Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Black Eyed Peas, Nine Inch Nails, Kelly Clarkson, and More Hit the Road with the Digidesign VENUE Live Sound Environment
Daly City, CA (August 30, 2005) Digidesign is pleased to announce that huge international touring acts including Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Kelly Clarkson and many others are among the early adopters of the Digidesign® VENUE live sound environment. After only six months of availability, VENUE systems have been used all over the world by major tours such as Nine Inch Nails, Black Eyed Peas, The Cure, Placebo, John Hiatt, Donny
Osmond, Joe Satriani, Alicia Keys, Sound Tribe Sector 9, the popular Japanese band Love Psychedelico, Umphrey’s McGee, The Thrills, Nena, and many more. VENUE systems have also been called into service by those bands and others at major festivals, such as Live8 (in Paris), the Montreux Jazz Festival, The Gathering
of the Vibes music festival (celebrating Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead), 10,000 Lakes Festival, and Lollapalooza.“Sixteen days of the festival, working 24/7, is proof that the Digidesign
VENUE can handle everything: rock ’n’ roll, symphony orchestra,
samba,” says Patrick Vogelsang, the Montreaux Jazz Festival sound director who recommended VENUE be used at the festival. “The main feature of VENUE is its usability,” says Vogelsang, summarizing his experience. “We knew there wouldn’t be a problem with the D-Show™ console, and the system’s intuitive control surface meant that engineers could walk up to it and instantly generate the mix they wanted. In particular, they liked the functionality and how it’s designed, with real switches and real encoders. They could find the reference just as they would on an analog desk and work
with or without the display.”
Jack Kneply, FOH engineer for Travis Tritt, has recently entered into the world of digital consoles and claims not to have considered doing so before the Digidesign VENUE system. “We’re already forty shows into the tour with VENUE
and it has been rock solid,” says Knepley. “I’ve had it out in the mud, the blood and the beer and it has held up wonderfully. Lately, we’ve been doing a lot of outdoor shows with temperatures in the 100+
degree range with humidity to match and the console has performed flawlessly.
It has never let me down or even wavered in these extreme conditions. A couple things that sold me on VENUE are the amazing flexibility of all the digital features such as multiple plug-ins and endless routing options…all
this while maintaining a very warm analog type sound and very user friendly control surface.”
“Initially I resisted moving to a digital mixing platform for the live events that I have been doing, for numerous reasons,” says Robert Scovill,
FOH engineer for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. “I couldn’t
seem to find one that had the right fit for me in terms of human interface, sound quality, flexibility, reliability, recording and I/O options, etc. No
one console choice was available that filled those needs for me until VENUE came along.
Scovill goes on to say, “I have been using one now for about six months on Tom Petty’s tour, and it has reinvigorated my live sound mixing experience. I find new things to like about it every day, none the least of which is the incredible sound quality. I’m truly blown away by how great this thing sounds. For the first time in my ten years with Tom, we no longer do actual sound checks and I feel creatively empowered while mixing a live event.”
“VENUE is a joy to mix on!” exclaims Hugh Johnson, FOH engineer and production manager for Vince Gill. “After more than 30 years mixing, this system has brought fun, not to mention unbelievable quality, to the show. I get excited again before the show knowing how easy it’s going to be
and how great it’s going to sound. I just can’t say enough good things about VENUE.”
“We use VENUE for the monitor desk on the Donny Osmond tour,” says Paul Peterson, Donny Osmond’s musical director and bass player. “With our in-ear monitors, it sounds more like a recording session than a live performance. Now Digidesign products are in all aspects of my life, from recording to live
performance, and they all work together seamlessly.”
VENUE has also been featured on television broadcasts such as PBS SoundStage (featuring Ringo Starr), MTV’s TRL “Backstage Week” (featuring
Kelly Clarkson), and others.
“In addition to MTV taking our mix from VENUE, we’ve been multi-tracking the entire tour, taking advantage of VENUEs HDx capabilities,” says Jason Halbert, Music Director for Kelly Clarkson. “In fact, thanks to VENUE’s total recall, we’ve spent more time at sound checks recording demos, and we’re even able to track the band live for Kelly’s upcoming European promo of Behind These Hazel Eyes.”
“The ability to refer back to the multi-track of the previous night’s show has allowed me to make mix adjustments in the room before the band shows up,” says Doug Nightwine, FOH Engineer for Kelly Clarkson. “The plan is to use these recordings for Kelly’s upcoming DVD.”
VENUE is also picking up steam with houses of worship. For example, Vada Dean, sound engineer at Family Community Church in San Jose, California, installed a Digidesign VENUE system that is used by six different audio teams on numerous in-house productions.
“We chose to install VENUE because of its remarkable sound quality, programmability,
and integrated Pro Tools® plug-ins,” says Dean. “Our engineers have very critical ears, and VENUE’s transparent sound absolutely amazed them. Unlike our old analog board, which sounded muddier with each additional input, VENUE sounds pure and pristine no matter how much we throw at it. Programmable
snapshots allow us to capture best practices that all six teams can use to dial-in the perfect mix—this was impossible on our old analog board. And the plug-ins we use in our Pro Tools|HD® studio seamlessly integrates into high-quality live shows. This plug-in compatibility saves us time and money—nothing
new to learn, nothing new to buy.”
More announcements of acts, festivals, shows and permanent Digidesign VENUE system installations in theaters and house of worship are coming soon.
For more information or to request VENUE information, visit Digidesign’s website at www.digidesign.com.
About Digidesign
Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, Inc., is the world’s leading
manufacturer of digital audio production systems and the winner of the 2001 Technical Grammy® Award and 2003 Academy Award® of Merit (Oscar® statuette) for the design, development, and implementation of the Pro Tools digital audio workstation. Digidesign provides the professional music, film, video, multimedia, and radio broadcast industries with tools for digital recording, MIDI sequencing, editing, signal processing, and surround mixing. Digidesign products are marketed in more than 40 countries worldwide through a distribution
network of value-added dealers, distributors, and OEM relationships. M-Audio, a leading provider of digital audio and MIDI solutions for electronic musicians and audio professionals, is a business unit of Digidesign. For more information,
visit www.digidesign.com.
© 2005 Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Promotions and discounts are subject to availability and change without notice. All prices are USMRP for U.S. and
Canada only and are subject to change without notice. Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, D-Show, Pro Tools, and Pro Tools|HD are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Academy Award and Oscar are trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Grammy is a trademark of the National Academy of Recording
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