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Download the DiGiCo Session Setup Checklist

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-download-digico-session-setup-checklist

sound-design-live-download-digico-session-setup-checklistAre you sick of reading the users manual every time you need to set up an SD5?

Me, too!

Good news. Last night I got Aleš real drunk and got him to spill the beans about setting up a session from scratch. There was a lot of gibberish in there, but I was able to edit it down into something comprehensible.

Let me know if this helps.

Download the Checklist Now

Top 5 Common Mistakes When Using a DiGiCo Console

By Aleš Štefančič

Macros+for+Saving

top-5-common-mistakes-when-using-a-digico-console-sd9Let me preface this article by saying that I absolutely love working on DiGiCo consoles. The sound quality, the simple workflow, the layout of the board, the dual-engine concept of design- all aspects of these boards testify to the fact that they have been designed with the professional audio engineer in mind (apologies for the fan-girl moment). Working for a DiGiCo distributor in Slovenia has given me the opportunity to talk to lot of users, new and experienced ones, about their issues when working on DiGiCo consoles. But the most revealing moments came when I was doing tech support work on festivals and pre-productions for large tours or events. Seeing how engineers with varying levels of experience on these boards approach their work and what were the most common issues we had to resolve made me come up with a few checklist items I am always on the lookout for. Here are 5 common mistakes that you should avoid when using a DiGiCo console.

1. Not loading your session after console boots

Probably 8 out of 10 issues I have had with users and their sessions arose from the simple fact that they set up their FOH, boot up a console that has been sitting in storage for a week and then transported to a venue, and dive into their work without reloading their last saved session. There could be a minor chance that the session got minutely corrupted if the shutdown procedure was not completed properly (maybe the power was cut before the shutdown process was completed) and the session will start giving you issues down the road. Or somebody else might have been using the console (especially if this is hired from a rental company) and changed your session by accident. You always have the option of recalling the backup session that the console creates regularly, but it is way better to use common sense and make sure that the correct session is being used. With that in mind – always remember to load your session after a console reboot (preferably from a USB drive that you have) – it is one of the best ways of ensuring that your event will go smoothly.

2. Not saving your work

DiGiCo consoles are built with redundancy in mind. However, you should always save your work as you make changes. Sure, you can rely on the fact that the audio engine is completely separate from the control PC and that the NVRAM chip will keep your audio going in case of major issues, or on the fact that the console creates sessions and backup sessions in the background. But in case something goes really wrong (like a power outage), you always want to have a session that you have saved yourself. It is like relying on the word processor on your computer to save your work – sometimes those auto saved documents are missing the last two sentences you wrote.

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen engineers recall their sessions, realizing that they forgot to save their work at the end of yesterday’s gig and they now have a different starting point than the one they hoped for. There are two things that can be saved: the snapshot and the session. The best approach is always to save both. Make it a habit to regularly save your work every few minutes. The rule is- save your snapshot before firing another snapshot. If you do not, the console thinks you are still making changes and the snapshot you have been working on will not be saved. A quick tip: create macros for Save Session and Update Current Snapshot functions, so you can quickly perform these actions without exploring the menus.

Macros+for+Saving

Create Macros to quickly save sessions and update snapshots without going into the console menu.

3. Not realizing that recalling a snapshot might not recall your preamp gain by default

If you are using snapshots in your sessions, the preamp gain information might not be recalled, if you do not turn that option on. This is meant to prevent your gain settings to change within a session when you change snapshots. However, you can find the option to recall Input Gain and Trim values from your saved session in your Snapshots > Global Scope menu. If you want to make certain that your snapshot Gain values, I suggest you insert a new snapshot to the first snapshot position, turn on the Input Gain and Trim values in the Global Scope menu, and make sure that the rest of the snapshots have these values turned off (unless you are mixing with gains as well). Then reload your session. You will now have all of your preamp values recalled from your snapshot.

But beware – this setting is off by default for a reason. Let’s say you recall the gain from the first snapshot and then have the rest of the snapshots not recalling the gain and trim. You make a gain change during the show and save your session. When you recall the first snapshot next time, your change will be lost and gain returned to the values stored in the first snapshot. Make sure that you register your changes in the “Gain Snapshot” as well so that you do not lose your work.

Snapshot+Global+Scope

The default setting does not recall preamp values. Go to Snapshots > Global Scope and press on the red crosses in the Input Devices row (turn them into green ticks) to recall preamp value from your saved session. Remember to re-load your session to finalize the procedure.

4. Using snapshots instead of sessions

One of the common mistakes that I have encountered is a misconception of what snapshots can do. I’ve witnessed engineers trying to change channel types, ganging, or even mono to stereo values of a channel in snapshots and became frustrated when those values would not change when snapshots were recalled. What I always suggest to them is to imagine sessions as all of the information data for a specific band and snapshots all of the data for specific songs of that band. To oversimplify – snapshots are there to change values of the same channels, sessions are there to recall a completely new set of channels or console properties. When those rules are kept in mind, there are usually no more problems with programming and running a show on a DiGiCo console.

