BUSINESS
Who: Robert Scovill, market manager for Digidesign’s Live Sound Products.
What: Manufacturer of Pro Tools software and hardware; ICON control surfaces; and the VENUE Live Sound Environment.
Where: Daly City, Calif.
When: Founded in 1984.
Current clients include: Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Radiohead ¬— “too many to list!” — are all users of VENUE technology.
Recent company highlight: The release of the new I/O product called Mix Rack.
Claim to fame: 2004 Technical Oscar, 2001 Technical Grammy, 34 TEC Awards, including 2007 for D-Show Profile Mixer and countless industry awards for technology development.
Claim to fame part deux: Scovill is the winner of six TEC Awards for Sound Reinforcement Engineer of the Year.
First gigs: “My first job was cleaning up for a drive-in theater — not fun. My first gig in music/engineering was as a sound technician for Superior Sound in Kansas City, Mo. It was a great learning experience with outstanding mentors.”
I knew I wanted to do this when… I was about 13 years old. After a seeing a Supertramp concert in St. Louis, I simply had to know why it sounded so good compared to all the other concerts I heard up to that point. As I was walking out, I happened to walk right by the FOH position. I ask the guy sitting on the riser what all of ‘this’ was. He invited me up, showed me around, and I was hooked from that moment on. I had a similar recording studio experience not long afterward — and so, my identity crisis was in full swing. Lucky for me, no one ever told me you couldn’t be a successful recording engineer and a live sound mixer. Go figure.”
PERSONAL
At home: Wife of 20 years, Mary Jo; daughter, Carlene; sons, Ethan and Jackson; and dog, Deano.
Least cool thing about being me: “I’m so freakin’ anal about audio and music.”
Most cool thing about being me: “I’m so freakin’ anal about audio and music.”
What’s in my iPod right now: “Raising Sand” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
What annoys me most about live concerts today is… “That I don’t get to mix more of them.”
If I could be someone famous for a day, it would be… “Tony Hawk or Travis Pastrana — it’s the only possible way that I could convince my boys that I’m actually cool.”
If I could go back in time and tell my younger self one thing, it would be: “Nothing you’re afraid of right now will carry any significance in the long run… forget about it and get on with it. If you wake up one day finding you have never made a mistake, then you’ve never really tried any-thing new.”
In the kitchen, I make a mean… “Tequila Gimlet… and my super secret recipe for marinated
barbequed pork steak.”
Does he realize he’s saying this out loud? “People might be surprised to know I love to shop for shoes for my wife; I love shooting handguns; I was once in a skydiving club; and I have it bad for Karen Walker on “Will & Grace.” She gets me seriously worked up.”
If I was a cartoon character, I’d be…“Johnny Quest — too cool for cartoons, no doubt about it, and I would still watch it today.”
Words to live by: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
– Albert Einstein
