311s Year Of Change Includes New Live Sound With FOH DiGiCo SD7 On Summer Unity Tour

August 2009

2009 has been a year of change for 311. Not only has the group returned from a lengthy hiatus with a new sound on the Bob Rock-produced release, Uplifter - their first in nearly 5 years - but they’ve lso returned with a new live sound. For the first time ever, the band’s long-time FOH engineer and production manager, John Markovich decided to make the move from his Midas XL4 to a DiGiCo SD7 for FOH, starting with a month-long headlining tour in April, and later on their 25-city Unity Tour -with Ziggy Marley and The Expendables - from June to late July.

“We were kind of leery about changing,” Markovich confessed, “but the change was inevitable, because the future of the live sound business is digital. Even though the band didn’t really want to make a change, we figured that now was the time to move on to the next level of sound. We had a lot of conversations about which way we should go, talking to other engineers who had used digital consoles extensively. I went to see the console with Taidus [Vallandi, DiGiCo technical sales] and I fell in love with it. I didn’t know what it was going to sound like on tour because we were at his house, but I had two months to play with it in clubs and festival situations before we did the Unity Tour. That ‘warm up’ tour, we didn’t carry any PA, just the console and a D5 for monitors. Now at the end of the tour, I’d say it seems to have worked out well.”

Assistant tech Justin Quade couldn't agree more. “From my perspective, it’s been great. There are no inserts to patch every day, which is great for a tech. The console comes up every day exactly how it was at the end of the last show. This is my first tour with the SD7, although I’ve used the D5 quite a bit working with 8th Day Sound. This desk is amazing - and it doesn’t just look great, but sounds great as well. And people in the audience are noticing, too. Even the average guy, who doesn't know much about technical stuff, sees this desk and is impressed. It’s a great-looking desk.”

Beyond the look and feel, the console offers up everything the band needs under its hood. Managing 52 inputs - including 23 for Chad Sexton’s massive drum kit, and the rest divvied up between guitar, bass, a DJ, and a few Pro Tools samples - supplements minimal outboard gear with addition of two DiGiCo mini-racks (one AES, one analog). “It’s a pretty basic setup,” he explains, “not saying that this is a basic console, but it’s got everything we need inside. I am, however, using some outboard pieces now for certain things, and maybe someday I'll move it all into the console.”

Among some of the selling points initially for Markovich were the SD7’s large screens. “I like being able to see lots of things on the screen; on most consoles you only see one channel at a time. The 3-band compression/EQ section, and the way it’s set up, works great for us. Also, the processing is noticeably different from other consoles.  There are a lot of great features that I haven’t even gotten to, and even now at the end of the tour, we’re still finding out and trying new things on it.”

One of the tour mainstays for 311 was a DiGiCo D5 at monitors, manned by Dave Belis - and Ziggy Marley’s production manager/monitor engineer, Fabian Cook. This tour was Belis’ first full season with 311, who covered most of last summer for their tech, Brian Speiser, who was off doing the Indigo Girls on a DiGiCo SD8.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on this surface, on D1s and D5s since 2005, working with The Girls, as well as Lost Prophets and Donna Summer for a bit,” he explained. “It’s got multiple windows into my world which is the given, so it’s one of the only digital platforms I’ll use. On this tour, we’re using much more automation than I have in the past. I’m using snapshots for cueing certain sections of songs, dropping things in and out of people’s mixes. And instead of trying to do it all at once, flying around the desk, you just do it once, save it and its good. The console’s dynamics are brilliant, too; totally transparent. There’s a lot of compression going on. But as far as external processing, everything is onboard. All of the band is on in-ears, but they’re still using a drum fill, which we’ve managed to get rid of on some gigs. They have a bit of history with the drum fills, so the drum fills stay…. for now.”

Looking forward, Belis hopes to log some time on an SD8. “I visited Brian with The Girls at the Bowery Ballroom in New York and the show sounded brilliant. I’m looking forward to getting on the platform and getting some surface time with it, and seeing what it’s all about.”

“I’ve used a DiGiCo D5 since 2006 for Ziggy,” added Cook, “It’s definitely my favorite sounding console. You don’t have to be into digital consoles to be into it, it’s laid out like a studio console…. With a sound you can’t beat.”

Press Contacts:
Dave Webster at DiGiCo
Tel: +44 1372 845600
Email: webby@digiconsoles.com
Web: www.digico.org

Diane Gershuny
DGPR
Tel: 562-366-8869
Email: dgershuny123@gmail.com

IMAGE 1 L-R:  Justin Quade, John Markovich
IMAGE 2: Fabian Cook
IMAGE 3: Dave Belis

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