Says the sound engineer, who toured with The Darkness for the duration of last year: "I'd had experience of Pro Tools so I knew instinctively what the plug-ins and EQs were going to sound like. With the Digidesign pedigree it's scarcely surprising that the sound is so good."By saving and downloading a number of the band's shows he was able to review his mixes at leisure. For his exposure to the modular system, which supports the industry-standard Pro Tools systems, he can thank seasoned sound engineer Robb Allen (Manic Street Preachers, Thrills). Allen became an early adopter of the Venue mixing system - thanks to a chance shoot out he was able to set up with a reference analogue desk, on a Manics pre-production day at Cardiff International Arena. Now, six months later, he says, a 10-minute induction on the Venue is all digital-savvy engineers tend to need. "For that initial shoot-out we were able to take the split off the active stage box to the stage box of the digital multicore and create a true A/B situation," he remembers.
In front of other eminent sound engineers - such as Huw Richards who was babysitting - he invited the band's backline crew to play for him, and set to work. "We asked the drum tech to play the drums, and I was much happier with the drum sound on the digital board. The bass was much of a muchness, but when we did the keyboards, the top end sounded so crisp it was scary. We all agreed the digital info had a clarity and separation missing from the analogue set-up."
Initially Robbie admits they struggled with the guitar sound - but he was yet to access the plug-ins - and the sweep on the board between analogue-style FX and digital EQ. "We switched to the Focusrite EQ and some of the other plug-ins and dirtied up the sound. The plug-ins are such faithful simulations of the valve-type sound that the vocal and acoustic guitar reference we got was amazing." He then moved comfortably around the functions of the desk, remaining on the plug-ins page "so that whichever channel I selected the current states of the plug-ins were shown on the screen."
He notes: "The reverbs and effects built into the Venue sounded great and the plug-in FX units offered so many options I only explored the fringes. The other great thing that keeps the sound tight is the latency correction - all the plug-ins and FX are automatically time-corrected which means the phase cohesion of the desk is stunning."
After a brief soundcheck he decided to use it for the show. "The advantages of signal path clarity added to the virtual analogue plug-ins improved the sound to such an extent that it outweighed the 'comfort zone' of my familiar equipment. By then it just felt entirely natural."
In addition to the Coldplay tour, the Digidesign Venue has been handling mixing duties with a wide variety of other shows over the past month - from Live8 in Paris to the Montreux Jazz Festival, and with acts as diverse as the Cure and Placebo to Rufus Wainwright.
(Lee Baldock)
