Combining the touring roles of front of house engineer, tour manager and more, White bought the SD8 for his family-run audio and lighting production company Chaps last year. Based in Sutton, Surrey - not far from DiGiCo's Chessington HQ - Chaps is providing both equipment and personnel to the tour, including White and his two sons.
"You have to embrace the latest technology because it's what everyone is doing. It's the way forward and I saw the SD8 as part of that development," he says. "To me, mixing is all about the path. If I have a good signal path then I'm happy.
"When I was told that the SD8 has the same signal path as the SD7, I realised that it offers exceptional value. What it does is phenomenal and the quality is fantastic, you can tell just by hearing it."
Using a d&b Q series system, the five-piece band has around 30 inputs into the SD8, split between five vocal mics, a dozen or so DIs, instrument mics and a Helpinstill piano sensor. "It's like a guitar pickup for the piano strings. It's quite amazing, the best way of amplifying a piano I've heard," says White. "We also mic the piano up, because Jamie slaps it a lot."
(Jim Evans)
