Daly City, CA (October 7, 2005) — The Fall leg of U2’s Vertigo tour kicked off recently with veteran Clair Brothers engineer Dave Skaff choosing Digidesign’s VENUE live sound environment to handle monitor mixing duties. Skaff, a 25-year mixing engineer whose credits include U2, Alicia Keys, Shania Twain and others, first used VENUE as a front-of-house console (FOH) for Alicia Keys. It worked out so well that he is using it for his next gig — mixing monitors for rock icons U2.
“I tried out VENUE in the FOH position in January at an Alicia Keys show in California,” says Skaff. “And from that experience, I’d recommend VENUE at either end of the snake which is why VENUE was my choice for this leg of the Vertigo tour.” Skaff continues, “VENUE has the sound and feel of your favorite analog console along with reliable digital control, ease-of-use, powerful plug-ins and Pro Tools compatibility.”
For the U2 gig, Skaff is using VENUE’s 24 mix buses to drive a combination of in ear mixes and wedge mixes for Adam Clayton (bass) and Larry Mullen (drums), as well as several backline technicians. VENUE’s Personal Q (PQ) system has been called into action on the tour, with a PQ Controller being used onstage in place of an analog submixer to allow remote control of the drum monitor mix.
A rack-mounted Pro Tools|HD system connected directly to VENUE’s HDx interface allows Skaff to record up to 96 tracks of audio with no additional Digidesign interfaces needed. Once recorded, he can then easily switch from the live inputs to Pro Tools playback tracks — a feature that gets put to use daily during soundcheck. “There wasn’t much pre-production time with the console before the tour started so I’ve been using the Pro Tools tracks recorded during rehearsal to refine each mix during soundcheck, without needing the band onstage.” says Skaff.
Skaff also didn’t have any problem switching from an analog console to VENUE mid-tour. “I’m an old live sound mixer and just a novice with Pro Tools,” he says. “And it wasn’t difficult even for an old road dog like me to use the two together effectively.”
Further, VENUE cut out the need for a lot of extra equipment in the confines of U2’s complex understage monitor world. Skaff attests, “Using VENUE has helped us cut down — in a marked way — the sheer amount of outboard processing and insert gear required for this tour.”
“I can honestly say that this is the first new console that I’ve used in a long time that will live up to it’s considerable potential in both the high quality audio and digital reliability, not to mention all the really cool plug-in possibilities,” states Skaff.
About Digidesign VENUE
Digidesign VENUE is an innovative, state-of-the-art live sound mixing and production environment that surpasses the sound quality and functionality of other sound reinforcement mixing systems at a surprisingly affordable price. VENUE was designed to provide operators with the most flexible set of audio tools possible. Each system component is expandable and reconfigurable on a per-show basis, including the D-Show mixing console and digital mix engine, effects plug-ins, the stage and FOH I/O, the digital snake, and the record/playback options.
For more information, visit Digidesign’s website at www.digidesign.com.
About Digidesign
Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, Inc., is the world’s leading manufacturer of digital audio production systems and the winner of the 2001 Technical Grammy¨ Award and 2003 Academy Award¨ of Merit (Oscar¨ statuette) for the design, development, and implementation of the Pro Tools digital audio workstation. Digidesign provides the professional music, film, video, multimedia, and radio broadcast industries with tools for digital recording, MIDI sequencing, editing, signal processing, and surround mixing. Digidesign products are marketed in more than 40 countries worldwide through a distribution network of value-added dealers, distributors, and OEM relationships. M-Audio, a leading provider of digital audio and MIDI solutions for electronic musicians and audio professionals, is a business unit of Digidesign. For more information, visit www.digidesign.com.
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