George Thorogood & The Destroyers Still 'Bad To The Bone' On Tour With DiGiCo

After 35 years and countless recordings showcasing his trademark boogie 'n' blues, George Thorogood & The Destroyers are still very much 'bad to the bone'. The band's current tour highlights a host of classics, old and new, and traverses venues from Canada to Cape Cod through August. A pair of DiGiCo SD8-24's from Clair Global will handle FOH and monitor functions—and live multitrack recordings slated for release next year—with Jeff Pitt at the FOH controls, along with monitor engineer Shawn Berman, systems engineer James Leonti and tech Nick Abrahamson.

sd8_krew_2.jpgAt FOH, the SD8-24 controls the main PA (left and right), subs, front fills, out fills, and side hangs, plus 40 inputs for drums, bass, guitars, horns, vocals and effects. All outputs are driving digitally to Dolby Lake Processors. 



"The SD8 at FOH was chosen in particular because of its sonic quality and small footprint," said Pitt. "This has allowed us to share smaller FOH spaces with the lighting and video departments, and enabling the promoter to sell more tickets. After using other digital consoles on the market, there is no comparison. We found that the SD8-24 had better sound quality and surface flexibility than any other option available to us."

Pitt's favorite features include the console's effect return display shortcut for access. "This is sd8_krew_1.jpgvery convenient. Being able to playback the tracks from the night before for system tuning and soundchecks rocks! For both ends of the snake the ripple feature allows for faster patching, and having the ability to take the surface off-line for security is a great option. The onboard local I/O on the surface is also extremely handy negating the need for an additional local rack at FOH."

One of the main goals of the tour is to capture the band nightly, from which a live album will be compiled for release in 2011. Pitt and Berman are making use of the RME MADIface soundcard in tandem with Steinberg's Nuendo software. 


"The MADI recording feature allows us to multitrack every night with ease," Pitt explained. "Also the multi-band compression and dynamic EQs are very helpful for this mix. The quick drop-down menu for channel labeling is much faster and easier than any other system we have tried."

At monitor world, the smaller footprint was a must for this tour, explained Berman. "The band is very happy with the way things sound now that we have switched to the SD8-24."