Within weeks after their conception in the fall of 2002, when drummer Damon Metzner, a high school friend of Weidenhaft's from New Orleans, began playing with guitarist Ryan Burnett, upright bassist Dion Stepanski and percussionist Ben Griffin, the members of Signal Path had already cut their first demo. 'We already had a school bus (laughs)….Really we were just ready to do it.' 'Everyone was kind of gung-ho about the whole thing, so it was really easy for us to get our start,' admitted a soft-spoken Weidenhaft. This is the scene I've experienced at previous Path shows, and when we got the opportunity to catch-up in Colorado the following week, guitarist-turned-keyboardist Nathan Weidenhaft filled me in on the band's fine tunings. Colorfully filled with tasty tidbits of jazz, Latin and funk, their set was keenly received by an amenable crowd of sweaty, red-faced onlookers. The band commenced a sun-soaked set of electrifying drum n' bass and down-tempo organica on fire and never looked back. In just two years, they've created quite a stir not just with their hometown brethren but throughout the live music community with their energetic blend of beat-driven, instrumental jazz-infused electronicaīack in mid-June while covering the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival outside of Lawrence, Kansas, I was highly anticipating the afternoon main-stage set of these Montana melody makers. Since meeting and subsequently forming there in the fall of 2002, they've worked to place Missoula on the musical map. This city of 57,000 is more often preferred by the naturalist clique, which opts to visit or live in the mountains of Montana for its pristine landscapes and down-to-earth, small town appeal.įor Signal Path, it's become home, and a very welcoming home at that. No other console works like Live.Missoula, Montana is seldom recognized, that is unless you live there, as a cultural hotbed. I haven’t run into a routing scenario with Live that I haven’t been able to work out. “Being able to rearrange the signal path of each channel individually and the capability of routing stem groups to each other are two features you don’t usually find in a console. “As far as routing capabilities, I don’t know of any other console that allows me to have the flexibility of Live,” explains Stephens. For the FOH mix, he uses both SSL plug-ins and a Waves MultiRack Soundgrid outboard processor to accomplish the final sound. Stephens echoes Richner’s sentiments regarding the flexibility of the Live console. I have never seen another console with the features of Live.” Depending on the way I need to use it, it can be a completely different console from one performance to the next. It’s nice to be able to make the SSL Live do whatever I want.

The automation functions and grouping capabilities are spot on. He was like, ‘We’re good!’ While the sound quality was a big bonus for us, the thing that is most important is that console also is extremely flexible, easy to use and powerful. “At music rehearsals, using Live for the first time, the guys came in and our guitar player walked up, put his ears in, hit four notes and was blown away. “The sound quality is amazing it’s a great sounding desk,” states Richner. Richner has been with Aldean since 2005 and finds the sound and features of Live to be a real asset along the tour.

Signal path tour