NEW YORK — Donna Summer, singer/songwriter/pop culture icon and five-time Grammy winner, is back with Crayons, her first full-length studio release in 17 years. Summer embarked on the “Stamp Your Feet” tour with N.Y.-based SK Systems and Tom Heinisch at the controls of the summer U.S. swing. They spec’d a DiGiCo CS D5 at FOH and a DiGiCo D-1 at monitors to handle the roughly 50+ inputs from the stage — and he anticipates they’ll be adding more inputs with the addition of local orchestras in certain cities.
As in the past, they are only carrying a mixing and monitor package with one local mini rack at FOH and one stage/monitor local rack. With all of the video, lighting, set, wardrobe, backline and audio having to fit into one truck, real estate is once again at a premium.
Heinisch says he opted to use the CS D5 in order to give more flexibility in the use of the faders. “With the new album, new band and new input configuration, it was a new learning curve in my approach to mixing the show. I am making use of the DiGiCo onboard effects engine for most of my effects. As far as outboard gear, I am using a dynamic EQ, delay and Eventide H-3000. The delay and harmonizer presets are being controlled by the DiGiCo's MIDI patches and recalled via snapshots. This is my first time using the snapshots with Donna's show, as in the past we had pick up musicians in each city and it seemed pointless as I had no band consistency from show to show. The scoping of the snapshots in the DiGiCo is mind-boggling in terms of how much fine tune control you achieve for each snapshot.”
No stranger to DiGiCo, Heinisch had previously used a D1 at FOH on tour with Summer back in 2005, where the number of inputs/outputs well as space constraints forced them to retool their audio outfit. After auditioning a number of competitor’s offerings, he found there were few that could meet their requirements and fell in love with the audio quality and functionality of the DiGiCo products. “DiGiCo was at the time, and still is one of the only manufacturers to offer gain tracking, and surfaces that can simply share a stage rack without issue.”
On monitors, engineer Scott Beavers had also been using a D1 with Donna since he jumped into the fold at the end of that ‘05 tour. “At that time, it was his first experience on a DiGiCo surface and he quickly became accustomed to the ease of doing his job,” Heinisch recalls. “Not to mention that real estate for a monitor mix position is always an issue with 29+ outputs leaving the mix surface I/O. If we were to couple that with outboard comps, gates and effects along with our RF and amp rack, we would need a whole lot of room and time.”
Overall, as a sound and rental company, SK Systems has benefit from the addition of the DiGiCo surfaces to its inventory. “Tight compact touring packages have become a popular item with our customers, as well as clean audio positions at big corporate events,” says Heinisch. “Recently, we used a D1 surface for an event during the recent Papal visit to New York. It wasn't the amount of inputs that we were dealing with as much as the outputs for broadcast mixes, press mults [multiple audio feeds] and house mix that had to be accomplished in a 4' x 6' footprint in the rear of the church. Having a remote stage rack provided a great solution to a potential cabling mess that would have to be done with ordinary copper and DA boxes. And we are also enjoying the benefits of the version 4 software, which has taken our already user-friendly DiGiCo's to another level.”
Best known for maintaining a string of hits throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s — including “Bad Girl”, “Hot Stuff”, and “She Works Hard For The Money,” Summer holds the record as the first female to have four No. 1 singles in a 12-month period. The album debuted on the Billboard Top 200 in May; the first single, “I’m A Fire,” topped the Billboard Hot Dance Chart marking her first No. 1 hit in almost a decade.
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