Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

for KING & COUNTRY Marches On With DiGiCo For A

01/12/2020

NASHVILLE, Tennessee - November 2020 - Australian-born, Nashville-based sibling duo for KING & COUNTRY are currently out on the road with A Drummer Boy Drive-In: The Christmas Tour in support of their first holiday album, A Drummer Boy Christmas. Performing 20 concerts between November 12 and December 20, Joel and Luke Smallbone's show is backed by six additional multi-instrumentalists on stage and the sound reinforcement gear and expertise of Blackhawk Audio, which is deploying a pair of DiGiCo SD12 96 consoles for FOH and monitors each night.

The Christmas tour directly chases up the four-time Grammy Award-winning duo's successful Together Again: A Drive-In Tour, which ran from September 10 through October 30. Maintaining the same socially-distanced drive-in show format that has become the norm for 2020, the current largely outdoor tour is stopping at a variety of locations across the southern US, including arenas, fairgrounds, and drive-in movie theatres, as well as iconic sites like Pasadena's Rose Bowl, Nashville's Grand Ole Opry House, and Pensacola's Five Flags Speedway. And like the tour leg before it, for KING & COUNTRY's final trek for 2020 continues to carry the same DiGiCo consoles that FOH Engineer Ralph Rivera and Monitor Engineer Zach Escobar have been using all year.

Up until about four years ago, we were touring with another console brand, but then I finally got a taste of DiGiCo with an SD8 and I've never looked back, says Rivera, who has been with for KING & COUNTRY for eight years but has also worked with the Smallbone family for 23 years, previously running FOH for Joel and Luke's also-famous sister, Grammy Award-winning Rebecca St. James.

Blackhawk Audio has been our touring partner for five years now, and we've been on their DiGiCo SD12s for FOH and monitors for the past three of those, he continues. It would be hard for me to say any one specific thing that I appreciate about the SD12 because I appreciate everything about it, including how flexible it is to use and how great it sounds, even before any plug-ins are added. It's been a solid and reliable performer and keeps getting better, especially with the 96-input channel upgrade, which is helpful because we're typically running 84 physical inputs between the stage, tracks, RF, and program feeds.

Connected via fiber, both the FOH and monitor consoles are paired with SD-Racks, each loaded with seven 32-bit Ultimate Stadius Mic Preamp modules, five 32-bit DAC modules, and two AES output cards. A DiGiGrid MGB interface at the house console allows Rivera to connect to his laptop for live multitrack recording of all the shows for virtual soundchecks using the Waves Tracks Live platform. Similarly, the SD12 96 monitor console also is equipped with a DMI-WAVES SoundGrid expansion card for multitrack recording when desired.

Although there are eight musicians on stage, the input count is higher than might be expected because nearly every band member is a multi-instrumentalist. Everyone in the band pretty much plays every instrument, and four of them are also background vocalists, describes Escobar, who has been with the group since January of this year. Our guitar player will jump to the bass riser and play there for a few songs, then jump down to the synth station. Our drummer plays keytar for a song, and our bass player plays cello, mellophone, and marimba, so there's a lot of moving around on stage. There's also a trombone, a second drum kit, marching drums, and tube bells.

Because there are so many inputs and I need all the faders accessible quickly, I use the Aux to Faders panel religiously instead of the physical solo buttons. That allows me to keep my bread-and-butter layers on the desk at all times. I also reach for EQ and dynamics rotaries pretty regularly as well as aux pan rotaries. Then I keep my crowd mics in a CG with that fader assigned to one of the masters, so I can easily ride audience mics between songs and at special moments. I'm really pleased with the setup and everything's been working great.

Escobar is generating a dozen stereo monitor mixes-eight for the performers, plus four more for backline, playback tech, spare/guest mix, and himself-all of which are being heard on JH Audio JH13V2 PROs. Every mix for every member is different for every song, so the quicker I can get to a fader, the better, he adds. Because we're a one-truck tour where space is everything,' the SD12 puts a decent fader count into a small form factor that is good for me and great for our truck pack.

The DiGiCo consoles also get high praise for their pristine sonics. I hear multiple comments every night about how good the show sounded and how appreciative people are to be able to hear everything so clearly, especially the vocals, says Rivera. I love the SD12's onboard processing and use it on almost all of my channels and in conjunction with Waves plug-ins, which I use on vocals and drums to take the same sounds from the studio and vice versa.

Joel, Luke, and the whole band have also been pleased with the sound of the SD12, shares Escobar. They like that it doesn't color or tonally change what they're sending me. It's a true representation of what they're playing, which is really the ideal.

