Dave Hampton has worked with Herbie Hancock for years, and was keyboard tech and surround engineer for the Future 2 Future tour.

Hampton: This the first electric tour since I've been with him. Previously he did the Dis is Da Drum tour. For that and prior ones he had a lot of keyboards on stage.

Hampton: We just tried to do two things: Number one, we just tried to do it smart and efficient. And we tried to basically include the technology in a way that's still musical. But we also wanted be able to show it off, since the latest CD is titled Future 2 Future. Lots of people aren't really using virtual synths to the fullest and don't want to rely on them. It's easy to say this is Herbie Hancock, let's get fifteen racks like Madonna does. But that's Madonna and that probably makes for a good show, especially if you want to do all the video moves. Also what makes this tour different is we took into consideration the generations (Hancock) plays across. The last time he toured electric it was a lot of new music. A lot of times people see him and want to hear old stuff. So we constructed a show that incorporates some of the new and some of the old.

Hampton: We're using five, G-4s and I-Books. Whatever we can't use a G4 for we'll get an I-Book. One runs the visuals, a Titanium G4 for Herbie's and Darrell Diaz's rigs, and another Titanium G4 for full-blown Pro-Tools. Then there's my normal computer that serves as a back up in case anything should go down. I like to have some form of a safety net, so I always bring my own personal computer. But I clean it out, so it does nothing but music functions. Last time someone dropped one of the computers, so mine can double as rig, the effects morphing computer, or the Pro-Tools master computer.

Hampton: We started last summer doing the festivals in Europe. The first concert was in Mainz, Germany. The electric thing took a break for the Michael Breaker tour Herbie did last fall, and then later continued with dates in Korea and Japan.

Hampton: For the technical things that happen on stage, it's a challenge in the area of monitoring. Basically the musicians are playing to please, since they can't monitor in surround to hear what's going on. I do the monitoring out in the center of the room and they just hear the responses from the audiences. For our situation, we found that the easiest way to do it was to script some of the things that happen. Herbie's music allows enough space for us to do different things. You could not do this with every genre of music. Traditionally when people hear of surround for live performances, they think of Pink Floyd with four columns. And the challenge is not to not to have people so taken when they're listening in surround that they're distracted and not listening with open ears. When we started this thing we looked around to try to find the materials for what (Hancock) wanted to do. It didn't exist so we use Pro-Control, which is a studio system not really made for the road. Powerbooks and all the plug-ins out have allowed up to scale down the amount of equipment that we take on the road. We're dealing with jazz, so we don't have pop/mainstream budgets.

It usually takes me 15-20 minutes to set up my large system and less than 10 for the small system.

In large venues we use 4-6 points and we connect the rear upper and lower positions, in small venues we use only 4 points. In traditional surround sound systems the sub woofer issues are a heavy consideration in our system we have a regular line array main system that deals with all sub woofer issues and then a separate surround system.

In rehearsal we work out all of the "trouble zones Trouble zones are the spots where the placement of the surround cabinet could possibly fire back towards open stage mics. we take the time in rehearsal to identify the frequencies most likely to cause feedback when at full volume in performance with the main system. We have tones that we use for matching levels however allot of live shows are in halls with floors built on a pitch. This works against the traditional concept of surround where all drivers are presented at the same height. So most measurements that are finalized for live shows are by ear and have more to do with the establishment of a defined zone than anything else. Our use of surround is as an additional nontraditional composition tool. If I was to create a priority chain for our shows it would be 1) stage monitors 2)main system 3)surround system.

A lot of ambient sounds and non-traditional sounds. The DJ does a lot of unique sounds as well as the bassist. During some portions of the shows Herbie has gone into a technique called "prepared piano" where he's plays inside the piano. Other things we have happening are the [Korg] Karmas; they actually have outputs that we've assigned to the surround network. In specific songs they'll do things that are positioned. Also all things don't move, sometimes we're just creating a bigger stage effect.

As I answer these questions I am coming off a night in Seattle where the lighting director at the club we were playing spilled a soda directly on my Pro Control surface, so outside of that no, no maintenance issues. All of our systems have been pretty reliable. Music Director Darrell Diaz and I take our time when preparing the gear for the tour. I take the time to prep all gear for travel. I use silicone or hot glue to secure all ribbon cables and potential loose screws and nuts . Some of the equipment we use is not made for the road, gear such as Pro Control, which is made primarily for studio use.

Right now the biggest problem is with venues who get our rider with specs for a separate sound system and do not follow the request to the letter. The weakest link in the chain is when you have top shelf equipment and crap for a P.A. system. A lot of that has to do with the state of production. If people are serious about getting great artist and selling out shows they would do all they could to sup sport the production of a show. We will solve that problem by being self contained. Live performance is a rare thing in this day and age of canned pop stars, with Herbie's shows we are serving up a glimpse of what is to come when you combine artistry, technology, and great music and mix them with wisdom , passion, and trust. I sit in my mix position and I see the faces all colors, all ages that show up at the Future 2 Future concerts. It is at these moments that I realize I am in a special situation and I work with a very special man.

We read several books and lots of articles. We also spent time having some mixes worked on with Thomlanson Holman of THX fame. There was allot to read about all the theories regarding multi-channel audio as well as early quad efforts. Herbie had also previously done quite a bit of research early on with spatial displacement devices and quad as well. Herbie had a angle that none of the others did. He is an artist and he has the knowledge that only live performance can give. He also knows how to be fearless in the face of tradition.

What I mean by that is that when you discuss any topic in audio you have a community of people out there who do nothing but follow. The magazines primarily discuss the products who buy the most add space. The same people can’t do all the work. for every article on someone we know there are at least 20 engineers / producers, etc. who you never hear about all doing work that is just as valid. I say this to make a point.

If we decide to perform "Butterfly" in surround. Who is going to say anything? It’s his tune his band, his discussion. Now if as an independent engineer I decided to do live surround the exact same way there would be allot of folks who would come out and have opinions flying everywhere , they would start talking about all the rules that are being broken and why the effort shouldn’t be taken seriously. I applaud Herbie for his courage to do what he wants as well as his standing next to me and giving validation to the work we are doing. I have been in this business along time and I still get the questions asked, who are you? What have you done? If I worried about that I would not have been living my life. Sorry got my opinion flying around huh? Needed to be said though.

Everyone loves the way we present the concerts. I am surprised at the response in the US. Traditionally they do not respond well to change. They see Herbie and they wan t him to play the same old songs the same old way. We recently recorded a DVD using a multi camera technique. It was a good way to view the live concert. I saw so many different uses for the process. The camera angels and mixes are arranged so that what ever you view has a primary position. This is valuable because our band has different ages, styles, and levels of experience. Viewing the look of the DJ and Herbie allows you to see the inner development of the DJ’s rhythms within the song and how Herbie reacts to them. Viewing the same song from trumpeter Wallace Roney’s perspective lets you now focus on the elements he is interacting with. Because of hip hop and other alternate forms of music you have many people who can now create, tools like this allow new artists who do not necessarily go to traditional music schools to view the art of improvisation from a different angle. When I began in the music business people all got together at the studio and played in one room together, really.

The most common response is that they never heard such a big sound from so few players on stage. Overall the reaction has been great. I feel a lot of the success is due to the fact that we have visuals. Herbie added the visual element to the show three days before the very first rehearsal. He got Barco, the projector company, to get us the best projectors to use. And he and Darrell made contact with a software designer that got us the visuals [G-Force software for the Macintosh was used to generate the visuals]. As a result we have a performance that is unique to each venue every time we perform. I think we give the concertgoer so much to take in that rejection of any one of the elements is never an option.