It’s been nearly forty years since Springsteen’s debut Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, and judging from the 3-hour-plus shows, sold-out arenas, and glowing critical reviews, both rocker and band [minus the late, beloved saxophonist Clarence Clemons and keyboardist Danny Federici] are still regaling in their ‘Glory Days.’ With the Wrecking Ball Tour, in support of their 17th studio album, Springsteen & Co are heading into a two-month U.S. fall stadium tour following a massive world tour that started in March of 2012 taking them around the globe. Solotech US Corp. is the tour’s production provider.

Critical monitor mixes for the 18-piece band are split in two between engineers Monty Carlo and Troy Milner and for the first time ever they’re employing a pair of DiGiCo SD7s outfitted with the Waves SoundGrid bundle. At stage left is Carlo, who’s been with Springsteen since ’92, handling a mix of wedges and in-ears for Bruce, guitarists Steven Van Zandt and Patti Scialfa, keyboardist Roy Bittan, background vocalists, and a five-piece horn section. Milner, onboard since 2001, is at stage right taking care of drummer Max Weinberg, guitarist Nils Lofgren, bassist Garry Talent, keyboardist Charlie Giordano and multi-instrumentalist, Soozie Tyrell.

The engineers specifically chose the SD7 for its flexibility and ability to grow with the size of the production, including the massive amounts of I/O capabilities that it offered. Onboard features from snapshots to multiband compressors and the Waves pro plug-in bundle offered lots of extra functionality.

“From 2002-2009 we used Yamaha PM1D’s for monitors,” Carlo explains. “Since then, our band has grown from 9 musicians to 18 on this tour with the occasional guest on top of that. We needed something that could handle a large number of inputs, (over 100), and a massive amount of outputs, about 56 on each side of the stage. The DiGiCo SD7 was the only console I found that could accomplish what I was going to ask of it. Before this tour, I’d never actually mixed on a DiGiCo of any variety. I spent some time in the past year building the console with the Offline Editor and getting familiar with its layout and feature set. In November 2011, I got together with Troy in Nashville and we spent a couple of days with Matt Larson getting a hands-on training session with the desk. Following that, we spent the first 3 months of 2012 in rehearsals and doing some small promo events (Grammy’s, Jimmy Fallon and SXSW Festival). With the addition of a horn section and percussionist a lot of songs ended up with slightly different arrangements and we spent a fair amount if time working through the new album since not many of the band members had worked on it in its entirety.”

“We needed consoles that could handle a lot of inputs and outputs and be flexible,” adds Milner. “Before rehearsals began, we still didn’t have a concrete plan for what was going to be needed as far as band members and layouts. Things were constantly changing even into the first run of shows. I used the SD7 last year with Garth Brooks—and the D5 on numerous tours with Michael W. Smith, Mercy Me, and Amy Grant—and it performed perfectly.”

With approximately 96 inputs alone coming from the stage, plus effects and talkbacks, Carlo is managing about 112 inputs total from stage left. Being able to mix mono and stereo sources on the same fader bank as I want to see them on the desk is a huge deal for him. “I love not losing two faders to a stereo input or output as used to happen on the 1D. The level you can customize the surface is so flexible and easy to change that as your input list and band grows you aren’t stuck simply adding channels at the end of the console. Being able to rebuild the desk in a way that better suits your workflow in mid-tour is a great luxury. Plus, the multiband compressors on each channel are a great tool that I’ve been using more than I thought I would.”

Carlo’s got his favorite Waves plug-ins. “On my in-ear mixes I use the C-6 compressor and Kramer PIE compressor across the mixes. I’m using the H-EQ as an insert on Bruce’s vocal channel to allow me to get a few additional bands of EQ that I can use for tight notches on troublesome frequencies. For effects I’m using H-Delay, TrueVerb and Renaissance Verb. I’m also using GTR Stomp and Amp plug-ins on Bruce’s guitar lines in case of a problem with his amps/cabinets on stage.”

Over at stage right, Milner mixes a staggering 140 inputs, comprised of a fair amount of effects for drums and guitars, in addition to a combo of wedges and in-ear systems, including Shure PSM1000′s for ears and a mix of Audio Analysts wedges consisting of SLP115, SLP212, plus a couple of double Audio Analysts 18″ sub cabinets for drum subs.

“I double assign the drum inputs so I can tailor them for the drummer independently from everyone else. Again, another great super easy feature on the SD7. One of the biggest challenges on this tour is just the large amount of inputs and outputs we have to deal with up onstage. We have settled in now but we still have plenty of options to easily add, change or move things around without reinventing the wheel. We also have a great Talk Back system for all the techs and backline guys that are in our ears at all times, so we can be attending to issues before anyone is even aware what is happening.”

Milner’s found a plethora of onboard features and functionality helpful in his day-to-day workflow. “Being able to assign the rotary knobs on each bank to a specific function is very handy. I’m using one row for Compressor Thresholds and on my drum input bank I use one row at my Gate Threshold. Max Weinberg is a very dynamic player and I’m constantly adjusting those gates for each song and throughout each song to keep things under control for him. Also, having the ability to move any fader to any place on the desk is so great. After mixing a few shows, I learned that just moving a few inputs to other banks and reordering my outputs could vastly improve my current layout. Such a great feature! I’m also finding all kinds of new things to use the Macro Keys for now. One is that between songs when the stage is dark, it can be a little hard to see the band onstage, so I have macro key that dims all the lights and monitors down so its easier to see what they might need. Also, using a Macro Key to switch the extra video monitor inputs. I’m getting a full production feed as well as other feeds and I can just use a macro to select the one I need for any given song.”

“For most of my reverbs I’m using the Renaissance Reverb and it sounds great in every application—from drums to background vocals to horns. I’m also using the SuperTap for some delay/slap effects on the drums and horns. The Waves C6 is one of my go-to plug-ins for just about anything, and I’m using it on the snare and toms to shape the sound in the ears and also on some vocals. The CLA-76 Bluey is another favorite, and the list goes on and on. It’s great to be able to easily try out all these fantastic plug-ins on inputs and or outputs to see what works for each application.”

