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NEW YORK, NY-A quarter-century after their last concert, renowned jazz/rock fusion group Return to Forever (RTF) reunited for a three-month tour that culminated at New York City's United Palace Theater on August 8, 2008. Keyboardist and bandleader Chick Corea reassembled his band of virtuosos that included bassist Stanley Clarke, guitarist Al DiMeola, and drummer Lenny White for more than 50 dates around the world. Along for the ride at FOH was Corea's premier sound engineer, Bernie Kirsch.
Kirsch first worked with RTF in the recording studio at the end of the original RTF lineup, as he explained backstage at the final show in New York. "The first tour I went out on with Chick was the last version of RTF. He had a horn section then; it was the tour right after the electric quartet-I think it was 1977-then in 1983, there was another tour, but it was just a short reunion tour."
Kirsch works on most of Corea's projects, from the Electrik Band, to his recent re-collaboration with Gary Burton, but RTF is something a bit different than the usual project. Kirsch noted, "This is much more rock-sounding. Between working with Chick's Electrik band and this, the difference is in the stage sound, which this has much more of. There's a little more use of monitors, and the volume at which the stage is set is just bit louder. It's got a rock sensibility to it in terms of impact, but the dynamic varies; it goes very wide."
To get total control of the often-improvising group, Kirsch used a Midas XL4 for the tour. "The Midas XL4 is a classic analog-sounding console. It's got a nice 'chunk' to it, the preamps sound great, and you can really push them to get that analog harmonic edge that adds a nice sense of musicality. You get the kind of quality you get when you're recording with...