DiGiCo SD8 Gives Omatali A McKnight To Remember

The end of May saw 16 times Grammy nominated R&B artist Brian McKnight headline the 2010 Riviera Maya Jazz Festival in Mexico. It also brought an introduction to the DiGiCo SD8 for McKnight’s Front of House engineer Omatali Beckett – an experience that he is keen to repeat.

Omatali has been working with Brian McKnight for about three years but, apart from two day’s training at DiGiCo’s Chessington headquarters, it was the first time he had been ‘hands on’ with the SD8.

“I previously used other digital consoles because of the way I work,” he says. “I listen and don’t look at the desk. I prefer to have one screen and all the features accessible on the control surface.

“When I did the sessions at DiGiCo I was immediately impressed by the SD8’s great flexibility. I like the fact that any channel – whether it’s a group, VCA, matrix, or aux master – can be placed anywhere on the surface. The layering feature on the desk is killer and the dynamics processors are superb.”

There is a world of difference between DiGiCo’s Surrey demonstration room and a beach in Mexico, but it’s a tribute to the SD8 that Omatali enjoyed an equally positive experience in both locations.

“The SD8 worked great for me in the festival situation. The temperature was 89F (31C) and I didn’t have a single crash or freeze,” he says. “The learning curve on the SD8 isn’t steep at all. I pre-programmed on the desk the night before and, on the day itself, found that loading the show was effortless. Each engineer was up and running in seconds.”

All these virtues of the SD8 would be worthless if it didn’t sound great – but in that regard, Omatali is unequivocal in his praise.

“The depth and warmth of the sound is amazing and the stereo image is as wide as I want it to be. Mixing on the SD8 made me feel like I could touch every instrument and I could still walk further into a corridor of audio bliss! The sound of the console isn’t matched anywhere else in the market,” he says.

“My mantra has always been ‘One Mind Any Desk’ but, since using the SD8, I will be requesting it for all my future work. I want to use it again and again and again!”