Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

A Riff on Heritage: Alien Weaponry Keeps Ancient Family Traditions Alive!

10/10/2019

Let's take a minute and acknowledge some of our favorite TV dads:

Now let's introduce you to one of the coolest dads out there, Neil de Jong. He is the audio engineer and dad to two of the three-member tribal thrash-metal band Alien Weaponry. Like a good dad, he taught them the value of hard work. The band worked multiple jobs after school and on weekends, played tons of shows and funded all their own gear, full of instruments and recording equipment! Neil also served as the group's manager until its recent signing to German music agency Das Maschine. He always went out of his way to teach his sons about M ori history and culture which is a massive influence on their music.

Alien Weaponry is a heavy metal band from Waipu, New Zealand, formed in 2010 by brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong. The band consists of Lewis de Jong (guitar and vocals), Henry de Jong (drums), and Ethan Trembath (bass guitar). Revolver Magazine called them one of the best young metal bands in the world right now! Alien Weaponry not only draws on the traditional M ori haka war-dance for their music, but often sing in the M ori language of Te Reo-and by doing so, are keeping the language alive. Pretty metal, right!?

They are currently killing it on tour, and we had the opportunity to hear all about it-and their rig, which includes a StudioLive RM32AI and a StudioLive CS18 AI. Neil took the time to answer a Q&A, below.

Hey Neil, give me some basic background info on your career and current projects.

I am 53 years old and have spent much of my life doing sound in one way or another. I spent my early years (like many) playing guitar in bands. When I was in my early 20s I landed a job working in a recording studio and trained there as a mastering engineer. I worked for many years on music and film projects as a post-production sound engineer and when Alien Weaponry started to make a name for themselves internationally I took on the role of live sound operator. I won Record Producer of the Year in last year's New Zealand Music Awards for my work on Alien Weaponry's album, T , which also won Best Rock Album and made dozens of Top Albums of 2018 lists worldwide.

What PreSonus product(s) have you used in the past and which do you currently use?

I work for Alien Weaponry, who are a young thrash metal band from New Zealand that I have had a long association with-I'm their dad! I started off with an StudioLive RM16AI and an iPad. This was initially to help the band out with a rehearsal space set up, but we found it made a great compact FOH rig too. I then acquired a 23-inch HP touchscreen to use which greatly enhanced the system. About two years ago, I acquired a CS18AI and an additional RM16 which I used for touring in Australasia with Alien Weaponry. I now own three RM32AI rigs, each with a CS18AI and AVB. I use these as my main touring rigs in the three main locations we tour in the world (North America, Europe, and Australasia) I still have the RM16s and recently bought a 24R for the rehearsal studio as the band wanted to record stuff straight to SD card. I have done some fly dates just with the 24R and a touch screen laptop.

For what applications are you using the product(s)?

I have been mixing on my RM32AI/CS18AI rigs at some of the world's largest heavy metal festivals in Europe, America, and Australasia. (Download UK, HellFest France, Wacken Germany, Metaldays Slovenia, Chicago Open Air amongst others) The band also toured with Anthrax and Slayer last season in Europe and we played everything from 1,200 cap clubs to 20,000 cap arenas. I am almost always running the smallest mixing console at FOH, and it does raise eyebrows. Most guys are on the larger Midas, Digico or Avid consoles. After we play, many want to know what I am mixing on and are surprised by the sound.

What led you to choose these particular PreSonus product(s)? Was it the company's reputation, audio quality, specific features, price, other factors?

At the time I was looking for a mixed setup I had investigated the lower-end offerings by Midas and the Behringer X32. I decided to go with the PreSonus RM partly based on the architecture and a recommendation from the guys in New Zealand who run The Rock Shop (from whom I purchased my first RM16AI) Price was definitely a consideration and as it was for a rehearsal space a small footprint was a huge factor too.

Having used the gear, what do you like most about the specific PreSonus product(s) you use so far?