One of the biggest challenges with the Springsteen show is the set list, which they receive literally 5 minutes prior to the start of the show. Not only does it change from night to night, but also during the show, Bruce can veer off the list at a moment’s notice. The snapshot feature has become invaluable for both engineers.

“With the PM1D, I had a sheet with all my scenes that I would have to jump around during the show,” Carlo recalls. “With the SD7′s snapshot panel, I can order the list as Bruce intends to do the show, but then when he decides to jump to something off the list, it’s as easy to get to as typing the first letter of the song until I get to the desired snapshot. Right now, I’m at around 130 snapshots.”

“We never know what Bruce will do next or what song he will pull out, so being able to load those snapshots quickly is a challenge,” adds Milner. “I use the keyboard and just type the first letter of the song and it will jump through all those snapshots starting with that letter. Then you can fire the snapshot with the space bar very quickly. This is usually not a problem on other tours but with over 150 snapshots it can take time to go through them all. I have an external monitor hooked on the ‘B’ engine so with everything mirrored to the ‘A’ engine I can make sure I’m running in complete redundancy at all times.”

For both engineers, the SD7 has proved to be a reliable and accommodating asset for this complex and unpredictable production.

Carlo says he’s found the SD7 to be one of the most flexible consoles out there. “I can configure it to look and operate exactly the way I need it to depending on what type of show/band I’m going to be mixing on it. It sounds great, it’s warm and full without any brittle or sterile characteristics that other consoles sometimes have. Looking ahead, and depending on the show, I might be inclined to try something a bit smaller than the SD7, however, the redundancy inherent in the SD7 with its dual engines and power supplies is a solid feature.”

Milner agrees. “Absolutely, I’ll be using DiGiCo again. They sound great and are so flexible to use especially with a large number of inputs and outputs and with all the different SD console options out now, it makes finding the right desk for each application simple. On this tour, the band seems to be really happy—and with 18 people on stage and all those open mics things can get messy really fast. We seem to have found a good balance for each band member and what works for them on any given song. The SD7 sounds great and is very neutral-sounding. It doesn’t seem to color the sound at all which is nice. You can start with the source and if that sounds good, then you know things will sound great with the console. I don’t know of any other desk out there right now that can do what we are asking of these consoles. With 140 inputs, 52 outputs and around 150 snapshots (and that number is always growing) we are making these desks earn their keep!”

You can’t throw a proverbial rock without hitting a DiGiCo console in the audio trenches on Broadway. From the long-running The Lion King to the relatively new smash hit The Book of Mormon, as well as Evita, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Newsies, Sister Act and War Horse, DiGiCo’s potent SD7T, with its powerful hardware, Stealth engine and theatre software kit—utilizing Live Update along with Aliases to manage the demands of 100-cue shows—is handling the toughest demands of theatre audio today. DiGiCo’s SD10 can be found on productions ranging from One Man, Two Guvnors to Peter and the Starcatcher.

This June, two of the newest productions and their respective sound designers took home coveted 2012 Tony Awards for sound design: Clive Goodwin for Once and Darron L. West for Peter and the Starcatcher. They each found the DiGiCo desks critical to the creation and design process of their shows. Interestingly, both shows got their start at the New York Theatre Workshop before moving to Broadway, and this was the first nomination for both Goodwin and West.

The critically acclaimed musical Once is based on the 2006 Academy Award-winning film about an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant drawn together by their shared love of music. In transitioning the show to the larger theatre, Goodwin chose a DiGiCo SD7T after consulting with Scott Kalata at Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, who’d been helping in the design process.

“We needed something with a lot of busses and a high input/output count, flexible theatre-friendly architecture, and the capability of using Waves plug-ins,” Goodwin reflected. “And, it goes without saying that we needed great sound quality. I had used a DiGiCo D5 in a previous life in live music touring, and I was impressed with the user-friendly nature and excellent sound quality. I found the SD7′s dynamic EQs—both onboard and from Waves—were extremely useful in vocal processing. The tube emulator is a nice feature for adding a little extra warmth to most things. The ‘alias’ feature and programming groups were also very useful, especially when planning a show in advance, as they simplify changes throughout the show or just to a single scene. Not to mention, the console has the best sound of any digital console I have used to date. I was hoping to use an SD8 on a forthcoming production, but unfortunately, they were all out doing other shows!”

Also transitioning from the small stage to the big theatre with much fanfare is Peter and the Starcatcher, based on the novel of the same name, which gives the back story for the beloved character Peter Pan. The show got its start in several venues before moving on to the New York Theatre Workshop, where the full production team came together—including sound designer Darron L. West, associate designer Charles Coes and production provider Masque Sound—before opening on Broadway in the spring of 2012. Enlisting the help of Scott at Masque, they spec’d a DiGiCo SD10-24 console to handle the expanding production. Key factors for their new console consideration were having an onboard automation package that could work well for theatre, a flexible bus structure, a system that offered lots of outboard control, programming and matrixing, and a transparent sound. The SD10-24′s small footprint ensured they’d have no complaints from producers requiring only a handful of seats for its placement, and the console’s feature-packed system and exceptional sound quality won them over and sealed the deal.

“The sound design of this show is very old-fashioned, as Darron is happy to say,” offers Coes. “It was important for us to create a feel and a subtle sound that seems to come from the actors and from the band. Having a console that sounds incredibly transparent and clear—and lets engineer Rob Bass follow the show really carefully—keeps us from showing our hand in how much we’re actually reinforcing the show.”

Coes says they were impressed the deeper they got into the console, discovering more ways they were well served by the desk—from the flexible bus setup available for creating feeds, to the scene recall and animation.

