Digico SD8 Live Digital Mixing Console

Digico SD8 Live Digital Mixing Console with Stealth Digital Processing

DiGiCo SD8: “Into overdrive and beyond...”

The SD8 is a particularly versatile console with the same Stealth Digital Processing and floating point Super FPGA technology seen in the flagship SD7. The SD8 offers a truly superlative performance at a competitive price, something which will appeal to engineers across the board.

Scratching the surface

There are two versions of the SD8: a 37-channel version, which boasts three banks of 12 motorised faders and one master fader; and the SD8-24, which has all the same power and functionality but in a smaller frame comprising 24 main channel faders and a master fader.

At the heart of each console's worksurface is a 15-inch, high resolution TFT LCD touch screen with backlit display. Through this user-friendly interface, any bank of 12 faders can be instantly assigned as input or output channels, allowing all 36 main faders to control inputs if desired; equally, any bank of 12 can also be assigned to the touch screen for fine-tuning.

In addition, the SD8 benefits from dedicated multi-function control knobs and electronic labelling.

What's under the hood?

Both SD8 models boast 60 processing channels at 48kHz/96kHz, all of which are Flexi Channels (configurable as either mono or stereo), which is the equivalent of 120 channels of full DSP processing.

Standard channel processing, whether inputs or outputs, includes Channel Delay, Single and Multi Channel Presets, Dual insert points, Hi- and Lo-pass filters @ 24dB/octave, four-band parametric EQ with band curve selection, DiGiCo's DYN 1 (Compressor, De-esser or Multi Channel Compressor) and DYN 2 (Gate, Compressor or Ducker).

The console also benefits from 10 Dynamic EQ processors, all of which can be assigned to any of the input or output channels. These powerful processors offer dynamic processing on each of the four standard parametric bands, plus there are also10 Multiband Compressors and 10 DiGiTubes; and no matter how the console is set up, the user won't lose any resources, as all the channels are equipped to provide the same high quality signal path and feature set.

The master section incorporates 24 gangable 32-band graphic EQs, 12 stereo effects (selectable from a palette of 33), and 12 control groups (VCAs); and using snapshots, engineers can now switch between complete configurations in any live environment easier than ever before, be it at rehearsals, during system setup, or even at a show.

In addition, we've included 24 Flexi busses, all of which are assignable as mono/stereo groups or auxiliary busses; and in addition to these busses, for further configurability, we've provided a 16 x 12 output matrix, dual solo busses, and a Master buss. Essentially, users have the equivalent of 67 busses of DSP at their disposal.

Unlike all other digital console manufacturers, you don't lose Aux or Group Busses when using the Matrix as they are in addition, including the Master buss.

I/O

The SD8 and SD8-24 both have plenty of local I/O: eight mic inputs, eight outputs, eight mono AES I/O, and two MADI connections.

The console comes as standard with a MaDiRack which is an 8U fixed 48 input with eight analogue outputs, with the ability to increase these outputs to 24 with any combination of analogue AES/EBU or Aviom.

As with all DiGiCo consoles, it can also connect to an SD-Rack, an SD-Mini, and SD-Nano Rack.

There is also a factory fit Optocore option which allows for connectivity to all DiGiCo racks and consoles in a redundant loop.

In addition, there is an optional DiGiCo SoundGrid module which, when linked to an external PC server such as SoundGrid or DiGiGrid, provides the user with instant access to 16 fully integrated low-latency Waves stereo Multi Racks, each with the ability to have up to eight plugins per rack.  That's 64 I/O - and as you'd expect from DiGiCo, this is all additional I/O.

All Waves compatible plugins are pre-loaded, and as this is integral within the console, you have the added advantage of touch screen control; and all shapshots and session files are saved within the console.