NEW YORK CITY - March 2019 - Performing in full crash test dummy attire in the shadow of several vintage BMW and Mercedes Benz vehicles suspended over the stage, A$AP Rocky fully embraced the theme and vibe of his latest record, Testing, on his recent Injured Generation Tour. The A$AP Mob member's first major North American road trip in more than three years, the 18-date arena trek carried a pair of DiGiCo mixing consoles an SD12 at FOH and SD10 in monitor world supplied by Cleveland-based sound reinforcement provider Eighth Day Sound. The two desks were specified by FOH Engineer Brandon Blackwell and Monitor Engineer Moshe Davenport, both of whom are diehard fans of the SD-Range.
I love anything and everything DiGiCo, enthuses Blackwell, who has worked with the Harlem hip-hop star and the rest of the A$AP Mob collective since 2015, as well as other top artists like Camila Cabello, Big Sean and Puff Daddy. The SD software and workflow fits how I mix, and they are definitely my preferred desks of choice for many reasons. The customization options that are available are impressive. From the SD7 to the SD11, I can set up my fader banks to fit whatever mixing situation I am in, be that FOH, monitors, or even doing both from one desk. And, of course, DiGiCo's SD consoles sound great right out the box. For this run, I chose the SD12 because I needed extra MADI ports and the DMI option cards got me the extra digital ins and outs I needed.
The SD12 and SD10 were paired with two SD-Racks all on a fiber loop, and the first 48 inputs of each rack were fed off an analog splitter with the last eight being separate. Even though we didn't need that many inputs, we were able to get up to 64 inputs between the two stage racks, he notes. Also on the fiber loop was a DiGiCo Orange Box, which handled the MADI I/O for my UAD Live Rack.
One of the highlights for the engineers on this tour was the presence of DiGiCo's new 32-bit Stadius Mic Pre-Amp modules. I had them on the first 40 inputs of my SD-Rack and was tremendously impressed, Blackwell continues. I had heard them before on a few one-offs with my other clients but never got enough time to really take a listen. Because we were able to pick inputs from both stage racks, I was able to record and A/B the old and new cards, and the new Stadius ones sound phenomenal. There is more resolution, which in my opinion made the high end smoother by comparison. Rocky is extremely dynamic and the new Mic Pre-Amps handled the drastic level changes very well.
On the other end of the fiber loop, Davenport was equally pleased with the new Mic Pre-Amps. Those cards sound amazing! he says. They helped me deliver the best sound for IEMs. I noticed the difference right off, and so did Rocky. He said I put the sound of the studio in his ears.
Even with Playboi Carti, Ski Mask the Slump God and Comethazine all on the bill as the tour's rotating opening acts plus A$AP Lou and A$AP Twelvyy to initially warm up the crowd Davenport reports that his monitor setup was fairly simple and straightforward, he says. I was able to have most of the openers use IEMs because we ran a clean stage no wedges at all, just sidefill tops. I had seven stereo IEM mixes, one stereo sidefill mix, and a stereo cue mix. I customized my console so that I had all mics and tracks at my fingertips at any given moment and had the mixes right in front of me as well. That's one of the things I love about DiGiCo consoles the way you can set the desk up just how you want it.
Although Blackwell has been strictly requesting DiGiCo desks for the past four years, Davenport is a relatively new convert to the brand, having only started using SD-Range desks in early 2018. I took an SD10 out with blackbear when we opened up for Fall Out Boy last year and totally fell in love; from that moment on, it was all I wanted to use, he shares. And my artists can tell the difference, too. I used another well-known manufacturer's console on the first show following that tour and blackbear said, What's wrong? My mix doesn't sound right.' After that, I got the green light to fight for the SD10 every time because he said it always made his ears happy.
Making the engineers' ears happy on the Injured Generation run was the SD12's and SD10's captive processing. I really enjoy the onboard dynamic EQ and multi-band compression, says Blackwell. I don't think any other console manufacturer has mastered its own onboard dynamics EQ like DiGiCo has. I also enjoy the onboard delays. They usually take care of my slap delays in my mixes. Overall, the combination of good audio source, good Mic Pre-Amps, and good digital and analog processing has made me a happy mixer.
I wanted to try not using any outboard gear for this tour, Davenport chimes in. I've used DiGiCos both with and without external processing before, and I knew I could surely deliver what I needed for Rocky without it on this run. The console's internal processing and EQ is amazing.
Blackwell notes that, like many of his tours in the past, he paired his SD console with a Waves SoundGrid setup: This tour was my first one running Waves plug-ins external from the console and using a Mac Mini to handle the software and GUI. I really enjoy having Waves external from the console because it gives me back my master screen.
And both engineers are quick to report that one of their favorite underrated features on DiGiCo consoles is the use of snapshots firing from timecode. For a show like this, we sometimes go out of order, and having timecode means that I am always in the right snapshot, he adds. For this tour, I brought along my Rosendahl Mif4 to convert the Ableton playback rig's LTC to the MTC input on my console. This has changed the way I mixed because I don't have to wor
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
NEW YORK CITY - March 2019 - Performing in full crash test dummy attire in the shadow of several vintage BMW and Mercedes Benz vehicles suspended over the stage, A$AP Rocky fully embraced the theme and vibe of his latest record, Testing, on his recent Injured Generation Tour. The A$AP Mob member's first major North American road trip in more than three years, the 18-date arena trek carried a pair of DiGiCo mixing consoles an SD12 at FOH and SD10 in monitor world supplied by Cleveland-based sound reinforcement provider Eighth Day Sound. The two desks were specified by FOH Engineer Brandon Blackwell and Monitor Engineer Moshe Davenport, both of whom are diehard fans of the SD-Range.
