Abandoning the FOH console he had been using for about seven years, FOH engineer Gary Curtis has chosen a DiGiCo Quantum 338 for the current Nothing But Thieves UK tour. The move is the result of a ‘fly-in’ gig in South Korea where he first encountered one. ‘I was able to do a recording of the sound check, so we could A-B it. The other console was great, but the DiGiCo is completely different,’ he says,
Unable to attend the dates in South Korea, the last thing monitor engineer David Ruffle expected was to come back to a completely different rig. He wasn’t familiar with the Q338, but talking it through with Solotech, suppliers for the tour, confirmed it was the right choice.
‘The guys at Solotech invited me up to their Solihull HQ to play with one of their consoles for a couple of days,’ he says. ‘We ran through the desk with some multitrack recordings that I’d heard a thousand times before, it was incredible. The space and the separation the DiGiCo console gave the tracks was phenomenal, I was hearing things that I’d never really noticed before.’
The performance of the Quantum 338 is just one of the benefits of the console – Curtis has found the Snapshot and Scene features incredibly useful. He has also automated certain changes that always happen. ‘We have an integrated time code system for our lights and playback. By converting the LTC to MTC via my Rosendahl mif4 I can link the desk to the time code and Snapshots that happen exactly when I need them. All the little things that happen in the background that can take your concentration are now done by the desk, so I am free to really feel the mix.’
The Quantum 338 brings a host of features welcomed by both Curtis and Ruffle. For Ruffle, it is the console’s surface which uses an ergonomic, intelligent layout with three,17-inch, high-brightness screens, and being able to switch the Master Screen to Aux Screen to mix song-by-song, rather than jumping around the desk.
‘Sonically the Quantum 338 is in a different league, there is a space, greater depth and width to the sound that you don’t get with other consoles,’ Curtis says. ‘I can pick out nuances that I haven’t heard before. Having all the processing elements is great too; the Mustard Processing and the compressor emulations are being used quite heavily across my groups. The majority of the processing is onboard, supported by a few outboard effects.’
Communication is also improved with Quantum 338 connected consoles. Monitor and FOH engineers can text silently with the Text Chat function, eliminating the need for additional private comms channels. ‘The text function is really handy,’ Ruffle confirms. ‘Our consoles are in Loop, so I can chat to Gary at front of house and we can identify issues quickly, or just chat. It might seem silly, but it’s really useful.
‘I’m using all the processing,’ he adds. ‘I think that’s what sold me on the desk. Plus, the 338 surface is really usable and the conversions are so easy between consoles, I know that if we have to do any more fly shows I’ll be able to adapt to any console in the range, and it just sounds incredible.
‘Dominic Craik is guitarist and producer for the band, so I work with him closely during rehearsals and it’s been great getting the sound just right,’ Curtis closes. ‘If he had any issues at all, we wouldn’t be using the DiGiCo.
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