DALY CITY, CA — Blake Suib, a veteran monitor mix engineer with 25 years of experience, received a call last July to design a live sound system for singer and guitarist John Mayer. Suib specified a the Digidesign VENUE console for the gig. “I can remember when the concept of a digital console that could recall every setting in an instant and play back live tracks — just as if the band were playing — was part of the ‘what if?’ stories we told in the back lounge or on the tour bus late at night,” laughs Suib. “I’ve spent many tours with two or more analog consoles and a monitor zone filled with racks of gear, all while dreaming of a console that could keep up with the ever-expanding demands of artists.
“I can remember being the head monitor engineer for the MTV Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall some years back. I had 10 monitor consoles chained together to provide all of the artists their own channels. We had to fly five of those consoles on a 16-foot by 16-foot deck above the other five in order to fit all 10. I had to climb a ladder to reach the upper ones. That was a miserable situation — especially given that we monitor engineers could easily imagine the perfect board that would do it all in one simple package.”
To streamline his workflow, Suib uses the VENUE system’s snapshot functions. “I do two kinds of saves,” he explains. “The first one I call a ‘global save.’ This is used when I want my change to affect all songs or snapshots. The second one I call a ‘song save.’ This is used for a change that you would only want to occur in a certain song. I find it quick and easy to go back and forth between these different functions, [which] can be very hard to do on other digital systems while still trying to mix the show.”
For more information, visit www.digidesign.com/venue.
