A D5 Live FMX (front-of-house and monitors) supplied byCleveland-based Eighth Day Sound was on hand for the current DuranDuran world tour, which began in late-2003 in the U.S. and then jettedover to New Zealand and Australia, where they played solo and insupport of another D5 user, Robbie Williams.
The U.S. leg of the tour played small to mid-sized theaters, and acombination of theaters and stadiums with Williams in New Zealand andAustralia.
Audio crew for Duran Duran included front-of-house engineer ScottiePakulski, Simon Higgs (monitor engineer), Jim Corbin (crew chief/systemtech) and Trevor Waite (system tech).
“I’m feeding the P.A. as four stereo zones: V-DOSC, dV-DOSC,in-fills and subs,” commented Pakulski. “We are configured for 96inputs and I am using just the internal effects and processing of theD5 and XTA DP226 crossovers for time correction—no outboardeffects, processing, etc.—and they all sound amazing.”
The D5 Live FMX system gives a full 112 mic inputs onstage, with awork surface for monitors and one for FOH, both with their own localDiGiRacks. Gain Tracking (patent-pending) allows either consoleoperator to change any input gain without affecting the sound balanceon either console, and is selectable on each channel independently oneach console. Three 150-meter drums of fiber-optic cable are providedto allow for a digital split and full redundancy of the fibermulticore.
“I like the D5’s size and fiber-optic snake system,” concludedPakulski. “The fact that it sounds great doesn’t hurt either!”
Eighth Day Sound’s Owen Orzak added: “We’re really pleased with therapid acceptance of the D5 by both FOH and monitor engineers who havenot previously used digital consoles. Reliability of the D5 and supportfrom DiGiCo have been top-notch.”
The tour travels to the UK in April and will be the first time theoriginal lineup of the band has appeared there in 18 years.
For more information about the consoles, visit www.digiconsoles.com. For more information aboutEighth Day Sound, visit www.8thdaysound.com. For more touring news, visitmixonline.com/live_sound_tour_profiles/index.htm.
