Like DiGiCo’s other SD consoles,
input channels can be configured with
a spare input for fast changeovers, while
reducing channel count. Multiple channels can also share the same spare mic,
whether hard-wired or wireless.
The SD8 has eight channels of
4-band dynamic EQ, which the bigger
SD7 console has on every channel. Luna
says the dynamic EQ helps with sibilance, but is mostly needed when Bieber
gets too close to screaming girls.
Besides the main LCR mix bus, the
SD8 has 24 mixes that can be either
stereo or mono. Everyone is on stereo
IEM except dancers who listen to kick,
snare, hat and Bieber’s vocal through
the sidefills.
The SD8’s two banks of 12 faders
each have four layers and channels can
be freely assigned. Luna assigns drums,
bass and keys, guitars and vocal inputs
to their own layer on the left, but Bieber’s vocal is assigned to every layer so
it’s always available. The right bank’s
layers are assigned wireless and wired
IEM outputs, wedges and effects, plus
a separate page for talkback inputs.
Randy Lane
“American Idols LIVE! 2010”
Randy Lane went directly from the last
date of Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood’s “Play On” spring tour to the first
show of “American Idols LIVE! 2010”
tour, which kicked off July 1 in Detroit.
It stops at 34 arenas and 10 sheds across
North America.
Lane’s tour credits include James
Taylor, Julio Iglesias and Three Doors
Down, all mixed on a Yamaha PM5D,
and he was the first to take a DSP5D on
tour with Dream Theater. The PM5D-
EX is a PM5D whose inputs are doubled with a 10 rack-space DSP5D to
add 48 mono and 4 stereo channels plus
8 more effects engines, without increas-
ing the console’s footprint.
The two layers of the control surface
accommodate drums and guitars, and
the keyboards and intro tracks, respectively. There are 34 guitars backstage,
as most of this year’s finalists were guitarists. The additional DSP5D inputs
accommodate the 10 lead vocals plus
backing vocals, with this third layer
accessed by a User Defined Key and
its effects engines used as 16 VCA-modeled “Compressor 260” inserts on
vocal channels.
The PM5D’s effects are shared across
all the inputs with cascaded auxiliary
buses. Lane uses the Rev-X reverb algorithms, with Rev-X Room on drums, a
small Rev-X Plate on some vocals and a
Rev-X Hall with pre-delay for ballads.
An analog-style “Compressor 276” stereo insert is on the drum sub-group.
The PM5D is fitted with MY16
MADI cards, and Lane records 64
channels to Stienberg Nuendo on a Dell
Steve Pattison and the touch-screen he uses with an Allen & Heath iLive.
laptop via an RME MADIface, clocked
with an Apogee Big Ben that allows him
to perform a virtual soundcheck.
Steve Pattison
Ellie Goulding’s “Lights”
Steve Pattison is busy splitting time
between mixing monitors for 2010
BRIT Award Critic’s Choice winner
Ellie Goulding as well as mixing mains
for UK-based Danish pop band Alpha-beat, both on Allen & Heath iLive digital consoles. Goulding opened for John
Mayer’s UK shows and is on a run of
European festivals this summer.
Pattison also uses an iDR 48 MixRack
with an R72 control surface for a half
dozen Sennheiser IEMs and a wedge
for Goulding’s guitarist, who doubles
on bass, and the rest of her band consists of a drummer and keyboard player.
Pattison employs all eight iLive “
Rack-Extra” stereo effects, which he points out
are “great sounding.” He adds that he
