Jake Hartsfield, Rector's FOH engineer and production manager, has added a new tool in Rector's road ki,t helping him perform in that crowded field that is the music business: a compact pair of DiGiCo SD9 digital consoles, used for FOH and monitors. The DiGiCo SD9s give Rector and Hartsfield the power and performance to help stand out on the road, plus the economic effectiveness to stay out there profitably.
Rector has been touring all year, and his schedule is still packed with headline amphitheater and theater dates this fall. Touring with the SD9 consoles, rented through Nashville's Spectrum Sound, has offered Hartsfield and Brian Boggs, Rector's monitor engineer, a new level of effectiveness and efficiency.
"I'd read a lot about the DiGiCo consoles and many of the live mixes I've admired were mixed with them," says Hartsfield, who has also mixed live shows for other successful indie artists such as Megan & Liz and Kidz Bop. "Spectrum Sound had SD9s available that were fully upgraded with the new Stealth Core 2 software and the Optocore fibre-optic loop that lets both consoles share the same SD Rack amp heads."
He's also found that the SD9 has virtually all of the EQ and dynamics processing onboard that he needs for live shows. "I put a bit of the Waves C6 multiband compressor plugin on Ben's voice for some polish," he says. "But everything else I need is right there on the console."
He emphasizes, he doesn't have to compromise any performance. "With the new Stealth Core 2 upgrade, I can have 96 channels," he says. "When we began rehearsals, we were right at 48 channels, so I have plenty of room for additional channels if I need them. I'm also very comfortable with the number of faders and work surface."
(Jim Evans)