5. Using parallel signal paths without considering latency

This is one for the slightly more experienced users. One of the best features of a DiGiCo console in my opinion is the option to route anything anywhere. You can set channel inputs to listen to aux or group busses, merge inputs, run the same preamp channel to multiple inputs and those inputs to various bus combinations – the possibilities are endless. But there is one trade off – in order to achieve that level of freedom and flexibility, there is no built-in delay compensation feature. Still, DiGiCo has made it quite easy for us – every channel strip has an equal time-length. No matter what type of channel it is (input, group bus, aux bus, matrix) and no matter what internal processing you use on that channel, they all produce a fixed time delay of 14 samples (290uS @ 48kHz, 145uS @ 96kHz). If you route an input channel strip to a master bus, it will produce 14 samples of delay. That holds true for all channels with that direct path. However, if you route an input channel to a group and that group to a master bus, the signal goes through two processing channels, each adding 14 samples, with a total latency value of 28 samples. It’s like stacking LEGOs – if you want to have the same height of your tower (equal time arrival), use the same amount of LEGOs. So the engineer has to be mindful of that when doing more complex routing.

The most common mistake I encounter is the setup for parallel compression. A channel is sent directly to the master bus and at the same time to a group bus, which gets treated with heavy compression and then sent to the master bus. So the same signal has two different path lengths and there are audible phasing issues when the compressed bus is added into the mix. Solution: be mindful of the signal path when programing the console. A simple fix to the above mentioned conundrum would be to create 2 group busses – one for clean signals with no processing and one for processed signals. Route all channels to the clean group (and of course not directly to the master bus) and the channels that you want to process to the second group. When you send both groups to the master bus, you have perfect time alignment and no latency issues.

DiGiCO consoles are one of the best tools of our trade, that is why they are so commonly used for the most demanding projects. Most of the users in the field have encountered at least some, if not all of the above mentioned scenarios and don’t even think about them anymore, because the console has become so second nature for them. But I always feel we should constantly brush up on the basic – that allows us to avoid major issues and propels us to explore the vastness of options these consoles provide with confidence and ease of mind.

Everything I Feared about Digico Consoles Is Wrong

By Nathan Lively

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In this episode of Sound Design Live, I speak with the Technical Director and Monitor Mixer for Siddharta and educator at Gain Media Lab, Aleš Štefančič. We get deep into why Digico consoles have always scared me and why I was wrong all along. I ask:

  • How did you get your first job in audio?
  • How did you get the gig mixing monitors for Siddharta?
  • How did outdoor pyro make you think your sound system had died?
  • How do you set up a Digico console for DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith?
  • How do you set up a Digico console for a band you’ve never worked with before?
  • What were the things that really improved your speed when working on Digico?
  • What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people making who are new to Digico consoles?

sound-design-live-everything-feared-digico-consoles-wrong-ales-stefancic-headshotDigico is built to mimic an analog board with one added feature: you get to build the board.

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Alee, except for B Mashina by Siddharta.
  2. Most common mistakes made by people who are new to Digico consoles:
    1. Forgetting to save sessions and snapshots
    2. Connecting the redundant power supply to the same power source as the primary power supply
    3. Forgetting that there is no built in delay compensation – each processing channel path has 14 samples of latency. Same channel path = same latency.
  3. Hardware: Behringer X32 and ECM8000, Ultimate Ears UE7 pro
  4. Digico setup shortcuts
    1. Ripple routing – routing channels in succession with one move
    2. Turn on EQ for all channels at once
    3. Set all auxes to 0
    4. Partial load – import specific parts of your session file without overwriting what is already there.
    5. Macros – User defined keys for functions and combinations of functions.
  5. Quotes
    1. Seeing music as equally technique and artistic helped me create really good relationships in the industry.
    2. Studio sound and live sound are merging into one thing.
    3. It’s all about the music and the song and the artist. Once you have that mentality, that’s the key to maintaining a sustainable career in this industry.
    4. I really beleive that doing favors for someone get’s great returns.
    5. Being a human being in the business is an approach that I want to explore further.
    6. There’s a lot of things that need to be done for a gig.
    7. I always employ this strategy when I approach a band: I’ll do one gig for free.
    8. When I set up a console for the first time I don’t use a template.
    9. In the event of a power failure you can get audio through the console in 3-4 seconds.
    10. Once you have knowledge of these few bits and bops here and there, you’re all set to go.
    11. Layers of clothing are as important as anything technical in your bag.

sound-design-live-everything-feared-digico-consoles-wrong-ales-stefancic-live

Emergency Digico SD5 Optocore Procedures

By Nathan Lively

emergency-digico-sd5-optocore-procedures-mixing-board

UPDATE: This article appears in The Ultimate Guide to Creative Mixing on the Digico SD5.

sound-design-live-emergency-digico-sd5-optocore-proceduresThese emergency Optocore procedures could save your ass.

