Masterclass in Mixing by Racpro Wraps Up at Beijing LIVERSE

Translated and provided by Rightway Audio Consultant Ltd.

As a high-profile hands-on exchange event in China’s audio industry, the Beijing Masterclass organized by Rightway Audio Consultant Ltd. (RAC) has drawn an enthusiastic response since its announcement. Nearly 500 audio professionals from across the country flew to Beijing to attend the event and meet top-tier international monitor engineers, Kevin “Tater” McCarthy & Pasi Hara

March 23th, 9:30 a.m., the masterclass kicked off to great anticipation. Hu Nan, Marketing Director of RAC, served as host and interpreter. With his solid foundation in professional audio, he helped us overcome the language barrier and ensured that the technical content could be accurately conveyed.

Tao Jianxin, General Manager of RAC, highlighted the original intention behind hosting the event:

“World-class live production relies not only on cutting-edge equipment, but also on the hard work of the front-line mixing engineers in this room. It is you define the quality of China’s live sound. Clearly, today’s masterclass is not a one-way lecture, but rather a two-way collaboration. As a company deeply rooted in professional audio, RAC has always been committed to bringing the world’s most advanced technologies to China. Through this event, we hope to broaden our horizons together, experience the approaches of top mixing engineers up close, and inspire each other through the exchange of ideas – laying a stronger foundation for delivering high-quality live performances in China.”

The event also received support from manufacturers, with representatives traveling to Beijing to attend: Fernando Delgado, International Sales Manager of DiGiCo, Elliot Sinclair, Head of Sales of Fourier Audio and Phil Kamp, Head of Sales of KLANG:technologies.

A masterclass exploring world-class touring standards requires an environment with excellent acoustics and visuals. This is why LIVERSE was chosen as the venue – not only for its installation of L-Acoustics L2 speaker system, DiGiCo console setup, KLANG and Fourier audio devices, but also for its extraordinarily large, stunning on-stage screen. It’s rare to see a venue of this standard in today’s live music venue in China.

The morning session was simultaneously streamed live online. The master of sound engineering Kevin “Tater” McCarthy took the stage first, delivering an in-depth presentation themed with Analog to Digital: Role Evolution. His 39-year career itself serves as a microcosm of the global touring audio industry’s evolutionary history.

The Technological Evolution Path of the Monitor Industry

Tater outlined the journey from the 1990s era of large-format analog consoles (such as Midas XL-4 or Harrison SM-5), which required tedious manual patching every day, to the 2000s when digital consoles (such as the DiGiCo SD7/SD10) brought systematic, file-based workflows. With the integration of stageboxes and in-ear monitors (IEMs), modern mixing philosophies have undergone a huge transformation.

Core Skill Development: Situational Awareness and Professional Composure

Tater emphasized that the core competency of a modern monitor engineer has moved beyond pure technical operation, placing greater value on Situational Awareness — the ability to perceive stage dynamics in real time, anticipate issues before they arise, and respond quickly. On long tours, interpersonal collaboration skills and a calm, composed mindset are crucial. He offered the rule of thumb: How attitude can overcome work experience. Given real-world constraints (such as antenna placement often being overruled by stage visual design, or equipment forced into suboptimal positions as a recurring challenge), a mature engineer must possess professional resilience and a positive attitude to “get the job done with a smile.”

Four Practical Philosophies for IEM Mixing

Based on decades of experience, Tater distilled artists’ in-ear monitor needs into four distinct archetypes, helping engineers quickly establish a pre-mix judgment framework:

• The Essential Type: The artist only needs to hear the parts that are genuinely inaudible on stage – authenticity is key.
• The Ambient Type: Heavily reliant on reverb and spatiality – requires a sound field with strong envelopment.
• The Ego Type: The artist’s own parts (vocals or instrument) are given absolute prominence, with everything else serving as background.
• The Studio Type: Requires a balanced frequency response and full-frequency coverage across all parts, typically with numerous cues in the workflow.

Extremely Rigorous Redundancy Architecture

When building highly reliable work systems, Tater adheres to the highest principle of “one-button switching.” He demonstrated an impressive multi-layered redundancy architecture: a four-channel physical mic switching path (ready to handle sudden situations such as replacing a microphone, changing frequency bands, or swapping batteries); an IEM matrix backup package ensuring real-time updates across the entire signal chain; and a collaborative disaster – recovery mechanism featuring “dual engines + dual DMIs + dual servers + dual UPS.” All backup actions are governed by a golden rule: FOH does not need to know, no chaos, and do not interrupt the performance.

Professional Frequency Management

Tater pointed out that RF coordination has now evolved into a highly specialized, independent discipline, covering the entire signal chain including IEMs, handheld microphones, intercom systems, and cross-border spectrum compliance. On this topic, he strongly advocated that turning off idle frequencies to free up spectrum space for other artists sharing the same stage and firmly opposing the unreasonable hoarding of spectrum resources by top-tier artists or large teams.

Following Tater, the versatile audio expert Pasi Hara took the stage. His session focused on hands-on experience, technological evolution, and work methodologies, with an in-depth retrospective of real-world cases from several iconic tours.

Pasi began his career as an independent mixing engineer in Helsinki, Finland. Since 2010, he has served as the long-time monitor engineer for the lead vocalist of System of a Down, subsequently working with international top-tier artists such as Slash, Beck, Guns N’ Roses, and Roger Waters. He emphasized the ability to be flexible – he is not brand-loyal, but places extreme importance on system reliability and compatibility.

