During the first leg of the tour, FOH engineer, Garry Brown made the decision to switch mid-stream to a DiGiCo SD7. And after a laborious and exhaustive A/B comparison of his current console and the SD7, the decision was made. Aside from a brief outing with the band Third Day in 2004 on a DiGiCo D5, this was Brown's first extensive hands-on experience with a DiGiCo console.
"During the first leg of the tour, we had been using another digital console, which in the context of the live sound of the shows had not been an issue. We came to realize that the board tapes that were released for downloads every night after the show were sounding small - there was no depth in the sound field - which completely stumped us as the shows had been sounding great. To try and figure what was going on, I spent a week with the console and the multi-tracks from the shows, basically starting afresh, but we ended up with the same issue."
On the Phish tour, Brown is working with two stage racks boasting the 112-capacity, but are only been utilizing 68 inputs. "Phish is basically a four-piece band, with a decent about of inputs, plus the options of special guests, which could be another drum kit! We have to be ready for anything with this band, and the DiGiCo system allows us that flexibility to expand or contract according to the special requirements of whatever."
(Jim Evans)
