Bob Strakele (FOH Engineer - Slipknot) interview 

I met this guy while seeing Slipknot in Toronto. He gave me 3 guitar picks and the setlist.

Interview? More like a rig rundown. I didn't hear a single question. Would have loved to hear him explain how he goes about mixing something as insanely powerful as a Slipknot live show, such as: "How do you keep all the extra percussion tight in the mix without being too muddy?" - "What's your mixing strategy for having 9 musicians on stage and making sure everyone is heard?" - "Do you have any tips on how to mix two very high-gain and very detuned guitars so that they don't interfere too much with the bass guitar?" - "How did you end up in this position, was it something you actively strived for, or did someone else recommend you?" That's what I would have called an interview!

Cool video y'all, always interesting to get a peek into what goes on behind the scenes, and of course get tipped off to some new ideas!

Very cool interview 🤘🏽

From one FOH engineer to another, Slipknot sounded fantastic in Nashville this past week 👍

this is awesome !!!

Insane , just the amount of questions that were answered here is unreal

Cool🔥🔥🔥 Keep it up guys!

excellent info!

I was right there in Bratislava, Slovakia... the best show I've ever seen hands down

I had the pleasure to have Bob and his crew through our venue recently. The depth and impact of his mix @ 102db LAeq over 5min ave... was freaking incredible. Solid Mixing Engineer, with a Solid SE by his side. Absolutely a legendary 👏.

Yeah!

Bob is one of the best in the business. Loved him with A7X. Nobody mixes drums better.

I've been on a Bucharest night and it was sounding awesome! However, I have a pain that I have not received any guitar picks or setlists or grupie's bra...

Nice shout out to Boris, the mad scientist who taught me to solder in audio school.

This sound is brilliant!!⚡

🤘

🔥🔥🔥🔥💝

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Sweet

Good on ya mate love the use of high end out board gear….yes including the 990. My fav was the 900…but broke my cherry on SPX 90s and Roland reverb ….you don’t talk about the ssl….I retired in July of 2015 and was not enjoying switching to digi….I still have an X-Large 200, and APB instorage See the promo vids and yeah….but you and my friend Big Kev long time FOH for Green Day…he recently switched to SSL…use lotsa old vintage gear…..the question ….why??????

I met their last sound guy some years back, British guy, real pos guy. They used to carry a cadac with them on tour, which was absurd for smaller rock venues, his mix was over driven and noisy, tbf with as much noise that comes off the stage for slipknot it’s tough to manage, but the epic attitude that guy brought with him was the real show, especially considering how bad the mix was.

Thanks for sharing. Interesting. I´d love to hear his take on certain venues where Slipknot played where the sound was just a mess. Like in Prague at the O2 arena in 2019 and 2022 there was a massive echo in the rear seating area. Sound was pretty decent up front though. I noticed that in general the sound was usually better at the open air venues like at the 2022 EU tour start in Bucharest the sound was great and it was also quite good the nights after in Plovdiv and Athens but the mix at first indoor show of the tour in Graz was already poor. But the worst live mix of Slipknot I have ever experienced was probably at Arena Leipzig in 2019.

Hi Bob

❤🔥🤘

Damn this guy brings a whole big professional studio rig on the road! I wish I could make albums with those! I thought these guys relied more on digital plugins/consoles these days. Amazing engineer, Slipknot must be a nightmare to mix live.

"...right bunch of circus freaks. There's like ten of them, and one of them hits a bin with a stick"

I wish he told us if he has a channel called “keg”

Actually he explained all of that with his out board gear…

Fuck yeaaaah💀🖤

Always felt like their guitars don’t shine enough live. Last time I saw them in 2022 the drums were overpowering

Back in the days they can just play off 9 person on a stage, now with all these, what does it actually do? Helps? How does it affect and sounds different without? Sorry just came across this vid as a SK fan and I knows nth about music instruments/tech XD

I've been at the show in Graz (A) in the end of July this year. It was a sound catastrophe!

Wait, it's not a guy with a case of beer sitting behind a mackie!? All my illusions have been shattered...

He looks like half Corey and half Matt Heafy. Great guy tho!

Well that was super confusing

Wow, what a long list of amazing gear to kill the audience hearing, like it happened in Tallinn, Estonia, 2022

M A S T E R great man

I’m curious, why wouldn’t bands use their own set up for FOH? wouldn’t u risk making them sound bad or at least not how they want to sound?

So much amazing gear, yet slipknot still sounded horrible at pukkelpop (be) unfortunately :(

So, without a special effect box, the band sounds small and boring?...OK, got it

The last two times I saw Slipknot in an arena the sound was SO bad; Corey's vocals could barely be heard, the guitar tone was abrasive, and the drums were out of whack (sic). Same venue both times... more fool me I guess! The last time I saw them with Chris Fehn, he'd actually come down off the stage and barked at the FOH team to sort their s*** out! We left after 4 songs it was that bad. Sad times.

Just saw Slipknot. Mix was horrible. Just sounded like one big blob of sound.

Whats up Pfaff? You have many names i see

Yeah!