Although Baltimore-based Turnstile officially got off the ground in 2010, the hardcore punk band’s trajectory over the past five years has been nothing short of meteoric, globally igniting with 2021’s genre-bending Glow On record, which earned them three Grammy nominations. Four years later, Turnstile dropped their fourth album, Never Enough, which garnered the band Grammy nominations in an unprecedented three categories—rock, alternative, and metal—and sent them home with awards for both Best Metal Performance (“Birds”) and Best Rock Album this past February.
Two key components of Turnstile’s success have been their incendiary performances and relentless touring, including late-2025’s Never Enough Tour and prime slots at the Primavera, Outbreak, and Glastonbury festivals. This year, Turnstile is once again out on the festival circuit, which kicked off with back-to-back weekends at Coachella in April and now soon whisks them off to Osheaga, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Bumbershoot, Shaky Knees, and other North American gigs, plus a heavy roster of international fests.
Jake Lang has been with the band for five years as FOH engineer, production manager, and tour manager—and now solely focuses on FOH as the group has scaled up. For his choice of instrument, Nashville-based Worley Sound is supplying him with a shiny new DiGiCo Quantum326 mixing console.
“I love the Q326 for its transparency,” he says. “I dig being able to mix a variety of bands”—including Alkaline Trio, Movements, and others—“and get consistent results but with vastly different tones and vibes. I’ve previously carried a Q338, but with Turnstile, that’s a lot of console for a five-piece band that has a fairly low channel count, so the Q326 has been exactly what I’ve needed. I appreciate being able to tip the board with just one other person, and I can run the whole show off of a single layer. We really keep it simple: no playback, no click. We occasionally have someone pop in with a guest vocal or instrument, but we’re pretty straightforward. I mostly mix into groups, and between that and using control groups, I don’t really have to bounce around between layers.”
At the other end of the Optocore loop is monitor engineer Chris “Chop” Mateer, who moved into his current position with the band this past December. His console of choice is the DiGiCo Quantum338, also provided by Worley Sound, which affords him a larger worksurface to get around on.
“I’m running five IEM mixes for the band, plus seven that cover our crew and guests, for a total of 12 mixes of Shure Axient Digital PSM,” says Mateer. “We have live cabs onstage, but the band is all on ears, plus there’s a thumper for our drummer, Dan. We’re also doing a fair bit of con sends and receives with the DiGiCos for things like IEM mixes for our lighting and video crew at FOH, talkbacks from FOH to me, and for Jake sending his mix back to the stage so I can share it to friends-and-family fills onstage. Our stage gets pretty crowded with guests and we want them to have the same experience as the crowd.”
For Mateer, DiGiCo’s snapshot system is a massive plus. “I really love the snapshot system, especially with the new updates,” he shares. “It lets me give everyone the same show with consistent moves each night, allowing me to keep my focus on the stage. It’s now even easier to keep my snapshots organized, and being able to flip between a festival and headline show setlist saves a lot of time in reordering.”
And he quickly cites the Quantum desk’s comprehensive processing facilities as another major perk: “I feel like I can solve just about any problem that comes up with the console’s onboard processing. Don’t get me wrong; I love outboard gear, but I don’t like to begin adding gear unless it’s to address something specific that I can’t solve otherwise. Between the Mustard, Spice Rack, and Nodal Processing I’ve been able to stay entirely in the desk and haven’t had to reach for any outside solutions yet. It makes it really simple for whenever we might need to source consoles locally for a one-off or something. I just need to get a Quantum in front of me and I’m all good.”
Out at front of house, Lang also appreciates Quantum processing—“the Mustard PSE is an absolute life-saver against our stage volume, which can be pretty intense,” he says—but he’s also recently fallen in love with Fourier Audio’s transform.engine for deploying studio-grade plugins live. “I started using Fourier when we began working with Worley Sound last year, and I was immediately sold. I initially started with oeksound’s Soothe Live and Valhalla’s reverbs and very quickly knew that I’d never go back,” he laughs. “I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface with Fourier’s options. Soothe Live has been amazing on vocals and bass, and I’ve really been digging the Seventh Heaven Bricasti plugin. I also love the Sound Toys stuff; saturation and delay are huge for me, so I’m Decapitator-ing some parallel drums and really hammering EchoBoy out there.”
And both engineers are quick to praise the service and support they’ve received from Worley Sound, which has been providing their DiGiCo control package for the past year. “Tom and the Worley crew are the best,” says Lang. “Being at the Worley shop is just so much fun. They always send us out with beautiful rigs, and their attention to detail is truly unmatched. Tom is also just the best guy I’ve ever met. Turnstile has been moving up at such a rapid pace and Tom has been an unbelievable resource as we scale up and move into bigger and bigger rooms.”
Mateer agrees: “I’ve worked with Tom as a vendor on a few projects now, and every time, he and his shop crew have taken incredible care of us. Every idea I want to try out—and I’ll admit, there are a lot of them—they are always open, and come up with a great way to implement it. We definitely get a lot of compliments on their racks and consoles and are proud to partner with them. What they have going on at Worley Sound and Worley Studio is something really cool, for sure!”
For details on Turnstile’s upcoming shows, visit www.turnstilehardcore.com. Worley Sound can be found online at www.worleysound.com.
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