Press Contacts:
Maria Fiorellino at DiGiCo
Tel: +44 1372 845600
Email: maria@digiconsoles.com
Web: www.digico.biz
Chris Shuler at Public Address
Tel: +1 574 514 7131
Email: christophershuler@comcast.net
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...
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...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
SEATTLE, Washington - March 2022 - With Pearl Jam currently in the process of rescheduling its four-month North American Gigaton tour, which was postponed amid coronavirus concerns two years ago, frontman Eddie Vedder recently tested the touring waters with a brief road trip to support his new solo release, Earthling. Backed by a stellar band of fellow Earthlings -including Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Glen Hansard (The Frames), Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction), Josh Klinghoffer (touring Pearl Jam/RHCP member), and Andrew Watt (Grammy Award-winning producer of Earthling)-Vedder's tour spanned nine shows across six US cities throughout February.
