DiGiCo Finds Continued Success With Stealth Core 2, Audio Consoles
Story Highlights
Since its launch on July 12, DiGiCo’s Stealth Core 2 software has seen an incredible uptake, with a massive number of upgrades purchased in the first few weeks alone.
Stealth Core 2 is a major upgrade to the Stealth Digital Processing for its SD series digital mixers that delivers significantly enhanced processing from the audio core of DiGiCo SD series consoles, taking the range to a new level in terms of both processing channels and functionality.*
Available as an upgrade option for existing users and shipping as standard on new consoles, Stealth Core 2 includes an application code upgraded that delivers significantly enhanced facilities, future-proofing SD series consoles and continuing to keep DiGiCo a step ahead.
Customers have already seen the many benefits Stealth Core 2 delivers, including an updated user experience, which includes a brand new graphic interface on console screens, upgraded FPGA power delivering enhanced processing, full Dynamic EQ, DiGiTuBes and MB Dynamics on every channel and buss.
“The release of Stealth Core 2 to the SD lineup of consoles is further proof of the forward thinking of DiGiCo design,” says Tom Butson, Senior ACS / Product Design at CLAIR Global / Lititz. “To see a digital desk we’ve owned for a number of years still expanding its channel, buss and overall feature set is amazing. DiGiCo sticks by its customers and listens to what they need. The architecture of the SD consoles allows DiGiCo the flexibility and expansion to meet those needs.”
“The software upgrade was shockingly stress-free and works like a charm,” adds Jason Kirschnick, Chief Operations Officer – International Operations at Eighth Day Sound. “It puts more of everything I need now under the hood of my SD5, the revised look is more modern and easier on my eyes, and the upgraded channel count is now mandatory. The SD5 is currently the best console out there and clear to me that this is the console to beat moving forward.”
“The main thing for us is the gain in I/O capability,” David Brazeau from Canada’s Solotech concurs. “For instance, we have a client that was asking for an SD10; we proposed him an SD8 and they gladly accepted. The buss count did not do enough in 7.60, but with Core 2, we basically doubled the aux busses, which became ideal in the IEM/wedges combinations. The other great thing is the increase in FX and dynamics. We will update all our consoles and are looking forward to the new Q7 engine for the SD7.”
Blue Array First in Africa With DiGiCo SD5
Leading South African technical supplier Blue Array Productions has invested in the first DiGiCo SD5 in Africa, purchased from DiGiCo distributor, DWR Distribution.
With Kobus van Rensburg at the helm of Blue Array, the company has supplied prominent international artists visiting South Africa. It also has a reputation for employing talented audio engineers, who are some of the very best in the country.
“There are many reasons why we’ve gone down the SD5 route,” says Marinus Visser, Head of Audio at the company. “It’s on every international rider, which was the main selling point, but for our shows, it was the shear ability of the console – all the things it can do, the enormous I/O count and its exceptional audio quality. As Blue Array typically works on international productions, we have invested heavily in d&b audiotechnik sound systems. Having something that sounds so good complementing these amazing PA systems is completely justified.”
Since taking ownership of the SD5 in the last couple of weeks, the console has already gone out on an international show. “The only problem was that I only had to setup and assist the American monitor engineer,” sighs Visser, who would have loved to have operated it himself.
“The SD5 was something Blue Array has wanted for quite a while,” comments Kyle Robson from DWR Distribution. “Blue Array is a great company and everything they do is rock solid and professional. The SD5 was the first in the country, which was a huge thing for me, it was like being a kid in a candy store. When I took the console out the box, I had that very special feeling.
“The SD5 is in a league of its own; that’s the reason they’re on most riders. If you know how to use a baby DiGiCo console, you will also know how to use a bigger one. It’s easy to get around and the only difference on the SD5 is the bigger work surface and higher channel count. That’s the great thing with DiGiCo; all the consoles sound identical and the software is the same.”
“Thank you to Kobus and his team for their support,” concludes Duncan Riley of DWR. “I hope that they’ll have many happy gigs with their SD5. We can’t wait to see the console in action again.”
DiGiCo Helps Build Bridges For RiseUp AS ONE Music Festival
Bridges, not walls,” is how news media globally encapsulated the message of RiseUp AS ONE, a live concert event held on the US-Mexico border in San Diego on Saturday, October 15. The event, produced jointly by the Fusion and Univision networks, and broadcast and streamed worldwide in both English and Spanish, featured a high-power lineup of Latino and Latina artists such as Alejandro Sanz, Miguel Bosé, Julieta Venegas, Los Tigres del Norte, Lupillo Rivera, Carlos Vives and Natalia Lafourcade, as well as appearances from Gael Garcia Bernal, Wilmer Valderrama, and T Bone Burnett.
The free event, which drew some 15,000 attendees, was promoted as a “celebration of music, diversity and unity,” and artists and hosts Jorge Ramos and Alejandra Espinoza drove that message home throughout the night. Making sure that both message and music were heard loud and clear was a complement of five DiGiCo audio consoles: two SD7 desks at FOH, two more for monitors, and an SD10 used for production audio. SR provider 3G Productions supplied the consoles.
Howard “Howie” Lindeman and Ron Reaves manned the two SD7s used at FOH, while the two monitor consoles were similarly assigned and manned by Michael Bove and Stan George. The stage was set on a rotating platform with an A and a B side, with a house band set on the A side of the turntable, allowing a faster turnaround between artists. Lindeman mixed artists with their own bands on the B side and Reaves mixed artists who used the house band on side A. Behind them, an SD10 console was used as the production mixer for stage patter by hosts and incidental music playback into the PA system.
Asked about the SD7’s performance at the event, Lindeman first called out the console’s sonic qualities. “It just sounds amazing,” he says. “But what’s especially great about that is that you get there so quickly and easily. The RiseUp show was not one where we really had any time to get sounds together before a performance. On the SD7, I can just open a fader, adjust the trim and I already have a signal that’s close to what it needs to be, completely uncolored. On other consoles I’d have to start working plug-ins and other processing to get there. It’s really so close to analog the way the desk sounds. It lets you start building a mix immediately. That’s a huge advantage on a show like this. In fact, both of the FOH consoles were loaded with Waves plug-ins on DiGiGrid, but I used nothing but the EQ, effects and dynamics that are on the console itself. And I’m a Waves endorser!”
Reaves, who has used DiGiCo consoles for the house mix on the Grammy Awards broadcasts for the past several years, says that the SD7’s inherent great sound combines nicely with its ease of use. “You can put a mix together incredibly quickly, even under circumstances like those at this festival,” he says. “You can put everything anywhere you want, so you build your own worksurface the way you want it. It has an enormous amount of firepower, in terms of processing.”
Lindeman elaborated on that, crediting the SD7’s newly implemented Stealth Core 2 processing, which was available on all of the DiGiCo consoles used at RiseUp. “There was not a single glitch or bump in the road on the show,” he says. “I’m very much from a recording studio background, and I like to mix live shows as though I was mixing a record. The SD7 lets me do that—I can put everything where I want it on the console and in the soundfield. As a result, both Ron and I were able to put together our mixes quickly and accurately.”
Reaves, who has been using the SD7 intensely for several years on a wide array of live events, says he was impressed by how quickly Lindeman became proficient on the desk. “It’s as though he’d used it as long as I have,” he says. “That’s why I have no problem saying, it’s just the best console ever. “
