Canadian Musician September / October 2019 | Page 60
LIVE SOUND
Drew Robertson is a freelance audio engineer, independent broadcaster, and live sound specialist based out of
London, ON. He can be reached at [email protected].
By Drew Robertson
Why Switch to Digital?
I
n the year 2019, why would you
not?
But for the record, let’s lay it all
on the line and delve into why a
digital PA system is your new best
friend and the ultimate toolbox for the
live engineer.
Then to Now
When digital systems became an emerg-
ing market in the 1980s, they were hell-
ishly expensive, bulky for what they did,
and really didn’t offer anything an analog
PA could not already do, minus perhaps
motorized faders and instant recall.
Modern systems are leagues less ex-
pensive and offer nearly unlimited flexi-
bility in terms of routing and signal man-
agement. Additionally, most offer built-in
effects such as compression, parametric
EQ, and reverb. They often use much less
power than traditional analog systems
and require far less gear to get up and
running when you arrive at a venue.
I’ve had the pleasure of working in
a number of top-end venues and have
worked on dozens of different platforms,
and by far the most pleasant experience
has been using a digital PA system.
At first blush they are deeply com-
plex, and it may seem daunting to fig-
ure out how it all goes together. In a
traditional system, every function has a
knob, fader, or button, but in most digi-
60 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
tal consoles, functions are shared across
a single set of controls that are adapt-
ed to whatever you’re trying to change.
When you can use a touchscreen to ad-
just EQ curves, you don’t need knobs
on each channel strip. It really shrinks
the footprint of your rig to a much more
manageable size.
For those not in the know, menu
diving can be intimidating, as you try
to find the parameter you’re trying to
change or route an input to the desired
channel strip. So, again I ask, why switch
to digital?
The Advantages
The answer is simple: flexibility in work-
flow and minimal equipment. Once
you’ve had the interface under your
fingertips, the power you have to route
audio and command signal flow is un-
paralleled when compared to traditional
analog systems.
When I first started working on live
productions, it was on a tank of an Allen
& Heath console that needed two of us
to move, a bulky snake set-up and as-
sociated stage equipment, power gear,
and the list could go on.
These days, I have two flight cases
for my main PA rig. My console resides
in one and my stage box and amp rack
occupy the other along with a run of
standard ethernet cable to connect the
stage box to the console. That’s just two
cases down from at least four for only
my PA and front-of-house set-up. I’ve
always operated under the assumption
that every ounce counts and that you
should save space and weight wherever
possible to “lighten the load,” so to speak.
In that vein, we can also talk about
workflow in the digital world. Gone is
the need for recall sheets as just about
any digital console will have automated
faders and the ability to instantly recall
any previously-saved setting. While such
a thing is not everyone’s cup of tea, I
won’t get into the debate between on-
the-fly and reliance of presets here; how-
ever, it has absolutely come in handy
on several occasions and made for an
extra speedy reset for a show start after
rehearsal and sound check.
Speed is everything in the live busi-
ness; the faster you can be up and run-
ning on your end, the faster your clients
or performers can be on stage checking
sound and whatever else it is they need
to do. That lets you get into the groove
of what you’re doing.
At the end of the day, our role at any
event is to make it sound great and run
smoothly. These days, we should be al-
most unnoticeable due to the control
we can achieve in our workflow as engi-
neers with modern tools at our disposal.