JESSUP, MARYLAND – AUGUST 2012: API, manufacturer of professional analog recording consoles and outboard processors, has appointed London-based powerhouse Source Distribution as exclusive distributor for its full range of products throughout the United Kingdom. Source, a division of HHB Communications, brings over 35 years of industry experience to the partnership, as well as a client list that includes the BBC, Sky, CNN, and Abbey Road, among others. The company is well known for serving its clients not only with great products and equipment, but also with comprehensive educational and technical support. The addition of API signal processing modules and consoles significantly extends the breadth and depth of high-end analog processing available to Source and HHB clientele.

“We’re very pleased to be working with the great people at Source/HHB,” said Dan Zimbelman, director of sales at API. “HHB Communications has been in this business for almost as long as API has, and the staff’s consistent professionalism and unfailing habit of exceeding expectations has earned HHB a large and loyal client base throughout the UK. It’s a great time for API to broaden our reach throughout the UK market.

“API is a legend in the world of professional recording, and we’re proud to sell its punchy, ‘American’ analog sound on our side of the pond,” said Ian Jones, owner and managing director at HHB Communications. “From its modular lunchbox series to its dedicated rack mount gear, and from its small-frame 1608 to its large-frame Legacy and Vision consoles, API occupies a unique niche in the industry. After all, every audio professional knows what is meant by the phrase, ‘the API sound.’ Is there any other company with this type of name recognition or reputation in this industry? Just watch us run with API.”

ABOUT API (AUTOMATED PROCESSES, INC.)
Established more than 40 years ago, Automated Processes, Inc. is the leader in analog recording gear with the Vision, Legacy Series and 1608 recording consoles, as well as its classic line of modular signal processing equipment.

www.apiaudio.com

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!”

SAFETY HARBOR, FLORIDA – AUGUST 2012: Although he started out his career as both a recording engineer and a mix engineer, Jeff Juliano has since heeded his passion and focused his talents to become a mix engineer exclusively. A blessed blend of intuition and elbow grease has earned Juliano work with artists such as John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Train, Shinedown, O.A.R., Dave Matthews, Paramore, Green River Ordinance and All Time Low. These days, the flexible, but opinionated, Juliano works out of a state-of-the-art home studio, where he has amassed an impressive collection of analog outboard processors that find their way into almost every mix he does. And although he feels that most plug-ins can’t compete with the analog processing at his disposal, there is one that does: Metric Halo’s ChannelStrip. It too finds its way into almost every mix he does.

“With most plug-ins, I end up having to put five other plug-ins behind it,” said Juliano. “When I find that I’m adding a compressor and then a filter bank and then something else on top of the first plug-in, it’s because the first plug-in isn’t really doing what I want it to do. Not so with ChannelStrip.” Metric Halo ChannelStrip (an earlier version of which was installed on Juliano’s first Pro Tools rig back in the late 1990s) delivers a fully-featured gate, compressor, and equalizer in every instance.

Because Juliano is a self-described freak about analog gear, the bar for good digital plug-ins is much higher than it might otherwise be. His studio is loaded with outboard gear, both new and vintage, from manufacturers such as API, Neve, Manley, Empirical Labs, and Inward Connections. “ChannelStrip is so good that I often disable an analog send that isn’t doing the job in favor of ChannelStrip,” Juliano said. “The dynamics are reactive and the equalizer has air and warmth. ChannelStrip is useful both as an enhancement for tracks that are decent to begin with and as an emergency repair for tracks that have big problems. It’s a one-stop shop, and there’s a reason why it’s still an industry standard after well over a decade on the market. In fact, I just mixed a single “Champions” by O.A.R. and B.o.B that was recently released as part of Duracell’s campaign to support the 2012 London Olympic Games. I used the Channel Strip on every channel of that session.”

Juliano asserts that not only does ChannelStrip sound good, but it sounds good fast. “In this business, anything that I can use that will speed my work and allow me to have a life… I’ll buy that product,” he laughed. “Really, if I can finish a mix that sounds fantastic with time left over to enjoy dinner with my wife and kid and maybe go play some soccer in the backyard… why wouldn’t I?” On the business side of things, Juliano points out that the timelines for project completion have shrunk – and continue to shrink. “People give me a 25-song live recording and tell me it needs to be available on iTunes in three weeks,” he said. “To me, that’s crazy, but at the same time, it’s realistic these days. With ChannelStrip, I get immediate results. Boom! Moving on! That’s important not only as speed for speed’s sake, but also for maintaining my creative vibe. With other plug-ins, I can get bogged down with things that aren’t really happening, and that can kill my creative vibe.”

Like some sort of law (“thou shalt push technology to the brink”), Juliano notes that session sizes have been keeping pace with the exponential increase in processing speeds and storage capacity. He’s typically handed about 150-tracks per pop song. “There are still only two speakers,” he laughed. “I can – and often do – have ChannelStrip on one hundred tracks. Each instance gives me all the fundamentals – gate, compressor, and EQ – with quality that sits proudly with my big-name analog outboard gear. It’s really an invaluable tool. It saves the day, again and again.”

ABOUT METRIC HALO
Now based in the sunny city of Safety Harbor, Florida, Metric Halo provides the world with high-resolution metering, analysis, recording and processing solutions with award-winning software and future-proof hardware. www.mhlabs.com

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – AUGUST 2012: Odds are that your backyard is unlike Glenn Hogan’s backyard. Hogan is the founder, president, and CEO of Hogan Real Estate, and his grand Louisville, Kentucky home reflects the success of his business. A decade ago, Hogan hired the forward-thinking A/V integrators of Phantom Theater and Sound (West Chester, Ohio) to thread an awe-inspiring sound system throughout his more

JESSUP, MARYLAND – AUGUST 2012: Mikael Johnston got his start in the music industry as a founding member of Mephisto Odyssey in 1993, one of the first American Electronic Dance Music acts to sign to Warner Brothers Records. From there, his charisma and solid musical sense led to a steady stream of writing, production, engineering and remix work with bands such as Jane’s more

SAFETY HARBOR, FLORIDA – AUGUST 2012: Given this year’s record-breaking heat and drought, Metric Halo is pleased to announce the end of summer. And, incidentally, it is also pleased to announce its End of Summer Sale! All Metric Halo hardware and software is on sale from August 7, 2012 to September 15, 2012. Audio professionals can count on shaving a hefty 15% to 25% off everything from the flagship ULN-8 preamp/converter/DSP to the Mobile I/O 2882 to the new Production Bundle (a collection of fabulous sounding Metric Halo plug-ins). Been itching to get SpectraFoo so that you can finally and truthfully see what you’ve been hearing? Now is the time. Need some extra channels of TEC Award-winning conversion? Buy the LIO-8 while these discounts are being offered.

“Just like the hot days of summer, this sale will be over soon – so put more

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.”

GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA – JULY 2012: In addition to drawing on inventor Tom Danley’s decades of experience in the fields of professional sound and military acoustics, Danley Sound Labs, is now fully leveraging the might of its R&D team to expand the new family of Jericho Horns. Now composed of four members – the J1, JH 2, J3, and J4, the Jericho Horns provide stunning fidelity at great distances, applications that are commonly addressed with line arrays, but by ingenious design, the Jericho Horns sidestep the line array’s many faults to deliver phase coherence, frequency response, and imaging detail typical of a professional reference monitor. Whereas the J1, JH 2, and J3 represent variations on a full-frequency theme that fulfill the coverage requirements of different long-throw situations, the J4, while still being a Synergy Horn, is designed to address a problem long ignored by the more