Formed in 1982 in Scotland, rock band Primal Scream released their third compilation album, Maximum Rock n' Roll: The Singles in 2019, containing 17 tracks spanning the period from 1986 to 2016. In support of the new album, the band announced a major winter tour of the UK and Ireland in 2019, which saw FOH engineer, Chris Martin and monitor engineer, Gerry Colclough use DiGiCo SD12 consoles - owned by Stage Audio Services based in the West Midlands.
Martin has been working with the band since 2008, starting out as FOH system tech for a PA hire company before progressing to the position of FOH engineer for the group in 2015.
The band are amazing people to be around; the touring party is a very happy camp and a great place to be, he enthuses. We are all great friends. They have a very good idea about what they want - having been a band for such a long time. We work closely with them to achieve the results that they want, spending many days at a rehearsal studio to make it as good as we can.
Martin used a DiGiCo SD12 on the tour with a shared single SD Rack on an optical loop running at 48kHz, used with a Waves server connected via MADI to a DiGiGrid MGB interface.
The Waves server is mainly used for effects such as auto pan for guitars and keyboards, effects (a few reverbs, sub enhancer and distortion) and some primary source expanders on the vocals, he explains. I'm also using a Universal Apollo interface connected via analogue for a few compressors and EQs, and a Smart Research C2 master buss compressor.
The band used 32 input channels from the stage, with triggers on all drums for gates, ambience, and various talk mics.
All in, it's around 60 channels that I use with all the effects returns, Martin says. At FOH I used 11 different effects for various things, mainly reverb and different flavours of delays, then there's some pitch effects, distortion, sub enhancer, and some guitar pedals.
Martin used two internal reverbs (one for snares and one for vocals) in addition to the internal vocal doubler effect, and two delays.
All of the internal effects are great, with really nice, smooth reverbs. Although the delays are simple, they do everything that I need in a tap tempo digital delay. I used the built in multiband compressors on my kick drum channels to tame the high end on them. I find they work really well to help keep the attack under control.
Martin has been using DiGiCo consoles with Primal Scream for the last two years, making the switch after experiencing reliability problems with the previous console he was using.
After not very long I decided that I was going to start using DiGiCo, he states. Since making the change I can't think of any reason why I would want to use another brand of console. The DiGiCo just does everything so well, and it has been great for us. We have managed to get DiGiCo consoles wherever we have travelled around the world, and the compatibility within the SD range has made our lives very easy. It's just a simple show-file switch from one desk to another. Easy!
In particular, the workflow on the desk impresses Martin:
Because of the way anything can be anywhere on the faders, I now have limited button-pressing to do during the show to get at anything I need. The macros have become something that I use more and more, from simple things like tap tempo, to inserts moving between main and spare vocals, and anything else that I can think of. If I find myself going into menus often for the same thing, I just put it on a macro now. It makes things simpler when you're trying to concentrate on mixing the show.
When listing his top three features on the console, Martin doesn't hesitate:
Being able to text between the consoles saves a lot of shouting, he says. No messages can get mixed up using this great feature. Also, the great-sounding preamps and summing busses - we used the new 32-bit input cards, and I find myself needing very little channel EQ to make it sound right to me - just turn up the gain and push up the faders! Not forgetting the macros, which are a whole world of time saving little buttons.
Meanwhile, Colclough has been working with Primal Scream since 2000 when they needed a monitor engineer at short notice.
Having been involved with the band for so long, we have a great relationship both on and off the stage, which has created great trust, he says.
Describing the five-piece band as a full on wedge band' until a few years ago when lead singer, Bobby Gillespie, switched to IEMs, followed by two other band members, Colclough says that this drastically reduced the previously famous Primal Scream stage volume.
The drummer has been on a hard wire mix for a number of years, taking four individual lines into his mixer so he can control his own mix; today, he takes two sends from me for his mixer for vocals and guitar, and he uses a floor monitor for some kick drum and snare. For keys, they are still using a floor monitor comprising of a full band mix, while three of them take full band mixes in their ears.
Colclough switched to DiGiCo five years ago after hearing the quality of the audio, being particularly impressed by the ease of use.
I was immediately sold! Once IEMs were involved, the update to a great sounding board was a no-brainer. I find the SD12 snapshots to be invaluable and versatile, and the edit function is very useful in updating during the show, he explains. I also find that fader bank assign and multichannel assign are really helpful when organising channels, or last minute inclusions to the input or output list.
The tour went really well, concludes Chris Martin. When we reached the peak point of the set, it seemed as if all of the audience were joining in with us and becoming the new daily Primal Scream choir! There were smiles all round.
Press Contac
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
13/03/2026
Spotify has always been built around your taste. More than 80% of listeners say personalization is what they love most about us. Now we're taking that even ...
13/03/2026
The new Spotify Legends Club has opened its doors. Its members: select German-sp...
13/03/2026
Pushing drum sampler technology into new territories
The latest version of Klevgrand's software drum sampler has just arrived, boasting a newly designe...
13/03/2026
Expanded headphone support & engine improvements
IK Multimedia's recently introduced ARC On-Ear system brings the power of their monitoring-correction s...
13/03/2026
Extra sound collections, more presets & new Keys category
UVI's rhythm and pattern instrument has just received a major update that introduces four new ...
13/03/2026
Friday 13 March 2026
Sky Adds Blood on Snow to Original Film Slate in Acquisiti...
