Felix Brenner

Felix Brenner

Rollin’ on the Road with John Fogerty
and Apogee’s Big Ben

 

Felix Brenner, FOH engineer for Fogerty’s “Revival” tour, uses Big Ben to clock Digidesign’s Venue console

 

The names John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival are synonymous with rock legend. Songs like “Proud Mary”, “Bad Moon Rising” and the anthemic “Fortunate Son” helped define music and shape pop culture nearly forty years ago. But the music of John Fogerty is not confined to decades past. With his new album entitled Revival, and a tour that is playing to packed houses and rave reviews, John brings an updated version of his classic sound to new audiences everywhere. The tour includes stops all over the USA, Australia and Europe and features Fogerty’s return to London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall after 37 years.

"The Big Ben arrived at the Reno gig and when we hooked it up the difference was immediately obvious to me. Everything was smoother and tighter, just better clarity and frequency separation all around."

Not only is Fogerty continuing to record great music, his live shows are a study of true professional performing. To Fogerty, delivering the best every night in both performance and also in the shows overall sound is absolutely critical.


“John is very involved in the way the band sounds to the audience,” remarks the tour’s Front of House main-man Felix Brenner. “He’ll actually walk around the arena during sound check and make sure it’s just how he wants it.”

 

The centerpiece of the FOH mixing set up is a Digidesign Venue console, clocked by an Apogee Big Ben. Felix talks about the difference he and the crew heard after adding Big Ben to the mix. “When the tour began we were not using the Apogee [Big Ben] clock and the board sounded pretty good on its own. Then I heard that Big Ben was making a huge difference when used to clock the Venue. So we decided to try it out. The Big Ben arrived at the Reno gig and when we hooked it up the difference was immediately obvious to me. Everything was smoother and tighter, just better clarity and frequency separation all around. The EQ's and FX became much more responsive and less brittle, as well. We did an A/B test, and one guy on the crew said it sounded ‘hollow’ without Big Ben. All of the sound guys, including the skeptics, were amazed by the contrast. In fact the FOH guy for Billy Idol was there and was really blown away. He plans to clock their Venue board with a Big Ben now.”