I really like the architecture of the AI-Series stuff. I like that the CS18AI is only a control wing as well as the flexibility I have with iPads and touchscreen laptops. Our monitor mix guy mixes directly to the system with his iPad from the side of the stage during shows. He and the band are on in-ear monitors. I also really like the sound of the PreSonus preamps too and think they sound better than many more expensive options I have encountered at big shows. Certainly better than the Avid/Digidesign console in my opinion.

In each of the PreSonus product(s) you use, what features have proven particularly useful for your specific workflow and why?

I think the stage box layout of the RM32AI is perfect for big festival shows with all XLR inputs and outputs on the front of the box. We have our ears wired in on the DB24 connectors on the back, and they conveniently live in the same SKB rack. We have been up and running in as little as 10 minutes with mics all line-checked and ready to go. I also like were the Tap Tempo and FX Mute button are on the CS18IA-right under my thumb.

Any user tips or tricks or interesting stories based on your experience with PreSonus gear?

I like that I can run music for testing the rig from FOH and that our stage mix guy runs the house music from the RMs position on stage. He is able to do a silent soundcheck/line check using his in
LINK: https://blog.presonus.com/index.php/2019/10/09/riff-heritage-alien-wea...
See more stories from presonus

More from PreSonus

16/08/2024

Keyswitching with Smaller Keyboards

By Craig Anderton Keyswitch keys enhance expressiveness by letting you trigger various real-time articulations for instruments like strings, brass, guitars, an...

09/08/2024

How to Get the Most Out of the Channel Editor

By Craig Anderton The Channel Editor places all of a mixer Channel's elements-level fader, inserts, sends, individual effects, input controls, routing, mac...

02/08/2024

Free Download: 25 Analog Cab IRs!

By Craig Anderton Yes, just click here to download 25 Analog Cab IRs.zip. The IRs are 1024 samples long, 48 kHz, 24-bit, and mono, so they work with pretty muc...

26/07/2024

Creative FX Sound Design

By Craig Anderton It's been a while since we've had a post for sound design fans. So, let's create some crazy FX for sci-fi/suspense/horror movies,...

24/07/2024

Brandon Ellis | Take the Leap | Quantum Audio Interfaces

The Black Dahlia Murder guitarist and New Jersey native talks about taking his leap. A life in music requires passion, creativity, dedication - and for many cr...

19/07/2024

A Dive Into Inside-Out Mixing

By Craig Anderton There's no right or wrong way to mix. For example, many successful engineers adjust individual tracks, and then mix groups of tracks....

12/07/2024

5 Session-Saving Tips for Studio One

By Craig Anderton I admit it: the following tips are based on personally embarrassing experiences. I like to work fast to keep the creative juices flowing, but...

05/07/2024

The Ultimate Creative Block Unlock

By Craig Anderton You've probably seen ads for packs of MIDI chords that claim to help you write hits that will make your listeners' jaws drop in amaze...

28/06/2024

Grab Cab Impulses for Ampire from Any Amp Sim

By Craig Anderton Some of my favorite guitar sounds involve using Ampire's amp, bypassing its cab, and adding a cab from the Helix Native plugin. Others in...

26/06/2024

Mad Keys | Take the Leap | Quantum Audio Interfaces

The self-taught multi-instrumentalist and St. Louis native talks about taking his leap. A life in music requires passion, creativity, and dedication - and for ...

21/06/2024

Dynamics Processing for MIDI Velocity

By Craig Anderton Sure, you can follow your virtual instrument with an audio compressor. But there's a problem: an instrument's dynamics and expressive...

20/06/2024

KOTA the Friend & RMB Justize | Studio One x TuneCore

Watch the independent artist and Wiz Khalifa producer cook up a song in a single day Imagine meeting someone for the first time and making a song together. Tha...

14/06/2024

Studio One's Keyswitching Secrets

By Craig Anderton Announcement: The 2nd Edition of The Huge Book of Studio One Tips and Tricks is now available as a free download for owners of previous versi...

