Additionally, all console VGA screen outputs are networked through 6-channel VGA switching arrangements along with his session mirrored on all 4 engines. Four external 21-inch large screen monitors (two per console) enable him through the switches to bring up any screen on either console or any page on either console.

He can look at a snapshot page on one console while monitoring another page on the other console, all this external to the actual integral screens in the consoles through which he can independently look at any other function he desires.

“The production has gotten more complex since the initial preparations—about three months from the first rehearsal to the first show. It’s pretty extensive now and I have full access to all inputs in front of me without flipping a bank. More or less, we use the secondary console for playback, routed by way of the MADI bridge to do playback from a Nuendo system,” Colvard notes.

“Also, from the main console, we MIDI to the second console so that it can trace any movement by way of MIDI that is done on the console. So it fires the same snapshots and then in turn, out of its MIDI, it fires the rest of my hardware effects processing. So both desks will actually talk in the form of MIDI and change each snapshot in the form of MIDI.”

Additionally, he has a live video feed connected to the small video screen in the meter-bridge of the consoles so he can scan the video production without having to look up and over the console.

“This is one of the most important features that I utilize,” he explains. “Because I am set up on the floor and the patrons are standing in front of me, the video feature on the desk is a big plus so I’m able to monitor the stage. Plus, with the switcher and four monitors, I can go between any screen or overview screen to see what’s happening at that point in time.”

With all the onboard effects and processing power at his disposal, Colvard says his outboard effects usage is fairly minimal—encompassing a small rack of a few Eventide, TC Electronic, Lexicon and Yamaha reverbs for vocal pitch correction, harmonic changes and EQ tweaking.

On monitors with DiGiCo are Napier (left) and Moore

Moving on to monitor world, engineer Matt Napier heads up that realm—an integral part of the overall production, particularly as it pertains to the discerning needs of the headlining artist. He brings a decade-plus of live audio engineering, starting in the trenches in the clubs of Oxford and working his way up to full-scale arena tours with UK pop acts from Atomic Kitten to Ronan Keating.

Napier spec’d a DiGiCo D5T to manage over 126 monitor inputs, including 16 channels of vocal effects and inputs shared with Sean Spuehler (responsible solely for Madonna’s FX), in addition to running 44 auxiliary outputs, as well as 16 matrix outputs.

”We had used a D5 since the “Confessions” promo tour in 2005,” Napier says, “and it was chosen then for its extensive MADI capabilities, as for that tour we had a unique system going on with Apple Logic. For this current tour, although we were mixing it in a more conventional way the D5 was my first choice thanks to the ergonomic surface.

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