Press release
07.07.2008 - Sennheiser UK
The Ting Tings Sing Sing with Sennheiser
The Ting Tings, the indie pop duo looking like one of 2008's biggest musical success stories, have added an array of Sennheiser microphones to their live performance armoury. The pair, singer-guitarist Katie White and drummer Jules De Martino, began the year as the third overall top tip in the BBC's Sound of 2008 poll, and since then have gone from strength to strength, appearing on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, winning a slot on the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury and having their debut album, We Started Nothing, hit the top of the UK charts.
Johnny Dodkin, front of house engineer for The Ting Tings, always suspected that pairing the band with Sennheiser mics would be a winning combination.
"I've been using Sennheiser gear for a while," he admits. "I was doing monitors for Maximo Park, and they had a Sennheiser mic pack. I got in touch with Phil Cummings at Sennheiser to find out about getting another set of mics, only to learn he had also been trying to get hold of me."
With both White and De Martino providing vocals, Dodkin chose a pair of evolution e 840s for the job.
"It suits Katie's vocals really nicely," he explains. "We had problems with the mics we were using originally. The band absolutely hammer the stage with level so that would tend be a problem. But we did one show where the band couldn't use their own mics and had to use Sennheiser e 840s. I could tell right away the sound was much cleaner and Katie seemed to feel it on stage as well. She¹s got a very sibilant vocal and some mics have a big spike that totally accentuates that. Beforehand I was having to EQ it out and you'd lose some of the prettiness and the top end could get a bit lumpy. But the 840s are really smooth. It doesn't cut the top end at all."
Sennheiser provided the band with a little something special too.
"The band are really keen on their looks, so anything I can do to give them a bit more visual appeal is welcome. Phil Cummings arranged for a few e 840 grills to be painted in luminous colours so we can change them for different performances. I've got some luminous cables too so it's like we're going back to a 1980s on-stage look."
Behind the kit, singing drummer De Martino shares his bandmate's choice of vocal mic.
"Jules is using an e 840 at the moment too but we're thinking of trying an SKM 935. Jules has two massive speakers by his head but with the e 840 I can still get his vocal very clean. I still drop it out of the mix when he's not singing. But the 935 has a closer pattern so I'm sure that¹s going to bring Jules' vocal right up again."
In addition to the two e 840s, Dodkin has employed Sennheiser mics across the band's backline. Jules' kick drum has an e 901 on the inside and an e 902 on the outside. The snare has an e 904 on top and an e 614 condenser underneath. There are e 614s on the ride cymbal and hi-hat, three e 904s on the three toms, an e 906 on the guitar cabinet and an e 902 on a stand-alone bass drum that Katie uses.
"Katie uses a marching bass drum has been a struggle up to this point," admits Dodkin, "but the e 902 has sorted that out. We've done about six shows with the new mics now, and they've been fantastic. The drum sound has just come on so much. I'm getting such a big sound from the toms now."
For further information about Sennheiser please visit www.sennheiser.co.uk or contact:
Robert Collins, Sennheiser Pro PR
T: 07966 294 877
E-mail: Robert.collins180@virgin.net