Yamaha Consoles for the Police Reunion Tour

Surrounded by a stunning stage show that included five huge video screens and six pillars with stage lights that rose and fell all night, Sting and band mates Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers took to the stage at Madison Square Garden with front-of-house engineer R. Michael Keating controlling house sound using a Yamaha PM5000 analog console. Ian Newton uses a Yamaha PM1D at monitors and Kirk Shreiner used a Yamaha PM5D for opening act Fiction Plane (vocalist/guitarist Joe Sumner, Sting's son). Clair Brothers, of Lititz, Pennsylvania, is handling the worldwide tour production (at press time, Shriner has left the tour to mix Maroon 5). "When I found out I was going to mix Fiction Plane the PM5D was my first choice," Shreiner states. "One of the things I really like about the console is that you can patch your split in the back of the console and don't need a rack to go with it to get your inputs into the console."

Keating said there is no room for digital desks in his "old-school" world and chose the Yamaha PM5000 for several reasons. "I have always been a fan and user of Yamaha consoles since the late '70s, when, while working with local club bands, I purchased a PM1000 24-channel board...we were living large. Reliability has always been foremost in my priorities for sound equipment since I don't deal well with gear that doesn't work all day, every day. I used a PM 4000 for years without ever having a problem, so when the PM5000 came out, I loved the sound of the mic pre amps. Great sounding console, recall, and the time-tested reliability of Yamaha."

As far as the PA, Keating says the system they are using is a bit of a hybrid, "taking the best of the old and the best of the new," combining the age old sound of the Clair Brothers S4 sub low boxes (72 when the tour is in a stadium) with the clarity and precision of the Clair Brothers I-4 line array (80 in stadiums) powered by QSC and Crest power amps. Four delay speaker towers with Clair Brothers R4s are used, and all processing for the PA is handled by Clair/Lake IOs with TC 1128 EQ inserted on left and right of the Yamaha PM5000 console.

Outboard gear includes Lexicon 480L, PCM 70, 90, 91, TC 2290, TC Voice Works Harmonizer, TC Voice Doubler, five Distressor EL8 compressors on vocals, bass and Kick; Manley EL OP Stereo comps on bass and Tarus Pedals. Microphone arsenal consists of Sennhieser 865 vocal mics, Shure Beta 52 on kick drum and percussion gong drum, a Shure SM 57 on top snare, Neumann KM184 on snare bottom, hi hat, splash cymbals and percussion, AT 4050 on overheads and guitars, Beyer OPUS 87 and 88 are used on toms.