• MIXVIBES releases CROSS 2.4 that allows you to mixx 4 decks simultaneously• SERATO's Iphone cases, 8GB USB sticks and Laptop skins are all in stock now.• NEXO blows us away with their new LS18 sub at Frankfurt.• SERATO's Limited Edition Control Vinyl has just arrived! Come in store and check it out.• NEXO's STM system has arrived. Be prepared to scale the world through modularity.• DiGiCo unveil new SD5 mixing console• DiGiCo Launches Online Training On www.DiGiCo.tv• THE CRANE LAPTOP STAND: Highest quality adjustable laptop stand on the market. Fully adjustable, portable and the patented ergonomic 3-leg design allows for an infinite number of positions.• New DJ Products from Serato • Advance Your Art: Rane and Serato are proud to be supporting partners in the creation of the Rane Sixty-One and Sixty-Two mixers for Serato Scratch Live.• NEW SOFTWARE LOAD NXAMP / NX242 Firmware LOAD2_58• UB MADI delivers a great channel count without sacrificing latency, quality or reliability. The sweet spot for an audio interface is 48 channels of IO simultaneously (full-duplex).• Experience an entirely new level of accuracy with GENELEC 8240A Bi-Amplified DSP Monitoring System @Fuzion Far East today! • DiGiCo's SD9 gets Supercharged: The SD9 Supercharged has a significant expansion in Channel count, Dynamic EQs, Multiband Compressors and Matrix, and the addition of DiGiTuBes, Reorder of Busses and Multichannel inputs.• An injection of power for DiGiCo's SD11: This new, souped-up version becomes the SD11i and it really does give you more – more Flexi-channels, more Dynamic EQ more Multiband Compressors, more FX processing and the addition of DiGiTuBes.• Take another step of digital mixing console with SD10-24...• Fuzion Far East Ltd......Welcome To Our New Web Site...... Specialists in Audio Visual Products For South East Asia......Professional Advice......Comprehensive After Sales Support.....10 Years In The Business.......• RANE CAMCO JTS COEMAR AUSTRALIAN MONITOR SYMETRIX NEXO VITY WORK B&C QUEST MIX VIBES and more...
Search
Home / About Us / News

News

Blues Traveler Crew Uses DiGiCo SD8, RME MADIFace Card to Record Live Shows Nightly

NEW YORK - Blues Traveler has performed more than 2,000 live shows in front of more than three million people in the last 23 years. After experimenting with different ways to preserve live shows on disc for the band's fans, FOH engineer Adam Fortin, who's been with the band since 2006, is now using a DiGiCo SD8 equipped with an RME MADIFace 56-track interface to multitrack 34 channels straight to a MacBook Pro with an Express port.
"The recording aspect of it is really what sold me on the console," said Fortin. "When Big House Sound purchased the two SD8s, I was excited to get my hands on the desk to try with Blues Traveler. Once I did, I never looked back. It just really sounded good. I'm running about 40 inputs off the deck, most of which is for the multitrack recording. The RME MADIFace allowed me to multitrack the band for the first time at a very low cost with no extra outboard interfaces that were proprietary to their software and it's all because of the MADI standard language."

"We've definitely heard a lot of positive comments about the unlimited recording capabilities that the SD8, along with the MADIFace interface, offered our engineers," said Big House Sound co-owner, Roy Kircher. "That, along with the quality and versatility of the console and the reputation of DiGiCo were the deciding factors in the decision to add two to our inventory. We first demoed the console at the Austin City Music festival last fall with several acts every day and it was a great way to confirm the ease of use. As a rental house in a regional area like Austin, we have to have versatility in what we offer the touring acts that come through our area, and we're seeing more and more DiGiCo consoles popping up as one of the top three choices on production riders. What's funny, though, is that both consoles have gone out a few times with one-off shows, but they've both been kept very busy and out most of the year with Blondie as well as Blues Traveler."

For Blues Traveler, what began as nightly recording for archival purposes turned into a streamlined duplication system that allows the band to offer live recordings available for purchase following a show. "This started about three years ago. The drummer Brendan Hill, who's the recording guy of the group, was really pushing to do this. We explored a bunch of options. Offering downloadable music online was one of the options, but it was just too difficult to consistently do on the road, maybe in part because of the uncompressed file quality he wanted. We could've gone MP3 and done MP3 sticks, but he really wanted to stick with CDs. And having to upload stuff on a website as a smaller compressed files was not a good solution. Being a real stickler about the quality of the audio, offering the music on CD seemed the best way to go, so I started buying gear."

Fortin says for the recording he'll takes a matrix left/right out, which gets mixed along with a couple of mics located at front of house. "Being that the console is very versatile, I'm able to add delay to my left/right mix back to the microphones and bus that out to a couple of outputs into my TASCAM CD-RW900 and everything is aligned from there. I typically add a few seconds of delay on the main PA, which varies day to day depending on the distance of the main PA hang to the main vocal mics, and when I use room mics for the live feel of the audience, I will also delay these to align all sources, which creates a tighter live recording. As soon as I'm done with the recorders, I can go straight to a Microboards' tower duplicator, which is a great machine. I was afraid it wouldn't be road-worthy, but I put it in a nice foam case and it has proven its durability. As soon as a show goes down, 20 minutes later-using my 7 burn/1 read unit-I've got all the copies I need available for purchase at our merch booth."

As for as the quality of the recordings, he found the separation on those tracks was very transparent. "My mixes just came alive," Fortin added. "I couldn't believe it, from one console to the DiGiCo SD8, how really different the recordings were. We've had lots of compliments all around and it's been a very easy transition. Not to mention, the SD8 finally gave me a great straight-to-CD recording. I'm very proud and confident to offer a quality product to BT's fans."

Fortin also likes the SD8's onboard effects, compressors, and the like. "Just the fact that the SD8 has all the tools available onboard is fantastic," he said. "Every output has a parametric EQ; they all have compressors and gates on all the outputs... that makes a big difference. All of the reverbs on the console sound really good, too, and are very transparent and clean. I didn't have to mess with them very much. I'm using an octave for the vocals every once in a while, a simple delay and a couple of reverbs for vocals and drums, and off we go... It's another rock ‘n' roll show."

Source: http://www.fohonline.com/news/4617-blues-traveler-crew-uses-digico-sd8-rme-madiface-card-to-record-live-shows-nightly.html