Tool Summer Tour Toolbox Incorporated DiGiCo SD8 For Monitors
August 2009
Tool announced dates for a summer tour that will take the Grammy-award winning band through cities in the U.S. and Canada—including headlining appearances at All Points West and Lollapalooza festivals. 8th Day Sound staff engineer, Stephen Curtain, has worked with the band since 2006’s “10,000 Days” tour, first as a systems tech and later as their monitor engineer. Although he’s worked with numerous DiGiCo desks previously, this is his first outing with a DiGiCo SD8.
“The first time I saw an SD8 was at 8th Day Sound,” he recalled. “We had one in for a demo with a few of the guys from DiGiCo. The biggest thing to me was how little EQ I actually needed to use as compared to other mixing boards—digital or analog.”
Back in 2006, when he took the Tool gig over from another engineer, Curtain had been mixing on a Yamaha PM5D. “I knew I wanted to make the switch to a DiGiCo, and now just happened to be that time. I have been around just about every digital console out there over the past few years, and I always seem to gravitate towards the DiGiCo’s. In short, the SD8 fit the tour’s budget and my requirements for what my monitor desk needed to do.”
On this tour, there are approximately 40 inputs for drums, bass, guitar, vocals and a few FX returns from stage. Curtain’s also got two in-ear mixes for vocalist Maynard James Keenan (the band is all on wedges) and a tech mix. Plus, he’s using two internal reverbs and one external chorus for a total of 7 mono mixes and 3 stereo mixes. “I typically stick to using the parametric EQ on both inputs and outputs, but when I do need to use the graphic EQ faders, it makes things go a bit quicker having the detent. It also gives you peace of mind knowing that you’re back at zero without having to watch some little numbers.”
Overall, Curtain says the feature he’s most impressed with is the sound. “I'm actually using less EQ on everything. The dynamics are clean and react the way they should. A few of the band members are really into the technology and get excited about what I'm using. For the most part though, they are just happy with a good, consistent sound and I think we’ve achieved that for this band and this tour.”
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IMAGES: STEPHEN CURTAIN - MONITORS
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The construction of this console is extremely robust in my opinion.
Bradley Johnson - Aerosmith
We had two desks at FOH in the space they had allowed for the single analog desk. Having inputs and outputs at both the FOH and stage is much more of a necessity than a convenience for me. Working specifically with the SD8, I found that, with the engines and processing built within the work surface, it was loaded with features - and provided enough I/O locally without me having to dig for TRS adaptors.
Paul Smith - Visual Horizon Communications
Using the D5T meant that I was able to handle all 96 inputs without having to be dependant on a sub mix from the Front of House console
Claus Pedersen - Matador
Having seen the console in action, I decided that the SD8 would take Eagle Brook into the future. The SD8 has a much warmer sound than our previous console, but perhaps the best feature I appreciate is the ability to link all three consoles together. We used to have a lot of issues with the A-to-D and D-to-A conversion, whether that was for our recording process or in our broadcast suite. Now with a frame surface dropped into our master control room, having the ability to access both frames and grab inputs from either makes for a very powerful tool.
Bill Berger - Director of Technical Arts - Eagle Brook Church
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