This past week, console manufacturer DiGiCo and its USA representative, Matt Larson, graciously enabled me to engage in a completely unique and exceptionally rewarding experience when a SD5 console was delivered to my home and set up in my living room. This marks the first time in my career that I have brought my work home with me in such a literal and physical sense. Matt and I first connected the console to the Waves SoundGrid server that allowed me to access Waves 9 plug-ins. Next, we enabled 48 tracks of Reaper playback from my MacBook Pro through the DiGiCo UD MADI interface. Finally, we employed the board’s local analog XLR I/O connections to play back stereo tracks from my iPhone and to connect the console’s analog outputs to my JBL XPL200 speakers.
Inside and Outside the SD5
The entire computer system that controls the SD5 surface is located within the console mainframe. Connecting the surface to an external computer rack, as I had with the Avid VENUE system for the past seven years, is no longer a requirement. Huge heat sinks on the console’s back panel have also eliminated the need for internal cooling fans. The resulting smaller FOH footprint and a quieter equipment package will make our show that much more venue-friendly when the James Taylor tour visits a variety of arenas, outdoor amphitheaters and theaters later this month.
All digital console manufacturers have developed their own concepts of “user friendly” operating systems and control surface interfaces. As in every computer-based system, there are pros and cons to each. The most obvious difference in design philosophy between Avid VENUE and DiGiCo SD consoles is evidenced in way a user accesses the various input channel strip functions. VENUE systems assign a selected input channel to specific section on the surface that contains dedicated rotary soft knobs for input gain, hi pass, EQ, compression, gating and aux sends. This consolidated selected channel, or “hot module” approach intentionally retains most of the operational familiarity from analog consoles.
The DiGiCo interface is markedly different. The VENUE consoles to which I have been accustomed employ a single screen that is addressed by a trackball mouse and keyboard. The screen presents multiple selectable tabs that call up multiple modes and functions. In contrast, the SD5 has three large touch screens on the control surface and all the various programming functions are divided among them. The two side screens enable user access to inputs, outputs, aux sends, groups, control groups (VCAs) or matrix outputs. Additionally, each screen and its associated rotary encoders and selector buttons are the means by which one exercises control over individual equalization, dynamics parameters and group assignments.
Displayed banks of the input, output and control group strips can also be assigned to the center screen from either the side screens. However, many of the center Master Screen functions can only be displayed and manipulated from the tabs across the top of that screen. Learning the DiGiCo operating system requires an enthusiastic investment in time. It was also very helpful to receive a personal tutorial and guidance from an experienced user/mentor. I am extremely grateful to have benefited from Matt Larson’s immense knowledge, operational facility and system expertise as I embarked on this learning process. With the knowledge gained during this past week, I now feel both comfortable and confident with my decision to employ this new control surface.
What’s on the Menu?
We began our joint exploration of the SD5 operating system focusing on the all-important center Master Screen. The majority of our first day on the SD5 was devoted to opening each of the 12 tabs displayed across the top of the Master Screen and exploring the various options listed in the drop-down menus appearing under those individual tabs. It was only after I received this exhaustive operational overview that we would began creating a new session file from which we would gradually build up the James Taylor show. I settled back in my seat and Matt guided me through the wealth of information one encounters when the button labeled “Master” is pressed in the center section of the console.
The first tab on the upper left corner on the Master Screen is labeled “System” and offers access to the nuts and bolts console/computer operations from Diagnostics to Shut Down procedure. Matt took his time while carefully explaining the normal operating parameters for the SD consoles that are displayed or modified within the System area. The 11 remaining Master Screen tabs are labeled: Files, Layout, Snapshots, Waves, fx, Matrix, Graphic EQs, Control Groups, Solos, Network, and Setup. As we meticulously went through the menu options contained under each tab, I was fighting back incipient panic that information overload can sometimes create. After spending four hours in front of the desk, it was a good time to break for lunch and take an hour to assimilate the potent introduction and detailed overview I had been presented.
Refreshed and renewed by delicious fish tacos, Matt and I returned to the SD5, focusing on my specific needs in building the James Taylor show. When one clicks on the “File” tab on the Master Screen, the true inner workings of the SD5 are opened. In the past year, I’ve mixed three shows on the SD format: one on an SD10 and two on an SD8. In each instance, I benefitted from a tremendous amount of help in creating a show-ready console design. I had inherited a show file from a previous engineer and then modified it with help from sound company advisors. Or I had been guided through the entire setup by DiGiCo experts. In the current case, Matt was going to help me fly on my own as much as possible.
A couple weeks before Matt arrived, I put in some time on another SD5. I created a provisional layout on the banks and layers of the three of 12 faders that best served my organizational needs as a mixer. You have to start out from a positive space to truly embrace such a sweeping technological change, and I felt mixing on the SD5 surface based on this particular layout was going to be fast, logical and intuitive. In editing this existing session file on the page marked “Session Structure,” Matt helped me make the best use of the console DSP allocation and the power of the SD mix engine.
The next task was to assign the outputs from the playback system to the inputs on the console. At this point, I began to dive into the shift in mixing culture that was taking place. Beginning with the first kick drum input on the left hand screen, I touched the top of its designated input channel with my index finger, and a pop-up menu appeared that easily guided me through the steps necessary to connect playback channel one to SD5 input channel one. But it wasn’t just a menu that popped up. It was also the realization that I was now undertaking a personal paradigm shift in my professional life. What had originally attracted me to my former console system was its emulation of analog mixing consoles. The familiarity that environment engendered had buffered my original concerns about moving away from a proven platform.
Making this transition to DiGiCo’s SD system is just another carefully measured step farther away from the world that existed before digital mixing consoles permeated the market. I have the utmost confidence in the audio product I have been able to create using the SD5 system. Furthermore, the realm of creative possibility and audio connectivity has become exponentially enlarged by adopting the forward thinking design philosophy and hardware performance that DiGiCo has incorporated into their exceptional sounding high-end systems.
Next month, we’ll look at some of the individual elements that DiGiCo provides to vastly expand and enhance one’s artistic palette.
Safe travels!
