GILFORD, N.H. — Earth Wind & Fire, are without a doubt one of the hardest working bands in show business. These days, the band still performs consistently throughout the year — be it a club, concert venue or corporate setting. For the band’s long-time FOH Engineer Terry “TJ” Jackson (who has also worked with Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, George Duke, Anita Baker and Toni, Toni, Toni) the migration from the DiGiCo D5 to SD7 was a natural one, offering a streamlined roadworthy rig, and giving him the tools to flex the overall sound to the venue at hand. The EWF tour — with production partner Eighth Day Sound — was one of the first tours to head out stateside with the new SD7 console.
“If you knew my background, which is electronics, you wouldn’t be surprised,” he muses. “I like the challenge of figuring out new gear, and as a long time DiGiCo fan, I was excited to get my hands on the SD7. It has a lot of features that I like in a digital console; I like the cleanness of the board. The problem with digital consoles in general is that you can’t move around enough. It’s not a quality issue, it’s just that on live shows you have to get to a section and hit and then get back out. This band has a lot of inputs, 72 in fact, and this console is flexible enough to route my inputs from pages of information right on the surface. That’s important to me. Even though I know how to use snapshots, I don’t use them. This is a fairly straight mix and on this console, other than the routing, it has faders on top so I can move around quicker. I actually like to mix and try new things during the show…. and this board allows me to do it.”
The SD7’s 4-band parametric EQ is also a bonus. “I don’t really take advantage of all the processing but I’m looking past this band, to projects down the road in the fall, which includes an award show in LA in October. The SD7 will be my first choice for that.”
Overall, TJ says there is a noticeable difference in sonic quality with the SD7. “For the first two shows out with the console, I hooked up all my outputs to the console and first thing I noticed was the high-end. At first, I thought it was the PA, but the sampling rate is a lot higher than the D5 – and it’s noticeable. You can tell difference; it’s pristine. It’s definitely changed the way I EQ now.”
ACTION ITEM:
For more information, please visit www.digico.org