“It’s an incredibly powerful console in a small package and we weren’t fighting with the producers about seats,” Coes muses. “Once we learned the DiGiCo mentality in terms and approach, we found the console could do pretty much anything we were asking it to. The I/O flexibility helped us a lot, especially in this application. We made great use of all the internal effects and they sounded consistent and much better than the ones on a competitor’s console. We didn’t have to bring in outboard gear or worry about automating a bunch of external reverb units to track the show. Everything was in the desk and it solved the problem very well for a complicated production.”

Before the desk left in the shop, engineer Rob Bass was able to spend a day setting it up with Coes, laying out the basics and building snapshots. Also a newcomer to the DiGiCo format, he too was pleased with what it had to offer to manage the intricate show. With approximately 70 inputs for everything in the show including actor mics, band mics and sound effects, they’re utilizing 48 outputs.

“We’re basically using our aux sends strictly as outputs,” Bass explains. “We’re using all of our aux outputs as mains in the way we’re set up, and the fact that we’re able to set up that many outputs without losing what we needed for inputs was a big help. Charles set it up so we do all the delay matrixing after the console. It’s all done back at the racks before we send it to the speaker processing, so all the outputs are sent to specific points in our outboard matrix and that’s basically set up to do different vocal delays on the stage, separate band outputs, for the surround speakers, and we have 16 channels that are all sent down a discreet output for the effects speakers onstage that double as foldback [stage monitors] for the actors. The band has monitoring outputs and we’re only using six reverbs, and all those have discrete outputs.”

Because the show strives for a more natural sound, Bass says they’re using a minimum of effects and mostly stock reverbs. “We don’t want it to sound very reinforced, so none of the effects are super prominent; it’s more about adding space for some of these live sound effects. We’re using about six reverbs for the different spaces we’re building, like on the underwater grotto where the mermaids swim. We have a trippy reverb on the piano that’s playing at that point. Basically we’re taking the stock reverbs and tweaking them to get what we want, and then EQing them over returns. The show itself uses a lot of live sound effects; the musicians are doing a lot of that as well as the cast, whether its different noises or vocally, so a lot of the time we’re just putting reverb on that. I like that I can get around the desk pretty quickly and it was easy to dial it all in to have everything at our fingertips.”

“I was a huge fan of the flexibility of the console,” added sound designer Darron West. “Especially on a show as complicated and as dense as Peter and the Starcatcher. There was never a moment in tech rehearsals when a request was made by me that Charles or Rob said we couldn’t do… which is also a testament to the system, and the DiGiCo was indeed the heart and soul of that.”

When DiGiCo introduced its supercharged SD9 at the beginning of 2012, the significant expansion in channel count, dynamic EQs, multiband compressors and matrix, and the addition of DiGiTubes, reorder of busses, multichannel inputs and aux VCAs (formerly only available on SD7) made it a no-brainer for production companies around the country for use in myriad real-world applications. With the addition of the “Rack Pack” option—adding a second D-Rack, Digital Snakes and a flight case for the surface—DiGiCo took it a step further, offering a ruggedly road-ready, 72-mic-input system available at an unprecedented price.

“DiGiCo has had incredible success in penetrating not only the touring market, but also the Broadway market, house of worship market, and projects ranging from small events to large-budget corporate productions,” says Group One’s National Sales Manager, Matt Larson “Now, with the SD9, you can get an expanded I/O capacity with the same sonic performance as you would on the SD7 with a smaller footprint and less expensive system. The DiGiCo Stealthâ„¢ platform, using the super FPGA chip, allows us to open up the power of the engine in any of our systems like we’ve done with the SD9. We’ve increased the output capacity as well as a vast amount of other cool features. We then offer it in the SD9 Rack Pack package, which now takes this small footprint system and adds a ton of inputs to it. It is very accessible to every market segment, whether it’s the regional sound company or the big sound company looking for a desk for the house of worship for the main sanctuary or small youth room, down to the regional theatre market segment.”

The small footprint, easy load-in/load-out capabilities and an easy-to-program operating system enable Atlanta’s Rock-N-Road Audio, Miami’s Beachsound and Audio Formula, Seattle’s Carlson Audio Systems and OTSC in West Texas to get the job done easily at mid-to-large-scale festivals and corporate events.

“DiGiCo consoles offer us essentially three important features: superior audio quality, ease of use, versatility and reliability,” reveals Rock-N-Road Audio’s Roy Drukenmiller. “It’s wonderful for anything from corporate events to major shows. The fact that you don’t have to use copper analog snakes makes life so easy. When your snake is a piece of CAT5, everybody’s willing to help pull that! We just did a show in Boston, a corporate after party, and used it for FOH and monitors—one console did it all. And it made for a very easy load-in and load-out since the only thing at the FOH was the surface, a processor and a CD player. And because we have the traditional eight-output strip in our rack, we were able to have 16 outputs on deck, which allowed us to have the in-ear rack onstage as well.”

“Audio Formula placed a pair of SD9s and D-Racks at the Ultra Music Fest in Miami Beach,” explains CEO Nick Assunto. “Our responsibility at the event was to make certain we had the latest technology available for the performances, from the PA system to all the peripherals involved. In addition, we’re responsible for tuning the system for the demanding SPL requirements and making sure we get the nicest definition out of the system. My favorite feature of the DiGiCo is having the ability to have everything separated in the matrix and in different layers. It’s handy to be able to remove all the nonessential buttons from the layers to have easy access to all the required channels in one page without having to flip around. Also, the SD9 with remote D-Rack was very small and fitted perfectly under the DJ booth with no problems. That definitely was a winner.”

“We’ve found the SD9 Rack Pack to be the most powerful compact-sized mixing platform available for our events while still retaining a practical and logical layout,” says Beachsound & Lighting owner Andre Serafini. “Because of its efficiency and reliability, we foresee this becoming a tour standard for shows that require a solid performance and are limited on space as they travel, such as up-and-coming artists needing to carry consoles in a bus or cruise ship theatres where space is limited and heavy I/O is demanded. DiGiCo has continuously provided outstanding and unparalleled support for their digital mixing consoles, which is definitely an added benefit to us as we pick partners to work with.”

