Empire Of The Sun use the following Shure Products:
| Shure PSM700 with E5s | The PSM®700 Personal Monitor Sysytem series offers advanced controls and features that make it easy to quickly locate and lock in the clearest frequency, prevent distortion and minimize the number of antennas required to send mixes. |
| Shure UR4S | The UR4S and UR4D Wireless Receivers provide single and dual-channel options for Shure's premium wireless. The latest technologies provide advanced control and robust flexibility for a wide range of professional uses. |
| Shure Beta 91 | A low-profile mic that requires no external mounting hardware. Lies flat on a pillow or other surface inside a kick drum for superb attack and low-end punch. |
| Shure Beta 58A | The Beta 58A microphone accentuates the warmth and clarity of lead and backup vocals. Its supercardioid design provides maximum isolation from other onstage sounds. Supercardioid, Dynamic. |
| Shure KSM9 | Premium vocal condenser microphone that captures vocal subtlety with extraordinary detail. Supercardioid and Cardioid, Condenser. |
| Shure Beta 52A | Optimized for low-frequency bass punch and high-power SPL handling, the Beta 52A's supercardioid design provides maximum isolation from other onstage sounds. Designed specifically for kick drum and other bass instruments. Supercardioid, Dynamic. |
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Shure Beta 56A |
A compact drum microphone engineered for close miking of snare and toms. The supercardioid design provides maximum isolation from other onstage sounds. Supercardioid, Dynamic. |
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Shure Beta98D/S |
The Beta 98, designed for toms, snares and percussion instruments, is perfect for sound reinforcement and recording. Its flexible gooseneck lets you position the microphone in practically any configuration. |
| Shure KSM141 | An end-addressed large diaphragm condenser microphone with mechanically switching dual polar patterns (cardioid and omnidirectional). Designed for studio use, yet rugged enough for live applications. Dual, Condenser. |
| Shure SRH840 | Designed for professional audio engineers and musicians, the SRH840 Professional Monitoring Headphones from Shure are optimized for studio recording and critical listening. |
| Shure PA805SWB | The Shure PA805 is a directional antenna for increased range and reduced interference as compared to omnidirectional 1/2-wave antennas. The PA805 can be mounted on a microphone stand or mounted to a wall using the integral swivel adapter bracket. |
Empire Of The Sun Official Website
Brief Biography
Empire of The Sun is the alt-electro project of Luke Steele (The Sleepy Jackson) and Nick Littlemore (Pnau). Having originally formed as a side project, EOTS’ debut album “Walking On A Dream” has now gone on to sell over a million albums worldwide while also receiving critical acclaim; winning 7 ARIA Awards (including Best Group and Best Album) and 2 BRITS nominations (Best International Album, Best Breakthrough Artist). The album features the hit singles “Walking On A Dream” and “We Are The People”, the videos of which have had over 10 million youtube views. Although Nick does not appear in the live show, Empire have become renowned for their extravagant live performances and have closed stages at Coachella, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and countless other festivals worldwide. Luke Steele has gone on to perform on the latest albums by Jay-Z and Beyonce. Empire of The Sun are set to release their follow up album in 2012.
Walking On A Dream With Shure
The Aussie electro-pop outfit Empire of the Sun has had worldwide success with their single Walking On A Dream from the album of the same name and last month they made their long-awaited live debut at the touring Parklife festival. Well, one half of the duo Luke Steele (the one that wears the elaborate head-dresses) did and there are all sorts of rumours as to why Nick Littlemore did not participate. Either way, reports of the initial live shows have been pretty flattering, with fans raving about Luke’s performance.
Chris Dennis mixes that other famous Australian electro-pop duo The Presets and so it’s no surprise to see him behind the Front-of-House (FOH) console for Empire of the Sun. Chris had used a KSM9 radio microphone with The Presets and he introduced the same model to Luke Steele who describes the mic as something pretty special.
“It sounds amazing, like it’s got a compressor on it already,” said an enthusiastic Luke. “It has a lot more body than other microphones and a lot of different ranges which I think is necessary for my voice; a mic that can pick up the low end as well as the falsettos.”
“The KSM9 is definitely my preferred vocal microphone,” concurs the sound engineer. “It has exceptional clarity, the feedback rejection is awesome and it is totally very neutral.”
A plethora of Shure microphones could be seen onstage at Parklife including a Shure Beta 52 and Beta91 as a dual kick drum scenario to give the punch and bottom end response required. Chris’ good old favourites the Beta 57A and Beta57 were put into action to get the top end and low end response required.
“I’ve fallen in love with the new KSM pencil mic. It’s just fantastic in regard to the rejection and the fact that you can change the pattern on them is very useful. I’m also using Betas on the toms – a true and tried set up that is solid and sounds great.”
A large diaphragm KSM32 is used for overheads so that the sound engineer can get more tom response for a bit of auto-reverb (room reverb versus effects reverb).
“Not only can I pick up cymbals, I’m getting a bit of a tom sound out of it, which gives a special effect,” he added. “I also have a large diaphragm KSM32 on the guitar rigs to get some warmth”.
In live situations with previous bands, Luke had always used stage monitors, but prior to the Empire of the Sun live gigs he decided to try in-ear monitors, opting for a Shure PSM700 set up.
“It’s was time we stepped up to the next sound level and now I’m using about 50% in-ear monitors,” said Luke. “I’ve always been a sucker for the Jimmy Barnes type wedges so the transition took a bit of time. Having your own voice right in your ear and not having to fight other stage volume is pretty cool. They pretty much cut off all the excess noise between yours ears and the monitors.”
Initially Luke found the earphones tricky to get used to and he decided it would be a good idea to use the Shure SHR840 Professional Monitoring Headphones instead.
“Our ‘party-boy-sound-foldback-computer-guy uses them and they’re great,” he raved. “They have quite a bit of separation.”
However, the bleeding obvious soon struck Luke – there was no way he would get the headphones over his elaborate headwear! So Luke had custom ear moulds made and has since been a lot happier.
“Luke wearing in ear monitors has improved my mix front of house, because he now has a greater understanding for less is more,” the sound engineer explains. “Less monitors means more front of house, it’s that simple. The first few rehearsals we did in a studio set up. I was getting so much spill from the side fill in my overheads and vocal mics, I really had to ride them between his singing. It was a constant barrage of noise. The in-ears take all that away.”
Topping off an already huge twelve months, Empire of the Sun has been nominated for six major 2009 ARIA Awards as well as five more in the smaller categories.
