CREWS GET COLD FEET BUT DIGICO WARMS THE HEART AT CANADA’S EAST COAST MUSIC AWARDS
Celebrating its 21st year, the 2009 East Coast Music Awards, Festival and Conference saw many leading artists and industry figures come together in Corner Brook, Newfoundland & Labrador, for a four day conference and celebration of Canada’s East Coast music scene.
Taking place on the evening of 1st March, the highlight of the event was the annual East Coast Music Awards ceremony, which saw live performances and video clips interspersing the presentation of awards in 31 categories - ranging from DVD of the Year through to Aboriginal Recording Of The Year.
With a complex, two stage production to mix the sound for, DiGiCo consoles were chosen to ensure that everything ran seamlessly on the night. Supplied by Nova Scotia-based Tour Tech East, a D1 was used at monitors, while front of house engineer David W. Hillier manned an SD7.
The event comprised no less than 17 live performances, interspersed with video clips and the presentations of the awards from a separate podium.
“Of the two stages, the first featured bands while the second had a house band and primarily featured singer-songwriters with guest musicians,” says David.
“We had 64 inputs, with 32 from each stage split between FOH, monitors and the recording truck. The podium mics, host mics and video playback went to a separate FOH mixer and operator, although we ran them to the SD7 as well for backup. We also sent the recording truck mix to the other FOH console and the SD7 mix went to the recording truck so that we would have alternate backup mixes.”
Despite the complexity of the show, not to mention it being David’s first serious use of the SD7, his experience and the console’s intuitive user interface means that he was able to take the whole thing very much in his stride.
“I spent a couple of hours at our local supplier, Tour Tech East, studying the SD7’s features and then I was pretty comfortable to go into soundchecks and rehearsals in the venue,” he says.
“I used the eraser end of a pencil so that I could tap and move quickly on the touch screens during the show and I had a sequential playlist of the performances, so it took seconds to reset between acts.
“Honestly, with a great digital recall system and a great onstage audio crew, the show was extremely straightforward to operate. The only major challenge for me was caused by it taking place in an ice arena - as we were standing on boards covering the ice rink, the only problem I had was keeping my feet warm!”
Counteracting the problem of chilly feet, the SD7’s onboard processing certainly warmed the hearts of the sound crew.
“I only used the console’s onboard processing for the three reverbs, one delay and two graphic EQs I needed,” says David.
“Everything was great sounding, especially the compressors - which can often sound bad when you drive them hard on digital consoles.
“For my reference only, I also recorded some sound checks into ProTools using an M-Audio 1814 FireWire interface to my MacBook Pro. I used a matrix out of the SD7 which mirrored my main L-R mix and it worked extremely well.”
David also made use of the SD7’s built-in video camera and monitor, a unique facility that isn’t often commented on.
“I was very pleased to find this facility as I like to watch the rehearsals and show for reference,” he says. “Along with the console’s many other virtues, it’s good to find such an added bonus.”
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