After a highly successful initial UK tour and equally triumphant run in London’s West End, Take That ‘tribute’ musical Never Forget is currently on a further, far more extensive, tour of UK venues. From Belfast to Brighton, Newcastle to Nottingham, audiences are relighting their fires and singing a million love songs with the benefit of a DiGiCo SD8 console at Front of House.
This is the first theatre production on which sound designer Richard Brooker has used an SD8, which he chose because it immediately addressed a range of the challenges that provincial tours inevitably throw up.
“As a sound designer, I have been quite faithful to established analogue theatre consoles like Cadac,” he says. “But, as associate sound designer on Mamma Mia!, I was looking after a DiGiCo D5T and was very impressed by it.
“I also designed a production of Jesus Christ Superstar in Spain last year which used a D5T12. I got on fine with it and was very happy with the results, so when I heard about the SD8, I thought it sounded very interesting. At the same time, I was looking at ways to make the Never Forget tour cost effective, flexible and easy to move.”
Richard paid a visit to DiGiCo’s Surrey premises to get acquainted with the console and had the opportunity to take one on tour as Front of House engineer for singer Elaine Paige, famed for her own roles in musicals.
“I loved it,” Richard continues. “Sonically the results were great and it convinced me that here was the solution for Never Forget. The only issue was making a console designed for live music work from a theatrical point of view. But it’s a very flexible desk and is working very well in the theatre environment. It does everything that I want.”
For Never Forget, Richard is utilising 54 inputs, via a stage DiGiRack,10 matrix outs, 10 aux outs and a further 16 outs from an Aviom card for band monitoring. The system also uses a local 16 input mini rack and a few of the ins and outs on the desk itself.
All audio is via MADI and, with the exception of one Lexicon vocal reverb, all dynamics and effects utilise the SD8’s onboard processing.
“I have been absolutely blown away by the sound quality,” says Richard. “We’re using an Opus PA system which is very critical. It’s very unforgiving and I would have heard any problems with the sound quality, but there are none. The sound of the console is fantastic. It’s that of a very high end desk. For that alone the SD8 is unbelievable value for money.”
Rather than using the SD8’s scenes, Richard’s preferred choice is to use Cadac Show Control to move the console’s settings on throughout the show via MIDI messages from an external computer. This again highlights the SD8’s flexibility as it is absolutely seamless, allowing sound designers and operators to work in the way they prefer, not in a way that the equipment dictates.
“Operationally it’s extremely good,” he says. “As a theatre sound designer I have been waiting for a console that was right to take me from the analogue to the digital domain and the SD8 has achieved that.
“It’s incredibly flexible, producers love it because we’re removing half the seats for the Front of House position that we would with an analogue console and, on a provincial tour with regular changes of venue, the ability to switch the desk on, load the show file and be ready is superb.
“There are also the facilities that I haven’t used yet – for example recording the MADI inputs for virtual sound checking – which I will definitely be investigating. The future potential it offers is terrific – and all of this at an incredibly cost-effective price. I really believe that DiGiCo has blown away the competition on all fronts with this console.
“From a sound design point of view I’m proud that I was the first to spec the SD8 for a proper theatre show. And, as well as the ongoing UK tour, I’m hoping that the Spanish and Dutch tours of Mamma Mia! this summer will also take out SD8s. Watch this space!”
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