“OTSC used the SD9 at FOH for the Fiesta West Texas family-centered Hispanic cultural festival to mix a roster of a dozen bands over the three-day Cinco de Mayo weekend,” OTSC head engineer Eric Hite explains. “We really need the flexibility of the SD9 as we wanted that big fat DiGiCo sound, clear and solid, and features that go on and on. The SD9 allowed us to set up and soundcheck multiple bands and recall their snapshot without needing to re-soundcheck. Also, with its physical size being so small compared to our older VCA analog board, it made it easier to move around during the festival. Not needing a separate FX rack really helped, as there was no last-minute re-patching of the comps and gates, or anything at FOH, really. You just look up your band and hit Recall. It is very convenient to have. The internal effects did just fine for this show and will most likely keep up with our pace for a long while.”

“We took delivery of our first SD9 in April 2012, and since then I have been really pleased with the system as a whole,” enthuses Matt Collins, operations manager for Carlson Audio Systems. “I’ve used it several times at this point for both corporate and rock shows, and the versatility of the system is incredible! It’s really nice to have exactly what you want anywhere you want it. Once you become familiar with the system and the surface, it is really quick to set up a new show and be ready to roll. Additionally, using the SD9 Remote Control Editor software on a PC makes show setup even easier. As with any system, there are quirks and a learning curve; however, the usability of the SD9 is superb and it sounds great as well. I could go on for a while about the techy nerd details that I like about the SD line, but in lieu of that I’ll say that overall I am very happy with the SD9 and will certainly use it more and more going forward.”

“After spending four days running monitors on our SD9 at Sasquatch Music Festival, I found it to be a highly flexible, great-sounding, robust desk,” adds Carlson staff engineer Jesse Turner. “The GEQs were responsive and I could move around on the desk quite quickly even after only spending a little time on it. The biggest win for me was when I had an engineer walk up and be pleasantly surprised that we had a DiGiCo product, as he had an SD11 file that he’d recently created. He was able to load his presets, move around a few fader banks, and away he went with no problem. At the end of the show, he thanked me profusely and stated that he was able to have one of his best shows ever in a festival situation, when typically he would end up ‘just trying to get through the show.’ Overall, I was impressed with the fact that the desk has many of the qualities of its flagship counterparts, but in a much more compact and cost-effective package.”

After years of research, St. Matthew United Methodist Church in Belleville, Illinois, and Grace Church in Glendora, California, undertook major renovations of their technology systems, including making the leap from analog to digital with DiGiCo. Both were extremely pleased with the features and functionality of the SD9 systems.

“Having installed an SD7 for a large theatre project in 2011, we were impressed with the sonic quality, manufacturer support and operator training that DiGiCo provides its dealers and end users,” explains Joe Byrne, CTS operations manager for the West Coast division of Pro Sound & Video, which handled the install. “Because of the small budget we had for the Mountain Springs Church install project in Colorado Springs, I did not know if we could even consider DiGiCo. However, looking into the SD9 Rack Pack further, we found that it was such a great deal and represented such a robust upgrade from similar products in that price range that we ultimately decided to go with the SD9 system. I feel 100% confident that we made the right choice and the client is very happy.”

“The SD9 offers so much more, really, than any other console in its price range,” adds Mountain Springs Church tech director Keith Miller. “The Flexi Buss feature really opened a lot of options for us. You can mix in any type of situation without being stuck with a set amount of auxes or groups. Also, we found that the macros were very flexible and can do more than one function at a time, which is really nice, and the ability to have an alternative input on mono channels really cuts down on patching between our weekend and youth services.”

“When the SD9 was introduced, we all quickly realized that this would be the perfect replacement for the analog console in the video control room, making FOH and video independent and completely digital,” explains St. Matthew United Methodist Church’s broadcast engineer DJ Rockwell. “With the SD9′s affordable price tag, everyone was in agreement. It sounded great and the processing was seamless. The snapshots were very smooth and easily customizable. St. Matthew is a house of worship that has been into technology for a long time, and we do our best to stay on the cutting edge. We started airing our services on cable more than 25 years ago, and now we also stream live. On Sundays, we have three services back-to-back, with no time for rehearsals in between, and they can be as simple as three mics or as extreme as 75-plus inputs. Both the SD8 and SD9 made these 15- and 20-minute switchovers—from traditional to contemporary to blended with choir and orchestra—possible. The DiGiCo system has really improved the audio quality of our worship services and productions. The quality has noticeably improved for our members who watch online or at home.”

Andrew “Fletch” Fletcher has made a name for himself mixing music on hit TV shows from “American Idol,” “The Voice” and a slew of prestigious award shows from the Grammy’s to the MTV Music Awards. For the second year in a row, Fletch handled music mixes for the 2012 Billboard Music Awards and opted to test-drive his first DiGiCo console supplied by ATK, the show’s Audio provider.

“When the opportunity arose for me to use a DiGiCo on the show, I jumped at the chance. Given the choice of an SD10 or an SD7, I went with the SD7 as it had a bigger input capacity… and more flashing lights!”

As it was his first time on a DiGiCo, Fletch spent a few hours at ATK familiarizing himself with the desk, programming his show template, and then did the rest onsite.

“The challenge on any live TV show is to always be ahead of the game. I found the SD7 to be very easy to program and to get around on in general—which got me where I needed to be time-wise. I liked the onboard effects and stuck strictly to what was available on the console including three reverbs (Warm Hall and Vocal Plate for vocals and Percussion Room for drums) and two simple delays (one short, one long for vocals) for the show. I loved the multiband compressors and they worked great on vocals.”

“I liked the flexibility of the fader bank layout, too. I put all my instruments on the left side of the console and had my vocals on the right side. I also put the top layer of vocals in the center section so I could have all 17 vocal mics on the surface at the same time. I used the edit range function to add things to my snapshots such as back up mics that were added after I had rehearsed all the bands and had to be put into all the snapshots. Also, I found the scope functions invaluable for some production elements that I had to land in my console and needed to be isolated from automation for emergency back up in case the FOH production console encountered a problem. Macros were quite useful to navigate around snapshots quickly as well.”

