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Miranda Lambert first exploded onto the scene as a finalist in the 2003 season of the “Nashville Star” TV series. Her Columbia Nashville debut, “Kerosene”, landed at Number One on the country charts and earned the budding country songbird critical acclaim in addition to numerous Country music award nominations and a Grammy nod, to boot. Flash-forward to 2009, and Lambert’s third album, Revolution, hits streets in late September and she’s taking her show on the road to cities across America. Taking into consideration tour production costs, the need for a console with a small footprint, and a desire to go ‘all digital’, FOH engineer Jason Macalik and Production Manager/Monitor Engineer Chris Newsom—both of whom have worked with Lambert for several years—researched the options. Ultimately, they chose dual DiGiCo SD8s as the desks fully fit the tour’s criteria.
Macalik had spent time previously on a DiGiCo D5 on tours with Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts and had always been impressed with the sonics of DiGiCo’s consoles. But for Newsom, this was his first foray into digital. “For the most part, I have been on analog desks with Miranda,” he said. “The decision to go completely digital this year was mainly because of our spot on Kenny Chesney’s ‘Sun City Carnival Tour’. We knew that we had to get set up and torn down quickly, and having a small footprint would be advantageous on this tour. Jason and I looked at a few different desks and thought that the SD8 would be the better fit for us.”
“We needed a smaller footprint on both ends of the snake,” added Macalik, “and while production cost was a big issue for us, we did not want to give up audio quality. DiGiCo has always had great reliability and audio quality, and when the SD8 was available, it was a great choice for us. Sonic quality is great, it has exceeded everything that I hoped it could be.”
The input configuration at FOH is 44 to accommodate everything from drums to guitars. The monitor count is slightly higher at 48 to account for additional clicks, talkbacks, and a couple of audience mics. As for outputs, Newsom is currently running 6 stereo mixes for monitors, plus a cue out, and a drum sub on stage. Macalik has maxed out at FOH. “Being that we are only carrying board groups, I have to be ready for any PA configuration,” he explained. “I run digital outputs (left, right, subs, front fill, outfills, and delay) into a Dolby Lake Processor.”
Both engineers find the SD8’s compact footprint and fully featured built-in processing and effects to be immeasurable—and invaluable. “The space saving aspect of the SD8 is huge, especially out at FOH,” said Newsom. “When we are playing amphitheatres rather than stadiums, the available space is usually pretty small after three FOH desks, lighting, and video all get set up. The SD8 fits in beautifully. Also, the fact that the console is small enough that only two people are needed to flip it is a big timesaver on both the load-ins and outs!”
The SD8’s veritable onboard palette of features has not only kept the group’s audio footprint small, but has increased both engineer’s efficiency in their daily/nightly workload. “Having everything internal is great,” Macalik stated. “I really never have to take my eyes off the stage for more than a few seconds at a time. Plus, the onboard snapshots helps me keep up with all the instrument changes during our show.”
“My favorite feature is the faders following the mix I am soloed on,” added Newsom, “plus the ability to assign the rotary knobs on the input banks to whatever I want them to be. I stay cued on Miranda’s mix for the majority of the night and have the three rows of rotaries assigned to three of the other musicians that require a little bit more of my attention. I have four mixes ready to be adjusted at any given moment on the SD8 without having to select a mix and/or channel. It cuts out an extra two or three steps per adjustment I need to make, which I think most monitor engineers can appreciate when making the jump from analog to digital!”
And those engineers have certainly noticed, and heard, the difference. “The great comments that I’ve had have come from other engineers on any given bill or at any venue,” said Macalik. “I'm constantly hearing how well it sounded.”
“The band has also commented that it is easier to distinguish the instruments on the SD8 over the previous analog desks we have carried,” Newsom offers. Having EQs on the outputs plus assignable graphic EQs on monitors has been very helpful in customizing what each musician hears.”
As far as recording at this point, Macalik is only making nightly multitrack recordings for soundchecking purposes. “But I can tell you that the SD8 makes great board tapes! I use the board tapes to make my mix better, and they go to the band to help make them better, too!”
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