How did I learn all of this?

I recently started working as an Audio Supervisor on Ringling Bros. Circus’ new Out Of This World tour. Right before the very first rehearsal, all of my outputs from the Digico SD5 stopped working and I had 100 people waiting on me while I tried to fix it. I made it through that and several other minor emergencies and now I know the entire Digico tech support department by name. Here are the fixes they taught me.

To be clear, the SD5 is an amazing console and the company provides excellent support. Most of these fixes can be done in a matter of seconds and I’m really happy about that.

If you lose output at FOH and are unable to regain control of the outputs (yes, this has happened to me):

  1. At FOH: Setup -> Audio IO -> Setup Optocore -> Optocore Details -> Clear all outputs
  2. At Mon: Setup -> Audio IO -> Setup Optocore -> Optocore Details -> Broadcast only my ID
  3. At FOH:
    1. Reassign outputs in Audio IO (in my case Nanorack ports).
    2. Reassign Group outputs like Master and monitros.

If you are getting Optocore errors due to Snd/Rcv Console issues:

  1. Check all output cards to confirm you have correct ✔ or X.
  2. Setup Optocore -> Optocore Details -> Broadcast all output IDs

Other Emergency Procedures

If your startup session gets corrupted (this is also a good thing to practice once a month):

  1. Quit to Windows.
  2. Right click on startup menu -> Explore
  3. D:\SD5 and delete startup.ses and startup.mrdb
  4. Relaunch SD5

If you get an error about the sd5.exe file being corrupted:

  1. Try to load the SD5.exe in the d:\SD5\backup folder.
  2. If that works, move the backup SD5 folder to where the old one was and move the old one to backup.

If you loaded your session, but none of the Waves plugins loaded (this happens to me at least once a month):

  1. Open Waves
  2. Click Session -> Import session
  3. Import the last known good *.mrdb file.
  4. Your plugins should load. Sometimes you’ll need to go through a few files until you find one that works.

If Waves will not load and therefore you cannot save or load a session:

  1. Load Waves session manually.
  2. If you cannot open waves:
    1. Quit to Windows.
    2. Right click on startup menu -> Explore.
    3. D:\SD5 and delete startup.mrdb and Preferences folder.
    4. Relaunch SD5.

sound-design-live-emergency-digico-sd5-optocore-procedures-SIMImportant SD5 Notes

Here is a selection of some of the most important notes I have collected. Some you can find in the manual, but some I had to figure out on my own.

Startup Procedure

  1. Power up (or restart if already running).
  2. Load last known good session.

Shutdown Procedure

  1. Save session to internal and external drives.
  2. Shutdown from File menu.
  3. Power down both power supplies.

Optocore

  • Even-numbered Optocore IDs are for mirrored desks only.
  • System diagnostics on the SD5 to see errors.
  • Only one console can be in charge of an output module.
  • If you hear ticks and pops you may have a sync issue.
  • On the D-Rack and Nano-rack display, the tiny triangle under the “o” means that it is receiving timecode.
  • When one SD5 is loading a new session, the other will show a momentary Optocore error.

Surface

  • Option-all breaks a gang.
  • Option-all to turn everything up on a page. Hit channel LCD to exclude some.
  • Digico button affects rotary resolution.

Snapshots

  • If you keep all of your snapshots in a group, it can make updating all of them at once pretty easy:
    • Make sure Relative Groups is enabled.
    • Fire a snapshot that loads the setting that you want to change.
    • Change that setting.
    • Press Update Group.
    • At this point, you may want to take all snapshots out of the group, because if you accidentally press Update Group in the future…you’re hosed.
  • Input channel safe does not protect the input gain because that is a function of the rack.

Waves

  • The Waves server wants to be networked to both the Waves port on the back of the SD5 and the network port. The Waves port is for audio processing. The network port handles the GUI. Careful with these CAT5 cables. They have a short life.
  • If the Waves server is not appearing in the Waves inventory table: hard reset on the back of the unit.
  • To recall safe a Waves rack: Right-click on the left of the rack and choose recall safe.
  • To switch between Setup and Show modes, go to the Master view->System tab->Security and switch between Setup and Live.

Connect a computer

  1. Connect both devices to router.
    1. Wireless adapter settings: Make sure Wifi is first in the list. Also it seems to like it better when you set the IP manually. So try that if it doesn’t work.
  2. Under Network – select your computer.
  3. Send session.
  4. Mirror from console.

emergency-digico-sd5-optocore-procedures-timeMisc

  • Don’t send channels to an aux and also a group because they will be out of time.
  • If your sessions are not saving with the correct time, you may have a mismatch between Windows and the SD5 software. To correct this: Reset the time zone and time in Windows to GMT, then set the time in the SD5 software to your local time.

Bonus Super Helpful Macro Instructions

In production meetings I sometimes get the note that a certain song “had the wrong mix.” I made a special button to fix that. 😉

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