PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – The early summer edition of the Riviera Maya Jazz Festival, which took place May 29 at Mamitas Beach Club near Cancun, featured Brian McKnight and his FOH engineer of about three years, Omatali Beckett, who got his first real chance to work with DiGiCo's SD8 console.
"I previously used other digital consoles because of the way I work," said Beckett. "I listen and don't look at the desk. I prefer to have one screen and all the features accessible on the control surface."
Beckett wasn't totally new to the SD8 – he had gotten two day's training at DiGiCo's Chessington, U.K. headquarters.
"When I did the sessions at DiGiCo I was immediately impressed by the SD8's great flexibility," Beckett said. "I like the fact that any channel – whether it's a group, VCA, matrix, or aux master – can be placed anywhere on the surface. The layering feature on the desk is killer and the dynamics processors are superb."
Beckett had good things to say about using the console on the beach, too.
"The SD8 worked great for me in the festival situation. The temperature was 89 degrees F, and I didn't have a single crash or freeze," he said. "The learning curve on the SD8 isn't steep at all. I pre-programmed on the desk the night before, and on the day itself, found that loading the show was effortless. Each engineer was up and running in seconds."
Beckett also credited the console for its sound quality.
"The depth and warmth of the sound is amazing, and the stereo image is as wide as I want it to be. Mixing on the SD8 made me feel like I could touch every instrument, and I could still walk further into a corridor of audio bliss. The sound of the console isn't matched anywhere else in the market," he said.
"My mantra has always been ‘One Mind, Any Desk,' but, since using the SD8, I will be requesting it for all my future work. I want to use it again and again and again."
For more information, please visit www.digico.org.
