As the audio director for Merlefest, one of the largest traditional bluegrass music hoedowns in the U.S., industry veteran and SE Systems co-owner Cliff Miller has been on the scene for all of the fest’s 24 years.
Recently, SE added a pair of the new DiGiCo SD10 consoles and two DiGiCo SD racks with HMA Optics—their first DiGiCo purchase—to the company’s touring stock.
Miller was looking for a couple of new digital consoles that could do 96 kHz, when DiGiCo national sales manager Matt Larson and Quest Marketing’s Terry Ewald presented the SD9, SD8 and SD7 consoles at an SE System’s road show.
Miller had heard about another secret, soon-to-be-released console, the SD10, and knew immediately that that was the one he had to have.
Miller notes, “I have been in the industry for a very long time and this is the first time that I have purchased two new consoles—without even putting my fingers on the faders.”
Miller decided to showcase the new consoles, as well as a DiGiCo SD9 with the D Rack, on one of their very first live outings ever on two of the festival’s 14 stages.
The SD10 s were situated at the headliner Watson Stage driving front of house and the JBL VerTec PA (with VT4889/VT4880 subwoofers), with the SD9 doing double duty for both front of house/monitors at the smaller adjacent Cabin Stage, used to keep the entertainment constant during main stage set changes.
After the 4-day event wrapped—with an average of 18-25 acts daily crisscrossing both stages—long-time event engineers relayed that it was one of the smoothest years, technically, they’d ever had.
“I have had very good success with other digital consoles,” Miller explains, “but thought it time to add another brand to our inventory. The SD10 offered features like 96 channels at 96K using the SD racks (with 12 flexi allowing 108 inputs), plus send and returns on a 2-gigabit fiber cable, and a very compact footprint.
“The sound quality was the best I’d ever heard in a digital console, surpassing most analog consoles. It can be configured to operate like any old favorite console, but with hundreds more features.”
For Merlefest’s chief engineer Buck Parker and front of house partner Chris Mitchell, it was the first time they’d laid hands on a DiGiCo console of any flavor.
“I’ve used quite a range of consoles in the 24 years I’ve been working the festival with SE Systems,” notes Parker, “and this year was probably one of the easiest ones I’ve worked. The festival has really evolved along with the technology.
“Years ago, we first started out with a Soundcraft 500 and moved to a 800B, moving on to a Yamaha PM3000, a Heritage, a Yamaha PM5D and now the DiGiCo SD10. I really like the fact that the SD10 reminded me of an analog console the way everything operated and in terms of channel layout and signal flow. The SD10 is very straightforward and sounded great with very little EQing.”