07/06/2024

Unlock New, Unique Vocoder Effects

By Craig Anderton Usually, the Vocoder inserts into a track that provides the modulation, and the Vocoder's sidechain receives the carrier. But why be norm...

06/06/2024

Louis Michot | Take the Leap | Quantum Audio Interfaces

The GRAMMY-winning fiddler, songwriter, and New Orleans native talks about taking his leap. A life in music requires passion, creativity, dedication - and for ...

31/05/2024

A Guitar Solo Trick You've Never Heard Before

By Craig Anderton Let's get right to what this sounds like. It's not quite feedback or tape reverse, it's well, listen to what it does in this blue...

24/05/2024

Add Punch & Snap to Drum Hits

By Craig Anderton A Pro EQ3 stage's gain can respond dynamically to incoming signal level, so that louder inputs kick the gain higher (or lower). But Studi...

22/05/2024

How To Distribute Your Music with Studio One From Creation to Digital Streaming Platforms

If you're a PreSonus user, you're probably pretty hands-on in producing ...

17/05/2024

Studio One: Your Binaural Beats Lab

By Craig Anderton When I heard about binaural beats, I was interested-I like beats, and I'm into binaural audio. But this has nothing to do with either o...

15/05/2024

The Pocket Queen | Take the Leap | Quantum Audio Interfaces

Professional drummer, producer, and New Orleans native talks about taking the leap. A life in music requires passion, creativity, and dedication - and for many...

08/05/2024

Introducing the All-New Quantum Audio Interfaces

Take the Leap with the Next Generation of PreSonus Audio Interfaces MEET THE ALL-NEW FAMILY OF QUANTUM AUDIO INTERFACES The culmination of nearly 30 years of ...

08/05/2024

INTRODUCING QUANTUM

Take the Leap with the Next Generation of PreSonus Audio Interfaces MEET THE ALL-NEW FAMILY OF QUANTUM AUDIO INTERFACES The culmination of nearly 30 years of ...

03/05/2024

Groove Hacking with Multiband Gating

by Craig Anderton About four years ago, I did a tip on multiband gating. Although it was a cool effect, it was guitar-centric, cumbersome to edit, and time-con...

26/04/2024

The Real-Time 6-to-12-String Guitar Converter

By Craig Anderton With this technique, when you play a standard 6-string electric guitar, you'll hear the rich, vibrant sound of a 12-string guitar. The pr...

19/04/2024

Impact XT's Secret Clip-Launching Talents

By Craig Anderton Impact XT can launch clips, which is great for songwriting (see the blog post Songwriting with Impact XT). But few people realize that Impact...

12/04/2024

Make Better Mixes with Selective EQ

By Craig Anderton Good mixes often depend on carving out a unique sonic space for each instrument, so you can hear them clearly. Sometimes carving out that spa...

05/04/2024

Multitimbral Magic with MIDI Guitar

By Craig Anderton MIDI guitars are a niche product, because the learning curve can be daunting for some guitar players. However, I'm surprised how many pro...

29/03/2024

Avoid Collaboration Concerns

By Craig Anderton As the universe of Studio One users grows, so do opportunities for collaboration. But your collaborator may not be using the same version of ...

22/03/2024

Create Rhythmic Alchemy with the BeatCoder

By Craig Anderton Over three years ago, I wrote a blog post on how to make a drumcoder. Its design was somewhat like a vocoder-drum audio served as a modulat...

15/03/2024

Make Stereo Downmixes More Immersive

By Craig Anderton One of Atmos's coolest features is scalability. No matter how complex your Atmos project may be, you can render it as Binaural, 5.1, 5.1....

13/03/2024

Studio One: A Brief Exploration with Great Good Fine Okay

Watch the Brooklyn Synthpop duo remix their song Blame in Studio One Less than 24 hours after meeting each other, producer Luke Moellman and vocalist Jon San...

