DigiCo D5 "Live" Mixing Console

The DigiCo D5 was specifically designed for professional "live sound production" applications such as touring with major recording artists or groups. We purchased this console for our “Live Remote Recording Studio” because of its touring reliability and its many unique functions.

The control surface features four easy to navigate LCD touch-screens showing system functions, saved programs, control groups, matrix layout(s) and effects. The D5 has built in EQ and compression on every channel, a delay function, and DSP processing. This compact self- contained system eliminates the need for multiple outboard racks. The 150-meter optic cables replace cumbersome multi-cores, splitters and line drivers. The D5’s Snapshots feature allows entire show settings to be stored and loaded via a USB interface, making saving, recalling, and switching programs a seamless process.

The control surface features 96-channels - 24 Control/VCA groups, 6 stereo FX, 32 insertable processors (EQ + Dynamics + Delay). The package includes: (2) Stage DiGiRacks; and (1) Local DiGiRack that offer a host of input and output formats; and (3) 150 meter fiber cables.

On occassion, when we go out and do a "live remote" recording, we do not carry a mixing console. We use the mixing console that is being supplied by the sound reinforcement company. We do this for two reasons: (1) professional sound reinformcement companies provide top-of-the-line live mixing consoles (2) It cuts our setup time down from 2-3 hours to approximatly 30-45 minutes.

When we do "live remote recordings" in this way, we tap into the I/O insert channels pre fader. Then, we plug the output of the I/O inserts into our Alesis Adat HD24(s) inputs and believe it or not, this gives us a lot of control over what we record because these pre fade signals are receoved prior to the sound engineers processors which gives us a good clean unprocessed sound, but we still get the on-stage processors from the instruments.

One exception to this is the lead vocal(s). We do a separate recording of the lead vocal(s) on separate channels post-processing to record any special effects that are used. At the studio, we listen to both tracks and sometimes we mix a little of both to get a very clean and enhanced vocal track with the special effect(s), echo or any other effects being used on the vocal. Since we did not use any of the engineer's processing, when we get back to our "live mixing studio", we do the mix-down using our own processors. Mixing the recording down this way gives us a lot of control when we do the final Master.

If you would like to check out some of our "live remote recordings", go to MUSIC on the main menu and select Diane Bailey's "Remembering the Country Legends" or "Sweet Dreams, Again". In this live recording we attempted to keep that old 1960's sound during mix-down and processing for authenticity. Also select Eddie Miles' "Country Legends Show" or "A Salute to Elvis 1 or 2" shows.

DigiCo D5 "Live Mixing Console