But what struck Fletch initially was the sound of the console.

“The sound quality is outstanding and it’s very flexible. I’ve been using just Yamaha consoles for the past 8 years and the DiGiCo’s sound very different and a lot more transparent. As it was my first time on the console—and having the time constraints of a live TV show—I didn’t get too deep into it, but I’ll indeed have some fun the next time I use one… and I’d be inclined to use one on every show, given the chance.”

Imagine being plucked from obscurity by a musical hero and hand-selected to be part of a tribute band celebrating the music of the iconic band Queen. That’s just what happened to nine veritably unknown singers and musicians from around the globe, chosen by Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, architects of the band’s sound, for The Queen Extravaganza summer tour band. Taylor, who took on the role of show producer and music director, wanted to create the ultimate Queen concert experience in an electrifying road show designed by a heavyweight production team headed by stage designer Mark Fisher, (known for memorable productions including “The Wall” for Pink Floyd and every Rolling Stones show since 1989) and Rob Sinclair (Adele, Peter Gabriel, Queen, Pet Shop Boys and Vampire Weekend). The tour celebrates Queen’s legacy and music, performed by some of the best new talent they could find.

Launched at the end of May, the tour travels to theatres in cities coast to coast across the United States and Canada through early July. At FOH is engineer James McCullagh, who manages the entire audio production from the helm of a DiGiCo SD10. Going into the tour, McCullagh was adamant about his console choice, having worked with DiGiCo SD desks on previous excursions with artists from Lucinda Williams to Journey. 



“I knew that I wanted to use a DiGiCo,” McCullagh recalls. “I said right up front it was non-negotiable. I’m a big fan of DiGiCo and I like the sound of the consoles. I’m familiar with the layout and it works well for me. There are a few things that I have in my arsenal that I knew would be beneficial in working with this band and the DiGiCo console is one of them. DiGiCo’s layout and functionality proves to be so much easier for me to run a show, and on this one, we’ve got nine singers onstage, 12 different effects channels running at one particular time, maybe seven to eight functional cues per song… There’s a lot going on and I needed a console that could deal with the intricacies of making that happen. For me it was a no-brainer to use a DiGiCo to ensure I would be able to get that huge drum sound and layered mass of vocals that Queen are known for.



“The problem was we had a hard time finding an available SD10 for the start of the rehearsals in Canada because they were all out on hire,” he adds, “but eventually, Clair Brothers was able to locate one. What was interesting was that, for the first week and a half, I was using a competitor’s console and it was the first time that I’d actually ever had a chance to A/B a console—in the same scenario, in the same room, with the same band, with the same mics and the same PA, and under the same conditions. And the difference between the two consoles was like night and day! It was like somebody pulled a blanket off the mix. People who didn’t even know that I’d changed consoles came up to me going, ‘What did you do to the sound? It sounds so much better!’ I’ve used all the digital consoles out there and they all do the job, but I was never really aware of the actual sound difference. All of a sudden it was like there was air over the cymbals and the vocal that was gone on the other console. The low end was just like somebody opened up a floodgate of lows that just extended on the SD10. I think the DiGiCo console is the closest digital console that you’re going to get to an analog sound. They’ve really gotten the conversions right; they’re really good. The way the console sounds is excellent, and a whole lot more functional for me. That was quite a revelation.” 



Going into rehearsals, the Queen Extravaganza touring band—comprised of four vocalists and five musicians—had never played together in the same room. They united in Toronto for a two-week band rehearsal (followed by a two-week production run-through in Montreal) to polish the plethora of material for their two-hour show: roughly 40 of the band’s biggest chart hits, finest heavy-duty rock based anthems, and early-period Queen numbers. Not surprisingly, the band’s input count came to 48 inputs, which included 16 channels of drum, two channels of bass, four channels of guitar (“part of getting Brian May’s guitar sound is miking the front and back of the Vox AC30 and we’ve got two guitarists on each end”), six channels of piano and keyboard, and nine channels of vocals as everyone in the band sings.


”I wanted to track and record all the rehearsals on separate tracks and being able to do that via MADI was one of the big advantages of using the DiGiCo,” said McCullagh. “I know that there are other consoles out there now that can do it as well but my first experience of doing that was with the DiGiCo via an RME MADI card into my MacBook Pro laptop and a separate hard drive. It’s very useful to be able to record and have anyone in the band, or the musical director, or Roger, come back and listen to a particular track.”


McCullagh made use of extensive grouping to organize all the vocals as well as snapshots on most of the songs for vocal routing and vocal balancing. “Obviously, each singer has their own channel, but sometimes the lead singer is the lead singer and sometimes he’s the backing singer,” he explains. “I created a stereo group and called it ‘backing vocals’ and sent all the backing vocals into that group and then I slammed that with a compressor. The Queen songs have very intricate harmonies and each vocalist sings at a different level. It was too much to have nine compressors going across nine channels over a loud rock band with drums and everything. It was easier for me to put one compressor over a group. That way, if someone sings slightly harder, or if I push a level a little bit too hard, that vocal won’t just jump out and sound awkward. It’s all squashed back into the mix and that helps to get that really tight, layered Queen harmony sound. I’m using the Waves LA2A plug-in, which is an awesome-sounding plug-in and very close to the real thing, and it does a real good job in smoothing out all the peaks and lows of the backing vocals. On each vocalist, I’m running an LA2A as well as a C6 multiband compressor, which helps take out any little areas where somebody’s voice might be a little resonant or deficient. With the dynamic range that Freddie Mercury had, each vocalist goes through a lot of changes and the C6 certainly helps to smooth it all out and make the voice sound completely natural.



