Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball tours with DiGiCo
Published: ASIA
ASIA: Kicking off in Seoul, South Korea in early 2012, Lady Gaga’s current Born This Way Ball tour has relied on DiGiCo consoles for every production, which also visited China, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. Eighth Day Sound built three complete, universally controlled stadium systems – comprised of three DiGiCo 96kHz SD7s with two 192kHz SDRacks each – to handle the year-long production on multiple continents.
‘Each tour system is comprised of two SD7 Mach III systems at FOH outfitted with Waves and two Waves servers, with one running on a UPS for redundancy,’ explained Eighth Day chief technology officer Jason Kirschnick. ‘A 192kHz DiGiCo SD Rack at FOH is loaded with 32 analogue ins/32 analogue outs, as well as 24 AES ins/outs for local I/O. At the stage end for FOH are two more 192 SD racks loaded with 48 analogue ins, eight AES ins, eight AES and eight analogue outs,’ he explained.
‘The primary console is in a loop with the two respective engines to the Route 66 as well as the second SD7 at FOH in a loop with the Route 66,’ he continued. ‘At the monitor end is another SD7 running two Waves 9 servers (with one running on a UPS). There are two more 192kHz SD Racks at monitors loaded with 48 analogue, eight digital inputs, 40 analogue and eight digital outputs each.’
A d&b audiotechnik serves as the PA system, and is comprised of 96 J Series cabinets made up of a combination of J8s and J12s, 32 flown J subs, 48 B2 subs on the ground, 12 Q7 front-fills, with a stadium delay system comprised of four hangs of 12 V8s and V12s.
‘The system is all-digital at 96kHz,’ added Mr Kirschnick. ‘It has a complete analogue backup comprised of Dolby Lakes and LM44s with wireless control of the complete system. The d&b amplifiers are all monitored and controlled remotely through the entire system as well.’
‘Above all else, I spec'd the SD7 for FOH for its sonic quality,’ said Chris Rabold. ‘At the end of the day, it’s the sound of the desk and the sound of my mixes through the desk that matter the most. The DiGiCo consoles simply sound better than anything else out there. Basically every last detail was in place before I even saw the band,’ he continued, ‘and this was on a show with a pretty sizable number of inputs. All of the work I was able to do beforehand was absolutely invaluable. With a big pop show like this that is scripted very carefully, the goal is consistency and more or less perfection every single night.’
Ramon Morales handles monitors for the band members, all of whom are using Sennheiser 2000 series IEM systems (with JH Audio JH16 custom in-ears), as well as the audio technicians. He oversees a total of 12 stereo mixes, flown side-fills, bass and drum subs, two mono mixes (for drum subs and thumpers on bass and drums) and several stereo effects sends.
‘Everything about the console is great,’ he enthused. ‘Sonically, it’s one of the best consoles out there and is definitely my favourite. I’ve found the macro feature to be very useful. We've set many of them up to do specific things for the show and no matter where I am on the console, I can access what I need on the macro section without having to scroll through aux sends or layers and banks. Our show intercom system is also routed through the monitor console, so the techs that need show comms in their mix can have it and plenty of talkback mics using the macros.
‘I’m also using many of the built-in effects including Waves to add different colours to the mix,’ he added. ‘My favourite has to be the SSL channel and the C4, which I mainly use for my vocal inputs, since the console itself sounds great. The only outboard gear we’re using is a TC Electronics 6000 reverb system for a vocal verb.’
Mr Morales added that the console’s ability to receive a video feed is ‘crucial when mixing monitors from under the stage’. ‘I barely even look at the stage now,’ concurred Mr Rabold. ‘This especially comes in handy when I have to watch for the moments where she yanks off her headset mic and goes for the handheld. There’s no cue for that, and being able to see it on a screen right in front of my face beats trying to see what she’s doing 46m away across a sea of fans!’
An extensive amount of time and planning was invested prior to launching the multiple systems in the field to ensure the production ran as smoothly as possible. ‘I personally spent weeks researching and testing the fibre loops and to failsafe the redundancy on as many things as possible,’ reflected Mr Kirschnick. ‘I did this research and testing at our shop in Cleveland, and a great deal of time was spent making sure everything was running smoothly weeks before the tour embarked on its first show last spring. And now, with over six months of time logged with the systems in the field, the band and crew think the console and sound system sound incredible and unmatched.’