Learn how FOH Ken “Pooch” Van Druten gets studio clarity in stadiums with UAD plug-ins over Dante.
Ken “Pooch” Van Druten’s career spans more than three decades and a who’s who of live music — from Kiss and Whitney Houston to Linkin Park, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber, and now Iron Maiden. Known for his balance of technical precision and musicality, Pooch has made a career out of turning massive concerts into album-quality listening experiences.
“I’ve spent my life chasing how to make live shows feel like records,” he says. “Now Apollo x16D gives me a way to finally bring the UAD tools I use in the studio straight into the live environment — and it just works.”
Apollo X16D: From Studio to Stage, Seamlessly
Before becoming a touring FOH icon, Van Druten cut his teeth in the studio. But “the guy behind the glass” perspective still shapes his live mixing approach.
“I’ve always thought like a studio engineer first. I want depth, clarity, impact — not just volume. UAD plug-ins behave like the hardware I use in the studio, so when I pull up an EMT or Lexicon reverb, I know exactly what I’m going to get.
“Apollo x16D makes this transition seamless,” he continues. “I use the same plug-in chains I use in Pro Tools at home and drop them into a stadium mix. It’s the same tools, the same flavors, just scaled for 50,000 people instead of a pair of monitors!”
“When I started, a good live mix meant you could hear the vocal,” says Ken “Pooch” Van Druten. “Now people expect a concert to sound like the record.”
The Art of the Mix: Balancing Impact and Intelligibility
“Iron Maiden is unlike any other band I’ve ever mixed,” says Van Druten who is currently in the middle of Iron Maiden’s 2025 “Run for Your Lives” tour. “It’s not just three guitars — it’s three guitars, bass, keys, and one of the most iconic singers in rock, all happening at once. Plus, there are elaborate intros, backing tracks, and sound effects that the fans expect to hear exactly as they do on the record. My job is to make it powerful and larger-than-life, but also true to their legacy. Every detail matters — from Bruce’s first scream to the last kick drum hit.”
To ensure the guitars hit like they should every night, Van Druten leans heavily on UAD reverb plug-ins. He assigns an EMT 250 Classic Electronic Reverb plug-in to each guitarist, using panning and reverb imaging to widen their sound without sacrificing detail.
“Fans don’t just come to hear Iron Maiden,” he explains. “They come to hear their guy. Some are Adrian Smith fans fans, some are Dave Murray fans, some are Janick fans. They need to be able to pick that guitarist out of the mix all night.
“If I simply doubled a guitar channel, it would smear,” he continues. “So by creating a reverb image on the opposite side of the stereo field, the sound feels huge and wide while still letting you pick each player out. It’s about separation and intelligibility — that’s the magic.”
“With Apollo x16D I take the same plug-in chains I use in Pro Tools at home, and drop them into a stadium mix.”
Ken “Pooch” Van Druten, FOH for Iron Maiden
Another key to Van Druten’s detailed live guitar mixes is automation, more specifically snapshots — where all settings like fader levels, mutes, EQ, effects, and other parameters can be instantly recalled. “When Adrian or Davey take a solo, I bring them to the center of the mix with a snapshot. When they’re done, I push them back out. That way the audience can hear every note of the solo but still feel the wall of three guitars once it’s over.”
For Bruce Dickinson’s iconic vocals, Van Druten uses Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb and 480L Digital Reverb & Effects plug-ins, carefully balancing short reverb tails with long pre-delays. “I want clarity first, then the space opens up. So long pre-delays — 80ms or more — keep the vocal intelligible while still feeling massive.” Van Druten also uses an AMS RMX16 Expanded Digital Reverb for Maiden’s signature gated snare hits, and the Dytronics Cyclosonic Panner to auto pan vocal samples for the track “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
“I put Apollo x16D in a rack, connected an Ethernet cable, downloaded the software, and it just worked. That’s not always the case in live sound,” says Iron Maiden FOH Ken Van Druten.
More Than Just Faders: The Real Art of FOH
Mixing stadiums brings unique challenges for any FOH engineer for sure, but for Van Druten, good live sound still comes down to dialing in the basics and good old fashioned people skills.
“The front-of-house role is both technical and psychological,” he says. “You need fundamentals — mic choice, gain staging, EQ — but you also need to manage the people around you. Musicians, managers, producers, fans — half the job is psychology. I can walk into a room full of artists and identify immediately what their needs are, and make them feel that I am there for them. That’s why there’s the same 10 to 20 FOH engineers in the world who keep getting called back.”
Ken “Pooch” Van Druten’s Top UAD Live Plug-Ins for Iron Maiden
EMT 250 Classic Electronic Reverb (Depth and width on all guitars)
Lexicon 224 and 480L Digital Reverbs (Soaring vocal reverbs for clarity and space)
AMS RMX16 Expanded Digital Reverb (Classic gated/reverse snare reverb)
Dytronics Cyclosonic Panner (Auto panning vocal samples in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”)
— Tom Waterman/Darrin Fox
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