“In addition, I’m running two TC4000′s and a TC Helicon VoiceLive on the vocals as well as an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer for the flange sounds. I sat down with Roger and we’ve very carefully gone over what they did in the studio and how he wanted to recreate it live. One thing I want to mention adamantly is that I’m not using any tricks or any doublers or harmonizers on any vocals to provide layering. All the layering is strictly from the singers. The massive sound is all them; there’s no artificial recreation or any of that. That’s important to say because we don’t want people to think that it’s all technology that’s making them sound like they do. These guys are sounding that way because they’re that good!”



For the extensive drum kit, McCullagh is running two parallel stereo busses. One is an unprocessed group feeding into another group, which is then compressed. “I’m running a Waves API 2500 plug-in across that, which is super-compressed with a lot of snap and a lot of pop-punch. I then blend those two busses to get the drum sound that I want, because obviously the drum sounds changed from the ‘70s to the ‘80s. In the ‘70s, it was more natural sounding and in the ‘80s, everything became very compressed and over-EQ’d. I didn’t want to be changing my drum sounds on snapshots or re-EQing my drums for every song, so I basically took various different balances of ungated and uncompressed, natural-sounding drum kits and very heavily EQ’d and compressed sounding drum kits, and blended the two together for my drum sound.”



McCullagh routes the toms to both drum busses and then to a third buss, which he calls “fat toms.” “I’ve got some Waves Renaissance Bass and VEq vintage EQs going on there and then I’ve pasted all the sub-harmonics of the toms and a little bit of cut so whenever there’s a big purposeful tom hit, I can fatten up the toms by riding in a little of the extra tom buss. Obviously, if I leave it on permanently when there are some really busy tom fills, then it’ll just sound like a bunch of low end and you don’t want that much low end on the toms. You want it to cut a bit more like a single tom hit, especially on songs like ‘We Will Rock You’ or ‘Another One Bites the Dust.’ By doing that I can really push it up and get a really huge tom sound.”

For the rest of the band sound, McCullagh employs minimal onboard effects. “The guitars are pretty much run with a flat EQ,” he says. “There are two Vox AC30s turned up to stun with a mic in front of them and then I just put the fader up. The piano sounds—we have a grand piano and some keyboards—are pretty much just using a bit of EQ and not much compression or anything going on there. My main focus for this band is all about getting huge drum sounds, great guitar sounds, and a massive wall of vocals… that’s pretty much how Queen worked and that’s what I’ve gone for.”



One of the features McCullagh is enjoying the most at the moment is the SD10′s Macro Smart Keys, which helps with myriad cues he’s managing from song to song. “I’m using a bunch of them,” he says. “I might use a delay in one part of a song or a delay on just a guitar just in one part of a song and not the rest, and they enable me to turn a vocal delay on and off without having to do that in my snapshots. I use them for mute buttons, to pull up my snapshots, open my snapshots page, and open my notes page. I’ve created a buss features page, and I have them to turn on reverbs for guitars, and turn on delays for vocals and guitars. I have another button assigned to turn my pink noise on and off, and another to switch between the playback on the computer, the recorded tracks, or the actual mic onstage. So without having to go to a drop-down menu, I can just hit the button and switch. All of my tracks that are recorded are coming back up on the same channels on the console, so we can listen to it in real time and make changes, get compression levels, and dial in EQs. It’s very handy when you’re trying to get a tom EQ or a tom gate set. You can just dupe a section of the toms, press Play, and keep hitting the same tom over and over again and set your gates and EQ and then move on to the next. It’s a very handy process. Another cool thing is you can assign a color to a button and it’s got a dual function. For example, it can be green when it’s on and red when it’s off, which is really handy in the dark.”



With the tour now in full force, McCullagh says he’s not surprised rave reviews are flooding in, given the stellar level of music, lighting and video offered at a time when many show productions are scaling back. “I haven’t seen this level of production for a theatre show,” he marvels. “Not in this day and age when people are dealing with shrinking budgets because of financial constraints. But even with our tight budget, these guys have managed to make it feel like the stadium shows the way Queen used to do it. That’s the level of production that they’ve put together and they’ve done a fantastic job because, whether you’re a Queen fan or not, you’re going to walk out of the show saying, ‘Wow! That was amazing! I definitely got my money’s worth!’

“Another thing: In this era, where tons of bands are using Pro Tools rigs and playing to backing tracks, we don’t have any. Everything that you hear is 100% live. All the harmonies are from the guys singing. There is no miming, no tracks, no help. In fact, I haven’t worked with a band in a long time, except Lucinda Williams, who hasn’t used backing tracks. On this tour, there’s nothing, and I think that’s pretty impressive. The band and singers are awesome and they are going to blow people’s minds. But what do you expect when you’ve got Roger and Brian at the controls, handpicking them?”

The rugged portability of DiGiCo’s SD11 was never utilized to fuller effect than on its latest voyage aboard the United States Navy’s active-duty USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier from Hawaii to San Diego. In one of its more unusual gigs, Broadcast Support designated the SD11 in tandem with a full dB Technologies PA—to handle all the audio functions for the seven-day Tiger Cruise, open to the aircraft carriers crew family and friends (aka “tigers”) as a reward for excellent service.

The $19,950 road-cased mixer was so ultra-compact that MacWest rep Steve McNeil, who aided Broadcast Support in the production, was able to check it as luggage on his flight from Long Beach, California to the ship, which was docked in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The mixer and PA were both craned aboard the ship and hoisted off again in San Diego when the return cruise ended a week later.

For the event’s myriad productions, a stage was built in an enclosed steel room below deck in the ship’s hangar where planes and helicopters were stored. The SD11 was rolled in and out every night to handle the musical entertainment for the troops provided by the Kelly Bell Band, and presentations which included two air shows, a 26-act talent show performed by service members, a “rap-off� hosted by the band, readings, and an awards ceremony commending top sailors presented by the commanding officer.

