This content is brought to you by Audiocourses dot com
Sound quality, Virtual Soundcheck, and snapshot functionality among the cited merits of VENUE
Blake Suib, a veteran monitor mix engineer with 25 years of experience, received call last July to design a live sound system for new client, singer and guitarist John Mayer. Although Suib had been using digital consoles for the last few years, he had yet to find the right console that would perform reliably every night and sound like the analog consoles he had used and loved throughout his career—that is until he discovered the Digidesign® VENUE live sound environment.
"I can remember when the concept of a digital console that could recall every setting in an instant and play back live tracks—just as if the band were playing—was part of the 'what if?' stories we told in the back lounge or on the tour bus late at night," laughs Suib. "I've spent many tours with two or more analog consoles and a monitor zone filled with racks of gear, all while dreaming of a console that could keep up with the ever-expanding demands of artists."
Suib recalls a particular night where having that dream console would have been a huge benefit: "I can remember being the head monitor engineer for the MTV Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall some years back. I had ten monitor consoles chained together to provide all of the artists their own channels. We had to fly five of those consoles on a 16-foot by 16-foot deck above the other five in order to fit all ten. I had to climb a ladder to reach the upper ones. That was a miserable situation—especially given that we monitor engineers could easily imagine the perfect board that would do it all in one simple package."
With VENUE, Suib found everything he was looking for, citing the system's warm, analog-like sound quality, Virtual Soundcheck feature, and snapshot functionality as the primary reasons for his choice. "There are so many ways to use this console to enhance the monitor experience for the artist," he says. "In the past you got one shot a day to get your mix right. After that you would have to wait until the next sound check or show to try again. VENUE, matched with the Pro Tools recording rig, is a very powerful combination. With the click of my mouse and Virtual Soundcheck, I can play back and listen to all the mixes just as if the band were playing live. I can now sit down and do mixing sessions with one band member at a time and fine-tune his or her mix in a way never before possible. This gives them the opportunity to play with the sound and have more input on what they hear."
The VENUE system's natural and decidedly un-digital sound quality made a big impression as well. "Ever since digital technology came on the live sound scene people have thought that the sound of these consoles were not as natural as analog consoles—and they were right," says Suib. "VENUE is the first digital console I have used that doesn't sound digital. I had a chance to mix both wedges and ears on the VENUE and the first thing I noticed was how little I had to do to make it sound good. Because the console sounds very natural, I'm able to concentrate and take my mix to another level."
Suib is also enamored with the VENUE system's plug-in capabilities. "Bring on the plug-ins! I am a gear freak—I love the sound of good compression, effects, and EQ. By using the available plug-ins, I have access to almost anything I could ever want. In the past there were always a few things I would have loved to have in my rack—certain compressors or reverbs—but I knew that they would never stand up to life on the road. I now have them all!"
To streamline his workflow, Suib counts on the VENUE system's powerful snapshot functions, which makes saving and updating his programming needs fast and easy. "I do two kinds of saves," he explains. "The first one I call a 'global save.' This is used when I want my change to affect all songs or snapshots. The second one I call a 'song save.' This is used for a change that you would only want to occur in a certain song. I find it quick and easy to go back and forth between these different functions, [which] can be very hard to do on other digital systems while still trying to mix the show."
Suib feels that the live sound industry has taken a back seat to the recording industry in terms of available technology, but with VENUE, live sound finally has a comparable tool that rivals the best gear available in any top-notch recording studio. "Total-recall recording consoles have been the industry standard for many years," he explains. "Combined with a control room full of outboard gear, artists had the ability to alter the sound of their music to a far greater degree in the studio than we could in the live audio environment. It has taken the live sound industry a while to catch up, and from my point of view, Digidesign's VENUE has made it possible to bring the same level of technology that was previously only available in the studio to the live sound industry
"When artists are mixing their records in the studio," he continues, "they will work on a certain song to get the perfect mix. This may involve any number of moves and mix parameter settings. When moving on to the next song, all the moves and settings will probably be different. In the past you would have to find a happy medium that worked for all of the songs in the set. Using VENUE, I can dial in levels, EQ, effects, compression, etcetera, and save all the settings for each song. By adding a small compact Pro Tools rig to my system, I can multitrack all inputs on my console."
Suib is sold on the powerful potential of VENUE and has made it his console of choice for future tours. Having access to a large variety of gear in one package makes it easier for him to focus on making his mixes sound great—the ultimate goal. "Anyone who has worked in the music business as long as I have has seen a lot of changes in the gear we use," he says. "I think that VENUE will do for live sound what the laptop computer and the cell phone did for the communications industry—that is, to change it forever. This console allows me to do things I had only dreamed of before."
For more information about VENUE, visit www.digidesign.com/venue