Both engineers go on to thank Production Manager Matt Brewer, Stage Manager Ezra Salmine, Blackhawk System Tech Cody Wayne Scott, and Tour Manager Chico, among the rest of the crew. These guys make the impossible happen-including building our own stage and PA towers every single day-and they allow Ralph and I to keep our minds on the mixes. This show couldn't happen without them, says Escobar.

Same goes for DiGiCo, Rivera adds. Ryan Shelton and Kyle McMahon at Group One Limited [DiGiCo's US distributor]
LINK: https://digico.biz/for-king-country-marches-on-with-digico-for-a-drumm...
See more stories from digico

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 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 Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

28/04/2026

Nielsen and Triton Digital Collaborate to Bring Greater Visibility to Podcast Audiences in Nielsen's Media Impact Tool

Triton Digital's Podcast Metrics Demos+ Data Integration Enables Comprehensi...

28/04/2026

Paramount Skydance Will be 49.5% Foreign Owned After WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

KEET PBS Deploys PMVG TechBundle Services To Modernize Operations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

TAG Video Systems Lens Wins Industry Awards for Cutting T...

TAG Video Systems, the leading IP-native Realtime Media Platform, today announced that Lens, its visual service health interface for broadcast operations, recei...

28/04/2026

AIMS Wins NAB Show 2026 Product of the Year Award for IPM...

Open AV-over-IP Standard Recognized in IT Networking/Infrastructure and Security Category The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) today announced that the ...

28/04/2026

VFX History: Slit Scan

VFX History: Slit Scan Graham Quince April 28, 2026 0 Comments How did 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation...

28/04/2026

These DaVinci Resolve Effects Will Make You a More Creative Colorist

These DaVinci Resolve Effects Will Make You a More Creative Colorist Kasia Jarco April 28, 2026 0 Comments Creativity in color grading is not about ha...

28/04/2026

A Simple Introduction to Cavalry: Indexed Circle

A Simple Introduction to Cavalry: Indexed Circle Simon Ubsdell April 28, 2026 0 Comments In this new introductory tutorial for Cavalry we're going...

28/04/2026

Rise Upskill - Applications Now Open for Free Global Trai...

Rise, the award-winning advocacy group for gender diversity in the broadcast and media technology sector, is pleased to announce a new global training programme...

28/04/2026

Clear Com Announces New Roles for Brian Grahn and Ben Tur...

Clear-Com has appointed Brian Grahn as Market Outreach Manager of the Americas and Ben Turnwell as Business Development Manager for EMEA live, expanding their ...

28/04/2026

LiveU Steps into the Future at MPTS 2026 with the Introdu...

LiveU is inviting MPTS visitors to step into the companys new Q Era on Stand D32, at The Grand Hall, Olympia, London (May 13-14). The company will showcase its ...

28/04/2026

IBC launches 2026 Innovation Awards to spotlight real-wor...

IBC today announces the launch of the IBC2026 Innovation Awards, with nominations now open for projects, programmes and initiatives that exemplify breakthrough ...

28/04/2026

WNBA to Stream All Preseason Games for Free

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Nexstar Media Charitable Foundation Sets 30 Days of Giving'

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Sinclair's Chief Compliance Officer Jeff Lewis to Retire

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Nielsen Introduces Predictive Sales Lift' Tool

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Sencore's VB440 Monitoring, Analysis Tool Debuts at NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Pinterest Makes a Major Push into CTV Advertising

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Introducing Nx 3-Strip v2 - A Physics-Based Technicolor Reconstruction for DaVinci Resolve

Introducing Nx 3-Strip v2 - A Physics-Based Technicolor Reconstruction for DaVin...

28/04/2026

Into the Omniverse: Manufacturing's Simulation-First Era Has Arrived

Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on how developers, 3D practitioners, and enterprises can transform their workflows ...

28/04/2026

NVIDIA Launches Nemotron 3 Nano Omni Model, Unifying Vision, Audio and Language for up to 9x More Efficient AI Agents

AI agent systems today juggle separate models for vision, speech and language - ...

28/04/2026

RT NEWS ANNOUNCES SEAN WHELAN AS NEW LONDON CORRESPONDENT

RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Whelan as its new London Correspondent. Sean has held the role of Washington Correspondent for the last...

28/04/2026

Six well-known figures delve into the 1926 Census archive

Joseph O'Connor, Eileen Walsh, Louise Duffy, Mick Lynch, Gormfhlaith N Thuairisg and Dermot Bannon take a personal look at life 100yrs ago in new TV docume...

