Digico SD8 Users

[t97810090]

Hi Everyone

 

My Name is Tom and I work for a performing arts centre in Melbourne as a head technician. We're about to embark on an upgrade to the digital era - namely a Digico SD8.

 

Strangely enough, we'll be the first users in Australia with this desk which is a little nerve wracking for tech support etc.

 

So I just thought I'd post here to see if anyone else had any wisdom to part with. The SD8 - what do you love? what do you hate? what goes wrong with the desk? Any fixes, tips, tricks, problems, concerns or issues we should be alerted to?

 

We're looking at setting up a network of people at least in the interum we can communicate with as we make our transition into the SD8, anyone who'd be willing to have a chat about the SD8, previous digico users or anyone keen to hear about our transition or be willing to help us fix small issues or provide tech support-esk type advice would be welcome.

 

So - Is anyone out there?

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Tom

[mervaka]

may I ask how you picked your desk? it'd make a little more sense if you came here asking a bit more generally, just about digital desks for theatre, with a budget in mind. for all you know someone could turn around and say they're rubbish (although I'm sure thats not the case speaking objectively)

 

either way, its a bold step being the first, and I'd imagine digico would therefore see to it that you're well looked after. I'm afraid Digico aren't anywhere down my neck of the woods though! sorry

[t97810090]

We chose the SD8 based on it's relative ease of use, the features it provided based on price as well as the digico reputation. A few of our techs are D1 and D5 users and rave about the digico platform.

 

So the SD8 we've chosen.... and Digico will make sure we're well looked after - I'm just after that 'grass roots' info that Digico wouldn't provide or want to admit to.... additionally, we're also looking for people we can exchange ideas between about this desk and I guess, when stuff goes wrong, that we can ask questions to....

[Gareth Owen]

I was the first person to design a musical on the Digico D5, back before the D5T even existed. We used something called the D5 Matrix which was exactly like the D5T but with a 32x32 matrix tacked on the end. If I'm honest, I had a horrible time - the console wasn't ready for theatre and despite fantastic support from Digico, we got ourseleves in a very unfun mess.

 

Having said that, the D5T now has a firm foothold in UK musical theatre with British sound designers such as Andrew Bruce and Bobby Aitken using them as standard. Major shows such as We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia and Dirty Dancing all use them and the British National Theatre also own several. I beleive they have also just ordered a pair of SD8s.

 

Whats the point of this post? Think long and hard about being the first to use something, especially when its something as fundamental as the console. You might get your picture in the trade mags, but you might also get sacked - which isn't worth any ammount of free swag!

[mervaka]

We chose the SD8 based on it's relative ease of use, the features it provided based on price as well as the digico reputation. A few of our techs are D1 and D5 users and rave about the digico platform.

 

So the SD8 we've chosen.... and Digico will make sure we're well looked after - I'm just after that 'grass roots' info that Digico wouldn't provide or want to admit to.... additionally, we're also looking for people we can exchange ideas between about this desk and I guess, when stuff goes wrong, that we can ask questions to....

 

I see, I misread in that case. my apologies. I was sort of taking it as one of those "I just bought this, is it any good?" type posts. I wouldn't have thought Digico would have anything to hide, as its in their interests to have confidence in their product.

[mac.calder]

Hey Tom

 

Firstly, do you mind if I ask what PAC you are at? Just out of interest.

 

The SD8 is so new really that I doubt many people have a great deal of experience with the desk, but from what I remember when chatting with one of the guys from DiGiCo when he came onboard to fix our D1, anyone who has used the D series boards will find the interface very similar. The main difference is in the price point and the available feature set.

[Bobbsy]

I think mac.calder has hit the nail on the head. The SD8 is so new that few people anywhere will have had a chance to use one in anger...certainly I haven't out here in the wilds of Queensland and it didn't exist when I was last in the UK. The OP may we find himself being the person that the rest of us go to when WE have queries!

 

That said, somebody has to be first and, from the feature set, I can certainly see why the SD8 was attractive for this sort of application. It would certainly have made my shortlist if I'd been the one doing the shopping. Even if we can't help much, I hope the OP comes back and posts about his experiences once the board is installed.

 

Bob

[BlueShift]

Major shows such as We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia and Dirty Dancing all use them and the British National Theatre also own several. I beleive they have also just ordered a pair of SD8s.

 

We will rock you resisted the move to Digico and use a Cadac J-Type. I route my D-Show through it into the Vdosc every weekend!

 

We looked at a bunch of consoles when we moved to the digidesign platform. SD8 was my second choice. great board

[Gareth Owen]

Major shows such as We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia and Dirty Dancing all use them and the British National Theatre also own several. I beleive they have also just ordered a pair of SD8s.

