Dave Bracey was one of the first engineers to appreciate the benefits of DiGiCo consoles, having put the D5 through its paces on tour with Robbie Williams back in 2003 and continuing to use it with a variety of acts since, and is as well versed with DiGiCo’s D Series as just about anyone could be.
There is then, no better person to be one of the first engineers to give the new big boy from the DiGiCo stable, the SD7, a thorough testing than Bracey, who is currently on the European festival circuit with Massive Attack.
“One of the things that’s been a revelation for me, doing mainly festivals on this run, is how good the desk sounds compared to other boards people are mixing on,” says Bracey. “It’s like, wow! A lot of other people have been impressed as well. Of course Massive Attack gives a great opportunity to create that sound, but I believe that it is the sound of the console they are complimenting.”
Bracey says it has been a great tour to hear what the desk can do – as each band on the same stage at a particular festival is using the same loudspeaker system – and it has elicited a fair amount of reaction from other engineers. “We’ve been going on after, and sometimes before, a lot of other consoles,” he says. “The mixes people are doing are all good, but the fundamental sound of the SD7 is better.”
“Today [at the Paleo Festival in Switzerland] I was line checking and I had Basil running across our five vocal mics on stage, talking into each one of them. The system tech – who had done a very good job with the Festival PA – commented that the low end of the mics sounded very good. I just tapped the desk. I’m not using fancy mics, he’s hearing the sound of the console.”
“A Digico console wasn’t originally specified for this tour. I had to stick to my guns to get the desk I wanted and I don’t regret my decision one bit. The SD7 sounds better than a D5 and, from my experience, the D5 already sounds better than anything else!”
