Herman's Hermits and the Digico D1

I had 60's legends, Herman's Hermits, at the theatre last night. It was the first time that I was able to use the Digico D1 with a live band. The show we just finished was a musical which let me test the snapshot stuff but it wasn't really a good test of the full capabilities of the desk.

The Hermits are a 4 piece with drums, bass, guitar and keyboards. 4 sends of foldback were run from front of house.

The input list was as follows:

1. Kick - Beyer M88
2. Snare - Neumann KM84
3. Hats - AKG C451
4. Rack 1 - Shure Beta 57
5. Rack 2 - Shure Beta 57
6. Rack 3 - Shure Beta 57
7. Overhead Left - AKG C451
8. Overhead Right - AKG C451
9. Bass - DI
10. Keys Left - DI
11. Keys Right - DI
12. Guitar - Shure Beta 57
13. Vox Guitar - SM58
14. Vox Bass - SM58
15. Vox Keys - SM58
16. Vox Drums SM58

The true beauty of the D1 is the compressors and gates on every channel. No more deliberating which channel deserved compression or gating more than another. If it needs it, it gets it.

Soundcheck was really quick, I found that I could dial up eq settings almost as fast as any analogue console. Foldback was just as quick and having graphics built in to the desk made it very easy to tweak settings as we went through and tame any frequencies that got out of hand.

During the show it was very easy to get a clean and clear mix on this console. It sounds far cleaner and more transparent than any of the Allen & Heath consoles we normally had to hire in for these types of shows. The EQ section allows very fine adjustments to be made which allows a subtractive EQ style to be utilised to its full potential. Any small frequencies that needed to be cut could be cut very selectively with the ability to use Q settings as high as 20.

The compressors and gates are amazing on this console. Unlike many digital compressors, the compressors in the D1 are extremely useable. Heavy compression doesn't produce the artifacts that smaller digital consoles such as the 01v96 suffer from.

In all, it was one of the best mixes I have ever done in my venue. I'm sure that over time it will improve out of sight.

 

Technorati tags: audio, digico, work, shows