 

We will rock you resisted the move to Digico and use a Cadac J-Type. I route my D-Show through it into the Vdosc every weekend!

 

We looked at a bunch of consoles when we moved to the digidesign platform. SD8 was my second choice. great board

 

Sorry, I was reffering to worldwide productions of We Will Rock You, not the Palladium version - the D5 was barely a viable option back when London was installed.

 

Good call on the D-Show - seriously excellent console!

[BlueShift]

I should point out a couple of things:

 

1. Theatre shows use a D5T - a souped up D5 with some added theatre specfic features. ive spoken to people who have programmed theatre on a regular D5 and werent happy bunnys. So on that note, its worth bearing in mind that the digico may be a popular choice in theatres, but its the D5T thats the star. im not sure the SD8 integrates all of those features.

 

Also, I should explain more my choice between a Digico and Digidesign. Now the game has changed a little, and with a bit more cash I may have bought a Midas Pro6... but I digress.

Yamaha was out of the equation because its getting long in the tooth.

Ive never looked at an innovason properly - but I dont particularly like it ergonomically

Vi6 wasnt finished when we looked at it, today its a more complete product.

 

We wanted lots of programming flexibility, future expansion options, and ease of use.

 

At the end of the day the Venue won over for the following reasons:

- plugins: definately a winner, I can make it sound however I want

- Great snapshot functionality - very very flexible programming

- very high quality sound (great Preamps, great A-D/D-A)

- easy to use

 

this works because we do mainly rock and roll - in a theatre, I may have leant toward a SD8. its all in the snapshots though. And can you prgram one quickly? Digidesign may still win over here. At this level, everything should sound great, so its a lot more about usability and features

[jony.reynolds]

Ok, here's my experience with the SD8

 

The company I work for has just received a Digico SD8 and I have had the pleasure of learning the console and teaching my colleagues and bosses how to use it. After using it for a good 3 days solid I can fairly say that I have a slight idea of how it works so these are my findings.

 

Pro's

 

-Easy to use

-Small frame size vs. DSP processing

-Sounds nice

-(many more.. but thats the gist of it)

 

Con's

 

-I have crashed it 3 times in 1 week of having it. 1 time it just restarted with uncontrollable audio passing and the other 2 times I got a system error (corruption in the software) with ultimately the system having to be restarted. This is probably the biggest con, your on a show and it crashes, your screwed...

-Possible not instant access to the channel, aux, group... you want. As it uses a system of layers and banks, if your using more than 36 channels/aux's etc you can't see them all at once. You have to find the bank they're in and then tinker. If you have a little feedback but don't want to alter your system volume you could have a problem.

 

These are my findings so far however I must say out of our inventory of digital desks it is by far my favorite because of ease of use and its application in any genre I.e conference, theatre, rock n' roll...

If you have any more specific questions please PM me and I would be more than happy to help.

 

If your used to the D-series you will find the SD8 similar and will recognise features like snapshots from the D-series.

 

Hope that helps

[brendon]

Hi All I was lucky enough to have an SD8 on demo for a weak. I used it several times on FOH and on Monitors. What version software are you using because mine had the most recent pre release available at 20th Nov, which had a number of isues including crashes. but they promised to sort before release. Brendon

[sound designer]

Con's

 

-I have crashed it 3 times in 1 week of having it. 1 time it just restarted with uncontrollable audio passing and the other 2 times I got a system error (corruption in the software) with ultimately the system having to be restarted. This is probably the biggest con, your on a show and it crashes, your screwed...

 

Hi all,

 

It seems to me that the Digico legacy is one of being inherently unstable and crashing a lot. I heard recently of SD7's having catastrophic failures at Glastonbury and a large church in Sydney.

Why would you even consider buying a new board that crashes straight out of the box?

Give me a D-Show any day. Never had one crash on me yet. Also lots of fun to use and sounds amazing.

 

Cheers and Merry Christmas to all! :)

[Simon Lewis]

It seems to me that the Digico legacy is one of being inherently unstable and crashing a lot.

 

That seems a fairly sweeping statement... Are you able to provide more information about these failures? Whilst every digital desk will have had some problem at some stage in its lifecycle, those on this forum working at Glastonbury didn't (to my knowledge) report SD7 problems. Gennies running out of fuel, yes, but not desk failures as far as I'm aware.

[Rob_Beech]

I know of no issues of the SD7 from other stages, let alone catastrophic ones. Only yamaha offering on Jazz World where I was based so can't comment there.

Generators out of fuel, well I can comment there, but won't.