AMP Sound Systems » console

Brand new DiGiCo SD9 in stock!

AMP Sound Systems — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:00:31 +0000

AMP Sound Systems are delighted to announce that we now have one of the world’s leading digital mixing consoles in stock!

When DiGiCo introduced the SD9 – a complete, integrated system, which includes the mixing surface, a D-Rack digital stage interface and CAT 5E digital multicore, with the additional ability to simultaneously record 56 channels – we were immediately interested.

After reviewing many other digital mixing solutions we quickly found that the DiGiCo SD9 ticked all the boxes.

It’s functionality and feature’s gave us everything we needed for the continued pursuit of delivering the highest quality audio to our clients. The audio quality surpassed that of any other console we tested. The excellent sound quality of the SD9 was the main reason for us purchasing this desk. It’s ease of use let our engineers get straight to what they do best – mixing your show – rather than fighting through pages and menu’s. It’s small frame size and portability ensures that we do not need to increase prices to our customers in the form of extra staff or transport costs.

The excellent sound quality of the SD9 was the main reason for us purchasing this desk.

It is planned that the SD9 will primarily go out to our musical theatre events as it is perfectly suited to the job. The neatness and aesthetics of the board lets it fit into your theatre without making too much of a visual impact or taking out too many audience seats. The well thought out snapshot features also help with complicated shows. However, this will not be it’s sole purpose. The board will be attending many other events and we also look forward to taking it out on a rock ‘n’ roll tour early next year.

AMP Sound Systems would like to sincerely thank James Lawford of DiGiCo for taking the hours of phone calls to ensure any question we may have had were answered. We would also like to thank Michael, Sean and Gerry from Rea Sound (the Irish distributors for DiGiCo) for allowing us to take the SD9 out for a demo and ensuring our purchase went without a hiccup.

When an engineer gets bored…

Eoin O'Grady — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:30:15 +0000

Every so often, you get a gig which isn’t terribly entertaining. Maybe cos it aint your type of music, or is just too easy and not a challenge. Now, it doesn’t happen much I have to say, but when it does you have to find some way to keep yourself occupied – and the saving grace is usually a digital mixing desk!

The video below shows the terrible effects of a bored sound engineer:

Bray Festival from monitor land!

Eoin O'Grady — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:10:12 +0000

Friday of the Bray Festival 2010 was a bit of fun when I hopped into monitor land and mixed wedges on the bandstand for a couple of acts!

I replaced the audio on this video, as I have not yet got permission from the bands to use it, but the video should give you a quick overview of the buzz at the festival this year.

Monitors were D&B Max 12′s and the console was the Yamaha M7CL.

Sun, skateboards, live music! Lovely day at the office!

Eoin O'Grady — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:30:42 +0000

I had never heard about the “Kings of Concrete Festival” before. Maybe because I have never been interested in skateboarding. But the second I walked in the gate, I knew this was going to be a good gig! There was a great atmosphere, and it was a completely family friendly event.

The rig consisted of a Funktion One PA for FoH, a M7CL-32 at mix, and EV sxA250′s for wedges.

View the video below to see the place from our perspective!

A gig in pictures….

Eoin O'Grady — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:00:54 +0000

I’m sure you underestimate the amount of work that goes on before you arrive at a show. Rather than write any more about it, I will attempt to show you this 20 hour day at the office using only pictures. I have taken the exact time stamp from the images to guide you through the day.

Enjoy! And don’t forget to click the Share button below if you know others who underestimate the work involved!!

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On the 5th of May 2010, AMP Sound Systems was booked to provide the PA system and crew for a show by the Dublin Glee Choir in The Bank, Newry. I knew this would be a great gig, so decided to engineer it myself. My day went like this:

It all starts the night before at the warehouse...

...cases are picked and loaded...

...the D&B Max12's will be used as monitors...

: 17:22 – All the equipment is pushed into the venue

17:46 - Speakers are positioned

17:52 - The backbone of the wiring is installed

18:21 - A rough layout of the stage is created

18:21 - Mic stands placed on stage

18:22 - Stage coming together

18:28 - Mix position is set up

18:33 - Things start to get patched in

18:50 - Studio Manager is connected...

