Wow, has this place changed since I was last here...
At any rate, I got to spend last week with a D1 on two different events.
The first thing I noticed was the size (or lack of such) of the console and DigiRack. The demo unit I had only came with one rack, so we still had to use our normal copper to FOH. The console and rack fit into the back of a van with room to spare, and two people were able to move it around very easily. I think the case was heavier than the console...
First show was Rockapella...used it for monitors. I spent some time the night before at the venue finding my way around the desk. I'd glanced at the manual from the website, but found that the board was so entirely intuitive that it just wasn't necessary. It took me about 45 minutes to get just about every feature on the desk nailed down. Touchscreens and very few menus equal a very user-friendly interface!
Sound quality was nothing short of amazing. I've worked on the PM1D, and while the feature set was impressive I couldn't get over the 4k-based preamps. The DiGiCo sounded warm, warm, warm! There was still a good amount of bite with my talkback mic, and it took almost no EQ to get things where I was comfortable.
EQs were handled with the on-board graphs...using the master faders for control is a stroke of genius. We were able to blow through monitors in less time than it took the last gig with an analog setup.
The big test was two days later...I handled PM and FOH duties for a large Christian conference in the local convention hall.
The D1 was nothing short of superb. 3 days straight of 12+ hours runtime, and not a single hiccup. We didn't use many inputs, but the output routing was extensive (video, recordings, delays, fills, monitors, mains, FX, etc, etc...). We supplied everything (most of it in stereo) and had outputs to spare! At one point the venue had to add more seating, meaning we needed an extra delay zone...not a problem with the D1. I just punched in an insertable processing channel across a stereo group, ganged the two IPCs, and voila! 6-band parametric plus delay, all linked perfectly to each other. Took all of 30 seconds.
I simply cannot say enough good things about this desk. I'm certainly not looking forward to sending it back to the rep, and I know what is going at the top of most of my riders (especially for corporate and broadcast gigs) from here on out.
-Flounder (yes, THAT Flounder from a long time ago!)
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Topic: A week with a DiGiCo D1 (Read 4281 times)