LOS ANGELES, California – May 2023 – Following the critically- and commercially-successful release of her sophomore album in December, a Grammy Award-winning, genre-defying artist on the rise booked her first-ever headlining tour of North American arenas, promptly selling out all 18 dates in February and March.

Since 2019, the artist has partnered with Eighth Day Sound, a Clair Global brand, to accommodate her touring sound reinforcement needs, and this tour was no exception. DiGiCo consoles have always been part of that mix, but this particular outing marked the first time that a pair of Quantum3³⁸ consoles was specified for both FOH and monitors.

Houston-based Phil Strong has manned the artist’s house mix since fall of 2021, two years after he permanently jumped ship to DiGiCo. “In 2018, I had been using another brand of console for Mariah Carey’s The Butterfly Returns residency in Las Vegas, but was having some challenges with its aging workflow, plus it was maxed out,” he recalls. “Although I had actually started using DiGiCos about seven years ago, I officially decided to make the switch in 2019 and haven’t looked back.”

Strong notes that he and monitor engineer Tim Hibbert mixed the tour on identical Quantum3³⁸ consoles paired with two SD-Racks equipped with 32-bit I/Os—the primary SD-Rack took input from the stage, while the secondary one picked up analog backup channels from playback and AES inputs from Shure Axient mics. Additionally, an Orange Box at FOH was equipped with DMI-OPTO (Optocore) and DMI-MADI-B cards, picking up MADI playback channels and MADI FX channels.

“I already prefer the Quantum3³⁸ to any of the other DiGiCo desk partially because of the fully functional middle screen, and the brightness of all three screens,” Strong shares. “I’m also using and loving a variety of Quantum features, including Mustard comps and EQ, Naga 6 for sidechain EQ, and tons of busses and matrixes.”

Up at stage left, Los Angeleno Tim Hibbert was just as happy to be behind a Quantum3³⁸ console in monitor world. “I am not new to the Q3³⁸,” he notes. “I first took this console out in 2022 on the Lucky Daye Candydrip tour and was blown away by how quick its processing speed was. When choosing gear for this run, having the middle screen and section on this desk made it an easy decision as it gives me plenty of versatility and visibility.”

Hibbert is no stranger to DiGiCo. His first experience with the brand was on the D1, and he’s championed DiGiCo for more than a decade, mixing monitors for Common, Babyface, Jason Derulo, and Earth, Wind & Fire, as well as FOH for Brockhampton and Cardi B. The Quantum processing features of the Q3³⁸ have only further underscored his preference for DiGiCo desks.

“I am using everything from Mustard to Chilli 6, which is helping me achieve EQ and compression tastes I need without having to go to outboard plugins,” he reveals. “Since my mixing background is from the studio, the Q3³⁸ allows me to mix unconventionally and without limits. On this tour, I used everything from groups to auxes and everything in-between.  I had a bunch of matrix mixes as well. With the option to set my channels anywhere, I was able to build my custom layers to quickly get me around the console.”

One additional thing that Hibbert appreciates about the Quantum3³⁸ is its ability to natively accommodate a DMI-KLANG card for providing immersive IEM mixes. “My initial main reason for incorporating KLANG was that I was previously sending six separate stems to my drummer for him to control locally via a mixer,” he says. “The drawback to this was that it didn’t allow for us to be on the same page whenever mix changes were needed. By using KLANG, I am able to visually see what he’s doing. I then moved into mixing my other band members with KLANG, which they’ve all enjoyed. It’s been a great experience so far because I am able to get a lot of separation sonically by just using placement instead of going to my EQ.”

With identical consoles sharing SD-Racks and an Optocore network, the tour ran like a well-oiled machine thanks to the fact that each engineer could easily see what the other was doing at any time. “We spend a painstakingly long amount of time leveling and mixing playback, gain staging instruments, and communicating,” notes Strong. “Front-of-house and monitors share head-amps, and Tim and I wanted it that way to ensure we were hearing and seeing things the same way and mixing the same show. If you listened to Tim’s monitor mixes and my mixes, they were lockstep in similarity, which provided a really tight show night after night. Just another reason to love DiGiCo.”

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DiGiCo Press Contacts

Maria Fiorellino at DiGiCo
Tel: +44 1372 845600
Email: maria@digiconsoles.com

Chris Shuler at Public Address
Tel: +1 574 514 7131
Email: christophershuler@comcast.net

Related images:
1) DiGiCo_8th_Day_tour_1.jpg – Phil Strong at the tour’s DiGiCo Quantum3³⁸ FOH console
2) DiGiCo_8th_Day_tour_2.jpg – Tim Hibbert at the tour’s DiGiCo Quantum3³⁸ monitor desk
3) DiGiCo_8th_Day_tour_3.jpg – Phil Strong mixing the show on the DiGiCo Quantum3³⁸
4) DiGiCo_8th_Day_tour_4.jpg – Tim Hibbert mixing monitors on the DiGiCo Quantum3³⁸

Just another reason to love DiGiCo