10/03/2024

Stamp Out Boring Flanging!

By Craig Anderton The impetus behind this design was wanting to add envelope flanging to amp sims like Ampire. But there's a problem: most amp sim outputs ...

01/03/2024

Creating Room Ambiance with Virtual Mics

By Craig Anderton Supplementing close-miking techniques with room mics gives acoustic sounds a life-like sense of space. Typically, this technique involves pla...

27/02/2024

Notion Mobile 3.3 Now Available

Notion Mobile v3 took mobile music creation to the next level with support for iOS, Android, Windows, Fire OS and macOS. Now v3.3 adds many enhancements and fix...

26/02/2024

The Sweet Spot with Grammy-Nominated Producer 6ix

Logic's Grammy-nominated producer breaks down his Sweet Spot. Before he found success as an avant-garde hip hop producer, 6ix was just 30 units shy of a de...

25/02/2024

The Sweet Spot with Multi-Platinum Producer Warren Huart

The Grammy-nominated multi-Platinum producer breaks down his Sweet Spot. From the studio with chart-topping artists like Aerosmith and The Fray, to empowering ...

23/02/2024

Don't Make This Mixing Mistake!

By Craig Anderton Do you think of mixes in absolute terms, or relative terms? Knowing the difference, and when to apply which approach, can make a huge differe...

16/02/2024

Tuff Beats

By Craig Anderton Calling all beats/hip-hop/EDM/hard rock fans: This novel effects starts with drums modulating the Vocoder's white noise carrier, and take...

09/02/2024

Reinvent Your Stereo Panning

This tip is about working with stereo, NOT about Dolby Atmos or surround-but we're going to steal some of what Atmos does to reinvent stereo panning. Stud...

07/02/2024

Studio One: Mix in a New Dimension with Jeff Ellis

The GRAMMY-winning recording and mix engineer shows us how he uses Studio One to create an artful immersive mix. Jeff Ellis is a force to be reckoned with. The...

02/02/2024

Presence Electric 12-String (the Artist Version Remix)

Presence's sound library includes a fine acoustic 12-string guitar, but not an electric one. So, perhaps it's not surprising that one of the more popula...

26/01/2024

Faster, Simpler, and Better Comping

At first, this might not seem too exciting. But follow the directions below, and try comping using this method-I don't think you'll be disappointed. Thi...

19/01/2024

How to Quickly Slash Your Latency

You know the feeling: You're tracking or doing an overdub with a virtual instrument or amp sim, but you're frustrated by the excessive latency inherent ...

12/01/2024

How to Fix Phase Issues

Recording audio using more than one feed from the same source may create phase issues. For example, when miking a bass amp and taking a DI (dry) input, the DI&#...

05/01/2024

Bigger, Wider Sounds: Try Stereo Miking

If you haven't experimented yet with mid-side stereo miking, you'll be in for a treat when you do. Here's why: Record background singers with gorge...

29/12/2023

How to Prioritize Vocals with Mix Ducking

This complements the tip Better Ducking for Voiceovers and Podcasts and the tip Why I Don't Use Compression Anymore. It applies the concept of voiceover duc...

22/12/2023

Should You Use Highpass Filters when Mixing?

Engineers sometimes advocate using high-pass filters to clean up the low end and tighten the sound. Others believe that because of issues inherent in highpass...

20/12/2023

Studio One: A Brief Exploration with Josh Cumbee

The GRAMMY-nominated artist, producer, and songwriter shows us how he uses Studio One to cook a musical idea from scratch. Josh Cumbee is a triple threat: The ...

15/12/2023

Why I Don't Use Compressors Anymore

This wasn't a conscious decision, or something I planned. But when I looked through my last few songs while seeking candidates for a book's screenshots,...

08/12/2023

Phrasing-The Final Correction Frontier

First, a follow-up: In the October 13 tip about creating Track Presets for parallel processing, I mentioned that Track Presets can't include buses, which is...