Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Roland Clarke]

Outside of the comments above, I'm taking it that you don't have an option and so will be using a D1.  One of the most annoying things I found with it was the fact that to change a send from post to pre or vice versa you need to wind off all the gain make the change then wind the gain back on.  Whilst not being the easiest console to use, access to eq, compressors and gates is fairly straight forward and quite quick.  I think this is one of the reasons they have been so popular over the years.  Of course they are quite an old design now and I'm guessing that problems are becoming more prevalent due to the age of many of them around.  Personally I'm an Avid Venue user which is my "weapon" of choice, however, I'm now seeing a lot of different consoles for smaller shows, the likes of the Soundcraft Si's, Behringer X32, obligatory Yamaha LS9's...........

[Phill Chapman]

The D1 and D5 were not Digico's finest hour from a reliability standpoint.  Their product rep managed to crash the D5 several times in our shop while he was trying to sell it to us.  We bought a Yamaha.

Not to argue with other peoples experiences, but my personal time with the D1 was very good.  We had more than one and whilst they weren't toured hard, they were in and out of the shop on a daily basis and were more often than not pushed to their limits in terms of processing power.  They were no less reliable than most other digital boards we've owned, past or present.

[Adam Robinson]

I toured for years with D1s and D5s and NEVER had one end a show on me.  No, I'm not lying, and no I'm not saying I didn't experience a glitch or two, but nothing took down a show.  They're phenomenal sounding consoles, even by today's standards, so much so that when given the option of taking a D5 vs some newer popular offerings for a one off, I chose the D5. 

I respectfully disagree with you Tim that it's not walk-up friendly, I just think like any other different console, you have start from the beginning and learn another company's way of doing this (for example, the first time I had a Midas digital console, I found several things absolutely maddening, but once I got my head around how they do things I became quite proficient on the desk).  If you can visualize the signal flow of an analog console, you can use a Digico.  Touch the top to configure the input, gain follows, then channel processing, then aux sends, then pan, then an area to touch for output patching, then you've got a mute button and a fader.  I have trained many users to operate SD series consoles and after a short amount of time on the desk, it became the chosen desk for all of their tours. 

[Jim McKeveny]

+1 Adam.

Slim Judd of Allman Brothers fame gave up his looong-used Gamble EX56 and outboard for a D1 and continues to use it. Hundreds of gigs w/o issue.

Could not ask for better endorsement.

[Tim McCulloch]

I toured for years with D1s and D5s and NEVER had one end a show on me.  No, I'm not lying, and no I'm not saying I didn't experience a glitch or two, but nothing took down a show.  They're phenomenal sounding consoles, even by today's standards, so much so that when given the option of taking a D5 vs some newer popular offerings for a one off, I chose the D5. 

I respectfully disagree with you Tim that it's not walk-up friendly, I just think like any other different console, you have start from the beginning and learn another company's way of doing this (for example, the first time I had a Midas digital console, I found several things absolutely maddening, but once I got my head around how they do things I became quite proficient on the desk).  If you can visualize the signal flow of an analog console, you can use a Digico.  Touch the top to configure the input, gain follows, then channel processing, then aux sends, then pan, then an area to touch for output patching, then you've got a mute button and a fader.  I have trained many users to operate SD series consoles and after a short amount of time on the desk, it became the chosen desk for all of their tours.

And I've worked with you, Adam, and know that you're a better steward of touring gear than most technicians.  I don't think you do anything extra-special, but your day to day care in handling gear and the minor maintenance you perform gives you the results you enjoy.

I only report what I've actually seen and witnessed.  I have no agenda.  Perhaps if you were the guy that put me on the D5 I'd have had a better show, because I was left to largely fend for myself.  My boss is FOH for an international touring classic rock act and despises Digico after a couple of negative experiences that the provider's technicians were unable to address.  My only personal complaint is that I found it frustrating to walk up and mix on... and why, oh why, is the local system tech expected to mix a touring support act on the tour's equipment?  At any rate, the act didn't get my best work (such as it may be) because I was given zero, zip, nada help with the desk and by the end of the set I was only about half way to making effective use of the mixer's features I needed to mix the show.

Hope to work with you again, Adam.  Travel safe.

[Christian Güssmer]

Get the offline software from the Digico site, it's a little bit hidden under downloads / legacy... As with all Digico consoles the screens are the same as on the desk. But before you actually try to prepare a show make sure you use the correct software version AND get the so called socket file from the supplier. This is a large difference to the SD series, where that logic is built into the software. You might built a socket file from the rack configurator on the digico site but make sure that you know what's in the slots.

There are shortcuts here and there that make work much easier. Like others said, take the time to get to know the console, all the Digico's are superb tools!

I'm mixing on a Digico D1 Live in a couple weeks, i've only mixed on a digico once before, and it was an in house console as well, so I didnt have to set it up start to finish.

I know all desks have their short cuts and tricks and niches of pros and cons.  So I'm trying to go into this gig as well prepared as I can be.

Does any one have any tips or tricks to using the Digico desk?

[Daniel Ravald]

I've mixed close to 900 shows on a D1 and I've never had it go down during a show. Great sounding console and very easy to use. Great tech support too.

As mentioned before, check your auxes for pre/post. There is a global selector in the master section.

Plan where you want to patch your channels, so you don't have to move around between banks too much. Label your inputs and outputs. You don't want to move channels during the show. The desk behaves a little different when doing this, depending on software version.

If you have time, set up some macro's for mutes or tap-delay.

Enjoy the show and let us know how it went 

[Nicholas J Burke]

I toured for years with D1s and D5s and NEVER had one end a show on me.  No, I'm not lying, and no I'm not saying I didn't experience a glitch or two, but nothing took down a show.  They're phenomenal sounding consoles, even by today's standards, so much so that when given the option of taking a D5 vs some newer popular offerings for a one off, I chose the D5. 

I respectfully disagree with you Tim that it's not walk-up friendly, I just think like any other different console, you have start from the beginning and learn another company's way of doing this (for example, the first time I had a Midas digital console, I found several things absolutely maddening, but once I got my head around how they do things I became quite proficient on the desk).  If you can visualize the signal flow of an analog console, you can use a Digico.  Touch the top to configure the input, gain follows, then channel processing, then aux sends, then pan, then an area to touch for output patching, then you've got a mute button and a fader.  I have trained many users to operate SD series consoles and after a short amount of time on the desk, it became the chosen desk for all of their tours.

Agree with this.

Had a D1 for 8 years, 7 of those it was the primary FOH console in our venue, yes it only  moved once or twice a year but still. The console was quiet often pushed to max filling all inputs and outputs as well as processing units and FX patches, We had one or two issues with the board, but never failed during a show. The Console sounded great, the in built FX are not brilliant, but they do the job.

The biggest issue we ever had was the brain died (was a console problem), Digico support literally flew up on a plan with a new one and swapped it out the next day, tech support was fantastic.

There was an occasional problem with the board when it was turned off incorrectly that it would corrupt a start-up file, but that is user error (and easily fixed).

Getting a blank console up and running, from the default template, is slow, but if you sue the offline software, you can be up and running fast on the board.

The console will have an issue when you get over 100+ snapshots, it does not crash, but the surface lags behind noticeably, does not effect audio and changes happen immediately.

We only got rid of it in the end due to a deal on an SD8 that we could not refuse, and we needed more capabilities in the venue.

This console would have done well over a 1000 gigs and it kept going solid.

[ProSoundWeb Community]