Double British award winning singer songwriter, Rag’N’Bone Man, spent the beginning
of this year touring the UK and Europe. With his ever expanding fan base, every
academy-sized venue of the two-week UK section was sold out, and he claimed the
number one spot in many of the European shows, with the summer festival season
following on. Front of House engineer Rob Sadler and monitor engineer Jamie Tinsley
have both deployed DiGiCo SD7s throughout, supplied by rental company Nitelites.

Both Rob and Jamie say that the SD7s are not a necessity for the tour, with input
counts that could be handled by smaller consoles in the range, but they are very
happy with the luxury the SD7 affords. The choice of DiGiCo, however, has specific
reasons behind it.

With six musicians on stage – Rory, AKA Rag’N’Bone Man, and five backing musicians
– a full drum kit, two bass inputs, six electric guitars plus an acoustic, a Nord
keyboard, Rhodes piano, a Leslie and a playback system, Rob and Jamie can operate
with one SD Rack each – and the system is far from stretched.

At the front of house, Rob has 40 inputs and two onboard effects. This does not use
the SD7 to capacity, but makes life easier and has the benefit that files can be
transferred to any other DiGiCo consoles. This is the main reason for the choice, as it
provides flexibility in places, such as festivals, where they are not able to take in their
own consoles.

“I’ve been a big DiGiCo fan for as long as I’ve been mixing high profile artists,’ says
Rob. “I’m still relatively new to this tour and having a DiGiCo has made the transition
easy for me. I’m getting to know the sound of the band without getting hung up on
the technical aspects; the DiGiCo lets me focus on mixing and not getting myself lost
inside a new console. I enjoy how it sounds, too; it’s very natural, and the Dynamic
EQ available onboard the console means that third party plugins aren’t needed.’

“I’d originally requested an SD10, as my previous console didn’t have enough busses
to handle the building line up and output count,’ smiles Jamie. “The SD10 seemed like
the perfect console for the job, but there wasn’t one available at the time, so I was
blessed with being given the SD7, and it has stuck since.’

Jamie “grew up’ on DiGiCo consoles, having used them for many years with other
artists, and quickly learnt to love their speedy workflow and flexibility and has found
the ability to put anything anywhere has greatly helped to speed up his mixing
process.

“I haven’t yet found another console that does all the little things I want that make
my life easier,’ he says. “Everything for Rag’N’Bone Man has been kept relatively
simple; it’s a straight up rock band with your usual I/O – drums, bass, guitars, keys,
playback and a few vocals. We’re trying to keep the input list below 48 channels for
ease when using other consoles on fly shows.’

Jamie likes the power of the SD7’s macros and the number available has helped a lot
with what, he says, seems like simple tasks, such as being able to hit a button and
talk to any single member of the band to have a conversation on stage without
disrupting other band members.

“Using Control Groups to physically change input send levels to mixes is great for
keeping a level consistency between songs and to ensure that you never overload
inputs to IEMs,’ he says. “For me, the Snapshots page is by far the easiest to use,
giving me great flexibility when working with Scenes, and the metering above each
screen is insanely useful for staying on top of your gain structure.’

“I gave DiGiCo a heads up that I’d be joining the tour, and I was sent all the technical
support email addresses and phone numbers, which gives real peace of mind.’
“The DiGiCo team have been remarkable with their support,’ adds Jamie. “Any
questions I’ve had have been quickly answered, and their open-door policy for visiting
the Chessington base has been very handy. It’s nice always to have someone that will
pick up the phone when in need, too.’

“We’re are all very pleased with how the SD7 performs,’ Jamie concludes. “The ease
of use, sound quality and durability make it the perfect choice for a touring console,
especially for mixing monitors.’

Rob and Jamie have managed to use their SD7s on the majority of the 52 festivals in
their demanding summer schedule, and where that has not been possible, they have
been able to use the house DiGiCos, underlining the validity of their console choice.