System Prep and Standardized Delivery

Everything starts with the Tech Rider, from which the equipment list, channel list, and stage plot are generated. Pasi insists on attending on-site rehearsals in person, verifying hardware interconnections and signal paths item by item. Additionally, he creates extremely detailed visual diagrams (including rack layouts, screen positions, UPS redundancy, firmware versions, and patchbay logic), which significantly reduces error rates during hardware prep. He shared the technical preparation workflow for music tours, including developing equipment lists, working within gear limitations, on-site system prep and verification, and ensuring all devices are correctly connected and tested before showtime – emphasizing the importance of on-site validation to avoid issues on show day.

Extreme Latency Control

Pasi treats latency as a key performance indicator. For ten consecutive years, he has measured round-trip latency across the entire signal chain (wireless beltpack → receiver → console → KLANG → in-ear monitors). He dynamically monitors the impact of EQ and dynamics processing on latency. Currently, he keeps latency at 2.79ms for the drummer and approximately 6ms for the lead vocalist – and admits that the 5ms benchmark has become idealistic in today’s complex digital signal chains.

Troubleshooting and Safety

Pasi emphasizes proactive troubleshooting: system diagnostics must be completed before loading out. He always carries a noise generator and various cable / network testers. Furthermore, he places great importance on on-site safety protocols: tours must be equipped with basic safety gear (hard hats, steel-toe boots, high-visibility vests), with awareness of country-specific regulatory differences. Emergency response plans and evacuation signage must be confirmed, and cable rigging and flying hazards must be strictly eliminated. Audio professionals must ensure a hazard-free stage and system environment and carry insurance. He advocates using common sense to assess on-site safety and avoiding counter-intuitive practices.

Handling Complex Systems and Reverse Engineering

When facing complex tour projects, Pasi shared his experiences from particularly challenging tour:

1. On one tour, he employed a dual SD10 setup sharing inputs with independent outputs, using MIDI to synchronize snapshots – ensuring that if one engineer stepped away, the other could seamlessly take over the entire show.
2. Early on, he encountered a challenge involving three separate consoles (left/right split control plus FOH), chaotic routing, and a mix of old and new RF gear – and systematically untangled each issue to resolve the situation.
3. Facing one of the most complex projects of his career (a Quantum 7 console with 150+ channels, 20+ stereo mixes, 70 snapshots, and up to 420,000 variables), Pasi relied on multi-track playback for reverse engineering – locking onto processing chains – ultimately rebuilding the system and collaborating with RF specialists to overcome the challenge.

Pasi has been a loyal user of KLANG for over ten years. He shared the groundbreaking results from its first application on Slash’s Germany concert: vocals were placed in front, backing instruments in the rear, completely eliminating monitor bleed. The artist said, “I’m completely spoiled – I can never go back.” For deployment, he adheres to the principle of “real-world mapping” – toms and cymbals are positioned around the drummer according to their actual physical placement, low-frequency instruments are placed slightly lower and centered, while high-frequency instruments are positioned higher up. During rehearsals, when given an A/B comparison between a conventional mix and a KLANG mix, 100% of the musicians chose the KLANG solution.

He noted that the application of 3D monitoring technology in live music has significantly enhanced musicians’ in-ear experience, reduced sound leakage, and enabled clear, personal mixes. The introduction of this technology has not only improved show quality but also ignited the industry’s enthusiasm for exploring new technological applications.

Due to strict copyright protection requirements, the afternoon hands-on session was not live streamed online, as it used actual live performance multi-track files.

During the afternoon hands-on session, Pasi Hara used Linkin Park’s tour project as a case study to deeply demonstrate the complex configuration and precision management of a flagship digital console. He explained in detail how to use Nodal Processing, high-pass filters, and personal monitoring systems to tailor custom monitor mixes for different musicians. While ensuring clarity and frequency balance across all instruments, Pasi places great emphasis on protecting the singers’ hearing. By using direct signal sends and precise low-frequency management, he effectively prevents crosstalk and interference between musicians’ monitor mixes.

In addition, he fully demonstrated the flexible application of Matrix, Talkback, Snapshots, and VCA groups in optimizing the on-stage listening experience. He also share practical strategies for using console Macros to ensure the absolute reliability of large-scale monitor systems.

Following Pasi, Tater took the stage for his hands-on session and case study review, sharing his expertise in detail management and crisis response from top-tier tours. In terms of system coordination, he makes it a habit to use waterproof USB drives to back up meticulously labeled session files and strictly enforces color-coded cables and labeling to prevent confusion.

During the mixing demonstration, he explained how to use DCA groups to precisely control microphone ratios and shared the technique of dynamically pushing ambient audience mics to find the “sweet spot” for venue volume. He places extreme importance on hearing protection – subtly adjusting click track frequencies and actively lowering monitor levels during non-critical passages to give his ears a rest. In terms of stage psychology, he emphasized that a monitor engineer must never take their eyes off the artist, and must learn to read body language, stage positioning, and even the movements of techs to accurately anticipate musicians’ needs.

After the intensive sharing and hands-on demonstrations, the international masters took the stage together for an in-depth face-to-face dialogue with Chinese industry professionals, generously imparting insights drawn from years of real-world experience. In addition to the two engineers’ presentations, RAC also set up a comprehensive product hands-on demonstration area at the event. Most eye-catching of all was the debut of two new products: the Fourier Audio transform.go and the KLANG:1 & KLANG:1 pro.

Attendees were able to get up close and personal with the gear – many eagerly pushed up faders and put on headphones for a listen. The buzz of conversation filled the air as the three manufacturer representatives and the RAC‘s technical engineering team remained stationed in the demo area, providing professional help to all questions.