The house sound was mixed on a Digidesign Venue by Henrik Bonné, and he could scarcely have enjoyed the experience more. "This desk includes the best offline software, best automation (for music and events), and best sound of any of the big live mixing consoles I have come across," he remarked. "And the opportunity to work with Digidesign's plug-ins has really made an impact on me."
Such is the simplicity of the desk that he has decided to run his next show without any outboard effects whatsoever. "Focusrite plugins on the vocals, Smack! and Purple Audio/Bomb Factory on the bass, drums and brass ... it just works!" says Henrik. "Right now we have three reverbs installed; D-Verb, ReVibe and Reverb One; these replace a 480L and M5000 nicely for live situations.
"Delays are getting fun again with Echo Farm and the DigiRack delays! At the same time, you can record 18 channels in Pro Tools LE via firewire, directly from the mixing console."
A few months ago, Morten Munch, of Moto Audio Sales in Denmark, reconfigured the desk, installing two cards with DigiLink, making it possible to record 128 channels directly onto a Pro Tools HD system. Most important, he says, Venue makes it easy to carry out highly creative mixing. If the sound from the bass DI is boring ... just add an Amp Farm. All the things we didn't have resources for before is now immediately possible with Venue."
Bonné says: "The stage crews are really happy, with four coaxial cables to connect instead of 750kg copper cables!"
(Chris Henry)
