Alternative-Pop Artist Beck Finds VENUE To Be ‘Where It’s At’ For His Live Sound

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Quirky alternative-pop artist Beck is one of the newest converts to Digidesign’s VENUE live sound environment, joining mega-artists like Radiohead and Springsteen, who are also using the system on worldwide tours. FOH engineer Sean “Sully” Sullivan first encountered VENUE at the MTV Video Awards show in Miami and chose the system for the current Beck tour based on sound quality. Sullivan’s rig includes a VENUE console at FOH and in the monitor position, plus two analog, input-only Stage Racks, and a full Pro Tools|HD® system for recording and playback.

The VENUE system’s reliability, in the face of rigorous touring and exposure to dust and heat at outdoor festivals, has been unwavering. “VENUE and Pro Tools® give me the power to mix and process a live show like the album is mixed and processed in the s tudio,” says Sullivan, a touring veteran who recently wrapped arena gigs with Justin Timberlake, Jessica Simpson, and P. Diddy before joining the Beck crew.

The VENUE system’s virtual soundcheck is one of the features that Sullivan finds invaluable, especially playing multi-band festival lineups where soundchecks are often done on the fly. “Doing festivals, some days our setup time is early in the morning and the band might still be in another city! With virtual soundcheck, I can put up a show that is similar to the type of show we are going to do, and be able to tune the PA around my console mix.”

Sullivan also uses plug-ins for effects and dynamics on inputs and outputs, and favors Digidesign’s Impact mix bus compressor and Crane Song’s Phoenix tape saturation plug-in. “Crane Song allows me to have my mixes sound enormous without going over 102dba.” Sullivan also makes extensive use of snapshot automation, creating a snapshot for each song in the set, and for repetitive tasks like walk-in and walk-out music.

For Sullivan, VENUE delivers the total package for live sound mixing. “The effects, recording, and playback capabilities are unlimited. I would need racks and racks of gear to accomplish what I’m doing with just a console and a 4U Pro Tools computer!”