Normally one certainty for Mix Engineers is that the input and output numbers request will need to be padded to a certain degree as its rare that those needs won’t increase as the tour progress. So it was odd when on the Post Traumatic solo tour by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, Mix Engineers Mike Fanuele and Kevin “Tater” McCarthy shared a single DiGiCo SD12 mix surface.
After that first show, the DiGiCo SD12 was shipped off for the tour’s Asian and European legs, and McCarthy, who has been associated with Shinoda for more than a decade, specified a pair of DiGiCo’s ultra-portable SD11i desks for the promo tour that preceded the Asian dates.
“A lot of people have asked me why I choose the SD11i,” McCarthy reported: “Originally, it was just Mike Shinoda and no other band members. The band and additional crew were added after all of the gear had shipped to Hong Kong for the Asian and European tours. After a few shows, I was comfortable with all the new inputs and with the 12-fader format, so I decided to keep it. It never came off that table rack. I just popped the lid every day and was ready to go.”
Fanuele was on his first outing with Shinoda after working with a wide variety of artists and he moved between a few different DiGiCo surfaces over the course of the tour. He manned a DiGiCo SD12 for the first Asian leg, before moving to a DiGiCo SD10 for the US leg. Fanuele said: “Both Tater and I were very impressed with the power, flexibility, and performance of the SD11i. But as the tour continued to evolve, I needed additional faders and moved to an SD12 at FOH for the Asian and European legs of the tour. I quickly fell in love with the surface.
It is extremely comfortable to work on, and when considering size versus surface flexibility, I think the SD12 is a complete home run. Again, we were playing venue sizes from clubs to smaller arenas to stadium festival gigs, and the size of the SD12 fit into all of those situations.”
The FOH Engineer reported that McCarthy was in control of the Stadius 32-bit mic pre’s, while he controlled the AES output card and the Stadius 32-bit DAC cards, which were included to provide flexibility in distributing the house mix to PAs from the stage when needed.
“Overall, I think the flexibility of the surface and the sonic detail of the pre’s and outs made DiGiCo’s SD-Range the obvious choice for the tour,” said Fanuele. “The initial promotional portion of the tour had us mixing everything from in-store performances to stadium festival gigs. The SD11i allowed me to fit in all spaces, whether that meant squeezing into a busy FOH area for a festival or if I found myself in the middle of a display rack for CDs. I was able to keep the consistency of the mix that Mike was looking for in all situations.”