“The SD11 was pressed into service handling diverse audio tasks from mixing the front of house PA, monitors and IEM, to the delay speakers from a matrix,� explained McNeil. “Being that this was a working ship, this gig was challenging on so many levels, as we were at the mercy of the ship and the operations crew and therefore our schedule needed to be flexible. Needless to say, the week-long festivities turned out amazing and the console, operated by our engineer Karl Weidman, performed flawlessly. Karl hung out after every performance to play more with the SD11. He had quite a bit of fun mixing on it and was amazed at the big, open sound he was able to get from such a compact mixer. An SD9 is now his next purchase.�

“The SD11 is the perfect mixer where tons of performance is required in a very compact footprint,� offered Broadcast Support’s founder and President Scott Ramsey. “The show simply wouldn’t have happened with a conventional analog console and racks of effects, which the SD11 replaced. We love the console so much that DiGiCo should change the name from the ‘SD11’ to the ‘SD!!’�

Links:
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After years of research, St. Matthew United Methodist Church undertook a major renovation of its technology systems in 2009, including making the leap from analog to digital installing a DiGiCo SD8 as its main audio console. Continuing its digital progression, the house of worship recently added an SD9 with D-Rack (connected to the SD8 via DiGiCo’s Little Red Box), replacing an analog desk at the hub of its video production suite to handle the increased complexity of its productions. Church media consultant Phil Mahder of Training Resources and Ben Shipman, president of AVA Audio Video Associates again assisted in the transition, working with house broadcast engineer DJ Rockwell.

“St. Matthew has been pleased with their SD8 at FOH since they got it 2 years ago,” Mahder conveyed. “The production level for their large dramas has made the mixer a must—even their Sunday services have had so much complexity that they are using the potential of the SD8 routinely. Not only do they have a lot of sources on stage, but they also do a rapid and complete changeover between services as they switch music styles. The church has been on local cable for many years, producing a quality product in both content and production value. Since getting the SD8, they have realized that the analog console in the video control room has been a limitation. Although they have remote control over the SD8 from the video station, there were conflicts at times between the goals of the FOH operators and the video operators. When the SD9 was introduced, we all quickly realized that this would be the perfect replacement for the analog console in the video control room, making FOH and video independent and completely digital. With the SD9′s affordable price tag, everyone was in agreement.”

Ironically, the DiGiCo SD systems were Rockwell’s first foray into the digital mixing realm. Growing up at St. Matthew and actively involved in the media ministry for the past 10 years, he’s a third generation broadcast engineer with a keen interest in trending technology—particularly as it relates to video production. He found the DiGiCo desks to have a well-thought-out design offering an intuitive ease of use and fantastic sound quality.

“When we originally put the system in, back in 2009, we knew that there would be some more upgrades to come—especially for the video mix,” Rockwell said. “We started off mixing for video with an analog console, and then switched to a computer running the SD8 remotely. We were all in agreement that the new SD9 would be ideal for us, and were able to demo one prior to purchase. In fact, I was able to make a demo reel that showed how much it would improve the quality of our videos, which very much helped to convince the committees in charge of granting the funding. The SD9 proved to be the perfect solution for our problem and improved our productions greatly.”

Once the console was installed, Rockwell recalled, it was ready to run within an hour. “It sounded great and the processing was seamless. The snapshots were very smooth and easily customizable. St. Matthew is a house of worship that has been into technology for a long time, and we do our best to stay on the cutting edge. We started airing our services on cable more than 25 years ago, and now also stream live. On Sundays, we have three services back-to-back with no time for rehearsals in between and can be as simple as three mics and as extreme as 75-plus inputs. The SD8 and SD9 made these 15- and 20-minute switchovers—from Traditional to Contemporary to Blended with choir and orchestra—possible. Besides our normal worship services, we also put on two technically intensive productions each year, at Easter and Christmas, with a cast, crew, and orchestra of over 300. Having this kind of digital footprint—with all the bells and whistles it affords—is a must-have for what we do.”

DiGiCo’s Little Red Box (LRB) played an integral role in integrating the SD8 with the SD9. “It allowed us to take the second MADI I/O on the SD8, run it into the LRB—which is then sent to the SD9 over CAT5E. This enables us to send the local inputs on the SD8 to the SD9 using direct outs.”

From the crew to the congregation, everyone at the church has been extremely pleased with the SD9. “It’s really improved the audio quality of our worship services and productions,” Rockwell concluded. “We stream our services live and air them on cable, the quality of which has noticeably improved by our members who watch on line or at home.”

A decade after the launch of the D5 Live, British audio solutions manufacturer DiGiCo launches its new incarnation, the SD5. As you would expect, the SD5 fits directly into the D5’s shoes, but benefits from the advancements made possible by DiGiCo’s proprietary Stealth Digital Processing™.

“We’ve evolved a lot over the past decade, both in terms of the way we use the available technology and our understanding of what our customers really want and need,� says DiGiCo’s managing director, James Gordon. “SD5 is the culmination of that combined knowledge, so we want to make it the next generation D5 Live.�

The SD5’s worksurface is a low noise, heat dissipation worksurface benefiting from Hidden-til-lit (HTL) technology, yet its five digitally driven full colour TFT LCD screens, three of which are touch sensitive, have a new configuration that allows easy access to single or multiple users. There are also two interactive dynamic metering displays (IDM) and quick access buttons are positioned down the left side of the channel screens for fast and easy navigation.

Incorporating the master screen into the worksurface design has allowed for complete user feedback, but maintained a lower profile meter bridge. This still allows clear visibility of those on stage for the user, with everything in close reach to the mix position.

As with all SD range consoles, the SD5’s superior headroom, dynamic range and audio quality are of paramount importance and its feature set surpasses any other console in its class.

As standard, the SD5 comes with a 2Gb fibre optic system, which is capable of running 448 channels of I/O at 96kHz, plus 56 console-to-console tie lines, allowing connection to up to 14 of the SD variant racks. There are three redundant MADI ports and local I/O includes eight microphone inputs, eight line outputs and eight AES I/O (mono).