13/03/2026
RT has announced today that Rick O'Shea is the new presenter of Arena RT Radio 1's flagship weeknight arts and culture programme. Rick has been pres...
13/03/2026
Lights! Camera! Action! The 98th Oscars set to air live as RT backs the Irish n...
12/03/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 11th March, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dyna...
12/03/2026
In Latin America, women are shaping music and defining its future. To kick off t...
12/03/2026
En Am rica Latina, las mujeres est n moldeando la m sica y definiendo su futuro....
12/03/2026
Let's turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away fro...
12/03/2026
Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify's Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopp...
12/03/2026
Spotify was at the London Book Fair this week, joining conversations across the publishing industry about how people can make reading part of their daily lives....
12/03/2026
Mastering tool improves mono compatibility
Tokyo Dawn Labs' Ohlhorst Digital range is a series of mastering-focused plug-ins developed by Jan Ohlhorst, ...
12/03/2026
Wave FX processor integrated into four products
Lewitt have teamed up with Elgato to create a new processor for the company's Wave Next product range, i...
12/03/2026
Free tool for annotating audio files
Mix Notes is a new, free iOS App that provides users with a simple way to annotate their audio files. It's been cre...
12/03/2026
Side-chain ducking tool gets an upgrade
Devious Machines' popular side-chaining and envelope-shaping tool has just been kitted out with an improved enve...
12/03/2026
Ceremony to take place on 16 April 2026
The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have revealed the full shortlist for this year's MPG Awards, which will be takin...
12/03/2026
Emulates three classic dbx 160 variants
The latest arrival to Overloud's Gem Series plug-in range faithfully recreates not one, but three versions of th...
12/03/2026
New granular soft synth announced
Said to be their most advanced software synthesizer to date, Baby Audio's latest release has been built on a new granu...
12/03/2026
Latest version now live!
Edit 11 March 2026 - Bitwig Studio 6 is now live, and available for all to download!
The latest version of Bitwig's DAW softwa...
12/03/2026
Latest free eBook now available!
Designed for recording engineers, audio-technology students and technically minded musicians, our latest free eBook deliver...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026 Rohde & Schwarz will participate in EMV 2026, Europe's premier trade fair and c...
12/03/2026
Modern media operations demand a platform that unites automation, orchestration, and human oversight without compromise. In this post, we explore the six key te...
12/03/2026
A deep dive into the platform
Architecture The Blue Lucy platform follows a distributed microservices architecture, meaning the overall operational capability...
12/03/2026
Orchestration platform enables broadcasters to deploy multiple AI models safely with full auditability, rights protection, and regulatory oversight.
LONDON, En...
12/03/2026
Wuppertal March 12, 2026
Riedel Expands Managed Technology Division in the Ame...
12/03/2026
Advanced Media Server Delivers Double the Channel Density at Half the Cost per C...
12/03/2026
The Late Late Show Show St Patrick's Day special
Dancing with the Stars f...
11/03/2026
First Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) deployment of the emergency.lu platform for refugees and their host communities' use provides dependable broadband for humani...
11/03/2026
Following a successful first series, UKTV today announces the commission of two ...
11/03/2026
Wednesday 11 March 2026
Sky and CANAL launch new partnership to develop English-language drama
Sky and CANAL are today announcing a strategic co commissioni...
11/03/2026
NTCA, Cartesian Release New Report on the Business Case for USF
March 11, 2026
Network Economics
News
NTCA - March 11, 2026 - As the FCC and Congr...
11/03/2026
TELL US YOUR (SHORT) STORIES
The 2026 RT Short Story Competition is now open for entries
Recognising and rewarding the best new Irish fiction writing for...
11/03/2026
RT 's The Traitors Ireland is among the nominees for the 2026 Celtic Media Festival Torc Awards for Excellence, announced today....
10/03/2026
10 Mar 2026
VEON's Largest Market Pakistan Almost Triples Mobile Spectrum i...
09/03/2026
Contains all six dual-ensemble libraries
VSL's Duality Strings series offers an intriguing alternative to your average string library, capturing two str...
09/03/2026
Outstanding Contribution To UK Music
Photo: Samuel Bradley
Ahead of their upcoming MPG Awards, the Music Producers Guild (MPG) have revealed the latest win...
09/03/2026
Two new high-quality DI boxes announced
Boasting some impressive technical specifications and versatile routing options, Strymon's latest active DI boxe...
09/03/2026
Latest MPE-capable Soundbox library released
The follow-up release for Sonora Cinematic's Pure Nylon has arrived, and becomes the latest addition to the...
09/03/2026
Popular wireless mic head design revived
Sennheiser have revealed that the MD 9235, a cardioid mic head designed to pair up with their handheld wireless sys...
09/03/2026
Captures two sought-after Dumble combo amps
The latest TONEX release captures a pair of sought-after Dumble amplifiers from IK Multimedia's private amp ...
Formed in 1982 in Scotland, rock band Primal Scream released their third compilation album, Maximum Rock n' Roll: The Singles in 2019, containing 17 tracks spanning the period from 1986 to 2016. In support of the new album, the band announced a major winter tour of the UK and Ireland in 2019, which saw FOH engineer, Chris Martin and monitor engineer, Gerry Colclough use DiGiCo SD12 consoles - owned by Stage Audio Services based in the West Midlands.