...and the show is loaded

20:15 - Wiring on the stage is complete

20:15 - Connected. Now to start tidying up.

21:20 - Leads tidied up and taped where required

21:20 - The band arrives...

21:25 - ...and sort out their positions

21:29 - Souncheck starts

21:41 - Rough levels are set and a song is run

21:56 - Final adjustments before the doors are opened

22:22 - Mix position tidied

22:23 - And show is saved as a backup

22:23 - Then lots of muted channels as we wait...

23:13 - Time to check out the controls of those rather cool screens!!!

23:13 - And say hello to the DJ who was playing music dangerously loud

00:23 - Quick check that I am receiving signal on all channels

00:25 - And the place starts filling up

01:05 - The choir arrives on stage

02:17 - Starting to get loud now!

The last photo of the stage, as we were too busy packing up the gear to take photo's!

04:03 - Yes, that does say I will be home at 5:59 AM!

04:17 - On the A1 just about to leave the North of Ireland

04:18 - How depressing - the sat nav says turn left in 92.1 km!

04:41 - The fact that the sun is coming up just makes you realise that it is in fact the next day...

...so its Red Bull time!!!

05:47 - The sun is fully up now, so I just want to go to bed!

06:16 - Does this really need an explanation???

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Mixing on an analogue desk for charity!

Eoin O'Grady — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:00:34 +0000

This time 2 years ago, I presumed that I would be mixing the gig on an analogue desk. How things have changed! Up to last week, I had not mixed on an analogue desk in nearly 8 months. That stint came to an end on Saturday – for charity!

A good friend of mine, Pat Nolan (Barry in Fair City) is joining a team of over 100 (motorcyclists, pillion passengers & support) to tackle the infamous / historic “mother of all roads” – ROUTE 66.

2,448 miles of unforgiving highway crossing Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

The gig was to help them raise funds for Temple Street Children’s University Hospital in Dublin. It was held in The Mill Theatre, Dundrum and it was a night of music, magic, comedy, acting, and much more! Phil Cauly was the MC, and welcomed guests such as Pat Fallon, Dana Davis, Brendan Burke, Dave Duffy and many more! Was a fantastic show.

Unfortunately though, the theatre only had an analogue mixing desk – the Allen & Heath GL2400. Nice desk, but an analogue desk! Although it is like riding a bike, I would obviously never forget how to mix on one of these bad boys. But I did miss the features. I missed having everything I could possibly need at my finger tips. I missed having a screen telling me exactly what is going on with my system. I missed having an EQ section that would do what I wanted it to do, rather than be confined to the bandwidth and frequencies that the EQ on the board had.

The show still sounded great, but it made me realize that investing so much in digital consoles was worth every penny.

If you made it along to the show, thank you very much for your support. However, if you could not make it – you can still support Pat by donating to this very good cause at http://www.mycharity.ie/event/patnolansevent/

My next console – the DiGiCo SD8

Eoin O'Grady — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:00:54 +0000

Half way through every year, we sit down and work out what to spend our hard earned cash on next year in a bid to constantly improve our already impressive inventory of high-end live audio equipment. Decisions like this usually take about 6 months, so we can explore options and try out some gear. Last year saw a large amount being spent on active loudspeaker systems as well as Sennheiser radio mics. This year…. CONSOLES!

I am a very big fan of the Yamaha M7CL for its ease of use. In fact I have lots of experience on most of the Yamaha digital range – from the 01V to the LS9 to the M7 and all the way up to the PM5D. You can go back and forward on any of those desks and have a very small learning curve. I love them…

But then along comes the DiGiCo SD8, and a lot of my favoritism for Yamaha boards gets sucked away. I have never mixed on a DiGiCo board, but from talking to other engineers it seems that you can take to it like a duck to water. The desk seems very well laid out, and is very very cheap for what you get. Its only £31,539 excluding the VAT. Thats only €44,600 including the VAT!

Take a peek at its overview video, and let me know what you think!