The masked metal noisemakers in Slipknot have issued a blistering new sonic screed on All Hope Is Gone, the band's first album of new music in four years and first Billboard No. 1 album.
Bassist Paul Gray—an avid Peavey bass-amp abuser for many years—installed a full Peavey sound system for the band's rehearsal room just in time to begin work on the follow-up to the Platinum-sellingVol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, which spawned the Grammy-winning single Before I Forget."
With a band that has as much going on as we do, being able to hear everything is crucial, said Gray.The full-range Peavey system we're using gives us crisp highs, a thumping low end and more than enough power. It might be the only sound system strong enough to handle Slipknot!
During rehearsals the band is flanked by two towering SP6 enclosures, each a quasi four-way system with two 15 Black Widow woofers for the lows, mid-range duties shared by the top 15 and a 6.5 professional mid-range speaker, and highs represented by an RX22 titanium compression driver. Both towers, as well as four QW monitor wedges, are powered by CS 4000 Commercial Series power amplifiers that put out a pounding 4000 watts at 4 ohms bridged.
Directing the signal flow is a 24FX mixing console, a 24-channel desk outfitted with ultra-clear Silencer mic preamps—fed by PVM 22 mics with diamond-coated diaphragms—and four pre-fader auxiliary outputs per channel that provide four separate monitor mixes, one for each QW.
Gray is currently using his arsenal of Peavey Tour Series amplifiers on tour. "I definitely needed the power to be heard over nine people! he said. I needed something that would cut through, and Peavey had everything I was looking for."