27/04/2026

CES Power Acquires Three Ireland-Based Businesses

CES Power, a provider of infrastructure for live events, has announced the acquisition of three Ireland-based businesses: GH Energy Rental Ltd, Event Power, and...

27/04/2026

Fubo to Launch Multiview on Select LG TVs Ahead of 2026 Football Season

FuboTV Inc. has announced it is developing its Multiview feature for the Fubo streaming service on select LG TVs, including 2024, 2025, and newer 4K and 8K mode...

27/04/2026

Shade Raises $14 Million in Funding Round Led by Khosla Ventures

Shade, a file management platform for creative teams, has announced a $14 million funding round led by Khosla Ventures, Construct Capital, and Bling Capital, br...

27/04/2026

AES to Present Immersive Audio Academy 12th Edition on April 30

The Audio Engineering Society (AES) will present the Immersive Audio Academy 12th Edition - Immersive Audio in All Flavors - on April 30, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. ...

27/04/2026

DAZN Launches DAZN48 Creator Program for FIFA World Cup 2026

DAZN has announced DAZN48, a creator program for the FIFA World Cup 2026 that will recruit 48 creators - one representing each of the 48 qualified nations - to ...

27/04/2026

FloSports Acquires Streaming Rights to Four CrossFit Events

FloSports has announced exclusive streaming rights to four CrossFit competitions: Legends Del Mar: CrossFit Semi-Finals, Magic City Games, NorCal Classic, and t...

27/04/2026

NAB 2026: Telestream Pulse Named NAB Show 2026 Product of the Year for Monitoring and Measuring

Telestream has announced that Pulse, its software-defined test and measurement p...

27/04/2026

NAB 2026: Shade Wins 2026 NAB Show Product of the Year Award

Shade has announced it is a Cloud Computing and Storage winner in the 2026 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards. Winners were selected by a panel of industry exp...

27/04/2026

SVG All-Stars: Kelsey Kjeldsen, Senior Director and Video Ads Platform Lead, DTC Products, Tech, and Operations, NBA

Leading the NBA's video-ads platform, this Penn State grad is at the forefro...

27/04/2026

DAZN Extends T100 Triathlon World Tour Rights to Africa

DAZN has expanded its international broadcast rights for the T100 Triathlon World Tour to include Africa. All races from the T100 calendar will be available for...

27/04/2026

NAB 2026: NAB Show Announces 2026 Project and Product of the Year Award Winners

NAB Show has announced the recipients of its 2026 Project of the Year and Product of the Year Awards at a ceremony at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Each wi...

27/04/2026

DIRECTV Launches on Meta Quest Headsets as Sports Season Heats Up

DIRECTV has launched on Meta Quest headsets, becoming the first MVPD to offer live TV through the platform. The timing coincides with the stretch run of the MLB...

27/04/2026

TBL Team Boxing League and MSG Networks Announce Broadcast Partnership

TBL Team Boxing League has announced a broadcast agreement with MSG Networks to air all remaining Season 4 fights live across MSG's television and digital p...

27/04/2026

Audio Exhibitors Showcase New Platforms, Innovative Solutions for Complex Issues

IP integration, interoperability, growth of intercommunications were key concerns for vendors and visitors alike Attendees at the recently concluded 2026 NAB S...

27/04/2026

Behind The Mic: Kenny Beecham to Launch NBA Radio Show on SiriusXM; Mike Tomlin to Join NBC Pregame Show

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

27/04/2026

On the Show Floor, the Microphone Is Still the Place Where Audio Begins

A pro-audio emphasis, spectrum changes, and on-field audio mark the new products and enhancements to existing offerings Microphones remain the primary point of...

27/04/2026

NAB Show 2026 In Review: Our Complete Collection of Video Interviews with Industry Thought Leaders

The Sports Video Group team was all over the NAB Show floor out in Las Vegas las...

27/04/2026

Svenska artister genererade nra 2 miljarder kronor frn Spotify under 2025

N r Spotify grundades f r 20 r sedan dominerades musikmarknaden av illegal nedladdning. Sedan dess har streaming bidragit till att teruppr tta betalningsvilja...

27/04/2026

Introducing Fitness With Spotify: A New Way to Bring Movement Into Your Daily Routine

Time on Spotify should feel meaningful and intentional, not something that slips...

27/04/2026

Brainworx release bx_tonebox

New modular multi-effects plug-in revealed The latest plug-in from Brainworx delivers a modular set of effects designed to offer a convenient alternative to...

27/04/2026

Desert Island Boom Set from Schoeps

Kit includes supercardioid & shotgun capsules High-end mic manufacturer Schoeps have recently introduced another member of their Desert Island Set family. O...