The SD5 has 124 input channels; 56 configurable busses, plus up to 5.1 master; a 24 x 24 fixed matrix; DiGiTubes on every channel, buss and output; 24 assignable Dynamic EQ; 24 multiband compressors; 24 stereo effects; 32 Graphic EQ; 10 x 4 (40) RGB backlit macro buttons; plus the ability to add a Waves upgrade.

“The SD5 has some DiGiCo added extras as well,� adds Gordon. “The D5 Live was the first ever console to have an integrated light bar, so of course, the SD5 has that as well. We’ve also included keyboard illumination and convenient headphone hooks to save you having to borrow a drumstick to hang up your headphones.

“The D5 was at the forefront of the live world moving over to digital mixing and SD5 is the perfect way of taking that pioneering spirit to the next level.�

After a nearly five year hiatus—and eight gold and platinum albums of retro soul and rock ’n’ roll—Lenny Kravitz takes to the global highway with an 8-piece backing band in support of his latest and ninth studio album, Black and White America. Taking musical cues from the past while looking forward in true Kravitz style, he pulls together a wide range of musical and cultural influences.

Working with Mike “Spagoo� Sprague of Sound Image, production/FOH engineer Laurie Quigley crafted an elaborate touring rig that would allow them to retain the high audio quality Kravitz demanded, regardless of the venue size. These two mirrored systems are comprised of DiGiCo SD7s at both FOH and Monitors (with engineer Dan Horton, pictured at right) for use on bigger show dates, with a pair of diminutive SD11s for use on the band’s myriad promo gigs and fly dates.

“I’ve been using the SD7,â€� Quigley states, “because it is the best sounding digital control service available. More to the point, DiGiCo products just sound better. The SD7 has everything I need right under my fingertips. I added the newer SD11s on this tour so that we could maintain the quality that Lenny has become accustomed to, on small press and TV shows. With space issues, the 32 Flexi channels on the SD11 were perfect. We maxed this little baby out, but it did the job very well. In fact, we are now also using the SD11 for our support band, Raphael Saadiq, on this leg of the tour.â€�

Quigley also carries an external rack of effects to administer on Lenny’s boutique sound and vocal effects—a BSS 901 and Empirical Lab distressors for Lenny’s vocals, Smart compressors for the sound system and also for all the overheads, in addition to Bricasti reverbs, Culture Vulture distortion units, Leslie vocal effects, Lexicon 960, dBx 120x, 3 x SDE 3000 delay units and a H3500, to name but a few.

Quigley offers his no-bull advice to getting the most out of any audio system. “Let’s get back to basics, lets plug a mic in, see what sounds better, and then start from there. Too many people have forgotten their basics. If you present a properly tuned sound system, the right mic in the right place, and let it breath and do its job with a good control console, you won’t need a plug-in on every channel to start off with. My advice? Learn how to properly tune a sound system, get a DiGiCo mixing console and don’t over-think it. Simplicity breeds consistency. If it sounds good, leave it alone.â€�

“Let’s forget all the b******t and just plug a mic into a channel and let’s see which one of these wonderful digital control consoles sound like a soundboard. DiGiCo products sound like soundboards, like the analog boards, that we who are old enough to remember, were brought up on. The SD7 sounds like a soundboard; like a more convenient version of an XL-4. But better, smaller, lighter, quicker and more adaptable. It’s all there under one console, not 2 or 3 very large and HEAVY soundboards. And, the new DiGiCo SD 96kHz racks rock!�

UK-based digital console manufacturer, DiGiCo, was the live music console of choice at the 54th Annual GRAMMY® Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, as specified by longtime show production partner ATK AudioTek. The 3-1/2 hour music celebration and ceremony garnered the second highest ratings of any GRAMMY airing with approximately 41 million viewers.

A combination of five of DiGiCo’s newer SD10 consoles (two as ‘redundant’ backups for monitors) along with one of its larger format SD7s handled FOH and monitor duties—for a total of 400+ I/O’s and 256 mic preamps distributed between 6 SD Racks—among four engineers in three locations within the Staples Center arena.

The entire PA system was powered by a versatile Optocore fiber optic network, which made it possible for the consoles to tie together seamlessly and also allowing the signal path to stay 100% digital from the mic preamps to amplifiers. Additionally, the Optocore network cut the traditional massive wire clutter down to merely two strands of fiber per console.

“The show’s producers continue to raise the bar in broadcast entertainment year after year and we needed to follow suit with the technology,” said Mikael Stewart, ATK’s production mixer and VP Special Events. “By using the best and most advanced tools, we guarantee the highest fidelity for every performance. The sonic quality of the DiGiCo consoles was one of the biggest assets this year, in addition to the Optocore infrastructure that allowed complete flexibility and accessibility.”

The process to vet the DiGiCo consoles began several years ago, when ATK began to contemplate making a switch from the consoles that had been used for nearly a decade. ATK’s Stewart along with audio consultant Jeff Peterson were instrumental in the decision to bring DiGiCo onboard and into the mix.

Peterson designed the show’s PA and console system and functioned as the systems engineer during the event, with assistance from audio consultant Andrew “Fletch” Fletcher. Ron Reaves was at front-of-house on an SD7 mixing all the musical performances alongside with Mikael Stewart, who handled all the non-music production assets on an SD10. On stage right and left respectively, Tom Pesa and Mike Parker facilitated monitor mixes for the artists on both performance stages on a pair of SD10s (with an additional two serving as ‘redundant’ backups).

“There was a noticeable difference in how the system sounded this year,” recalled Peterson, “and the comments and compliments came from touring and recording engineers alike. It’s not that the sound was bad in previous years by any means, but the overall intelligibility and the quality of the audio was noticeable. There was detail that we had never heard before, which we attributed to the addition of the DiGiCo consoles.”

“Not surprisingly, DiGiCo offers the most flexible, high performance range of digital audio mixing systems available today,” added Group One Ltd president Jack Kelly, DiGiCo’s US distributor. “With the expanding I/O and processing requirements of most of today’s large productions, including the recent GRAMMY awards show, the DiGiCo SD Range of consoles are ideal solutions for today’s engineers.”