LONDON — Even though DiGiCo’s SD8 is known primarily as a live music console, Richard Brooker, sound designer for Never Forget, a tribute musical with hits by the British group Take That, is using the SD8 as the production tours the U.K.
“As a sound designer, I have been quite faithful to established analog theatre consoles like Cadac,” Brooker said. “But, as associate sound designer on Mamma Mia!, I was looking after a DiGiCo D5T and was very impressed by it.
“I also designed a production of Jesus Christ Superstar in Spain last year which used a D5T12. I got on fine with it and was very happy with the results, so when I heard about the SD8, I thought it sounded very interesting. At the same time, I was looking at ways to make the Never Forget tour cost effective, flexible and easy to move.”
Brooker visited DiGiCo’s Surrey facility to get acquainted with the console and had the opportunity to take one on tour as FOH engineer for singer Elaine Paige.
“I loved it,” Brooker said. “Sonically, the results were great, and it convinced me that here was the solution for Never Forget. The only issue was making a console designed for live music work from a theatrical point of view. But it’s a very flexible desk and is working very well in the theatre environment. It does everything that I want.”
For Never Forget, Brooker is using 54 inputs via a stage DiGiRack,10 matrix outs, 10 aux outs and a further 16 outs from an Aviom card for band monitoring. The system also uses a local 16 input mini rack and a few of the ins and outs on the desk itself.
All audio is via MADI and, with the exception of one Lexicon vocal reverb, all dynamics and effects use the SD8’s onboard processing.
“I have been absolutely blown away by the sound quality,” Brooker said. “We’re using an Opus PA system. It’s very unforgiving, and I would have heard any problems with the sound quality, but there are none. The sound of the console is fantastic. It’s that of a very high-end desk. For that alone the SD8 is unbelievable value for money.”
Rather than using the SD8’s scenes, Brooker prefers to use Cadac Show Control to move the console’s settings on throughout the show via MIDI messages from an external computer, an indication of the SD8’s flexibility.
“Operationally it’s extremely good,” Brooker said. “As a theatre sound designer, I have been waiting for a console that was right to take me from the analog to the digital domain and the SD8 has achieved that.
“It’s incredibly flexible, producers love it because we’re removing half the seats for the Front of House position that we would with an analog console and, on a provincial tour with regular changes of venue, the ability to switch the desk on, load the show file and be ready is superb.
“There are also the facilities that I haven’t used yet — for example, recording the MADI inputs for virtual sound checking — which I will definitely be investigating,” Brooker added. “From a sound design point of view, I’m proud that I was the first to spec the SD8 for a proper theatre show. And, as well as the ongoing UK tour, I’m hoping that the Spanish and Dutch tours of Mamma Mia! this summer will also take out SD8s.”
For more information, please visit www.digico.org.
