As we gear up for the LDI Show, we’re profiling speakers in our Sound Tracks series of panels aimed at live sound engineers. This week we’re pleased to introduce you to veteran touring engineer Rick Camp, who will be presenting Digital Console Workflow: Focus on Your Mix, Not Your Gear.
Rick Camp is a 35-year live and studio engineer with credits that range from mixing and touring with artists such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Destiny's Child and Beyoncé, Natalie Cole, Burt Bacharach, Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia, Jennifer Lopez, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, Brandy, and New Edition, to name a few.
Rick also owns and operates Master Mix Live, an audio school in Las Vegas that teaches up-and-coming engineers basic-to-intermediate audio skills.
Sarah Jones: How did you get your start in the live sound industry?
Rick Camp: I started as a trumpet player in junior high school, and went on to Berklee College of Music in 1980; that's when keyboard horns took over the music scene, and I was also into the electronics, so I switched to mixing live and studio audio.
SJ: What drives your passion for live sound?
RC: I love being in control of the whole band and vocals.
SJ: You’re presenting on Digital Console Workflow. Can you give us a taste of what attendees can expect to learn in your panel?
RC: How to EQ a P.A. system, how to mix a band on the fly, how to use compression to keep instrument and vocal levels consistent, how to EQ instruments and vocals.
SJ: What kinds of new live sound technologies are you most excited about these days?
RC: MADI and Dante for routing audio signals and recording.
SJ: What would you say are the biggest challenges facing live sound engineers right now?
RC: Learning all of the different digital mixing consoles.
SJ: Tell us about your most notable live sound gigs.
RC: I mixed FOH on J-Lo's 2012 world tour; we played in Gdansk, Poland to 80,000 people, and I used more than 200 boxes of JBL VerTec 4888s with Powersoft amplification. And I mixed FOH for Beyoncé at Nelson Mandela's prison release concert (46664) in Cape Town, South Africa in 2003.
SJ: What’s on your Vegas bucket list?
RC: Nothing, I live there!
Learn more about pro audio workshops, panels, and events at LDI2017.
Sarah Jones is a writer, editor, and content producer with more than 20 years' experience in pro audio, including as editor-in-chief of three leading audio magazines: Mix, EQ, and Electronic Musician. She is a lifelong musician and committed to arts advocacy and learning, including acting as education chair of the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy, where she helps develop event programming that cultivates the careers of Bay Area music makers.