Grammy® Awards Rely On Venue

While many of this year’s Grammy® Award nominees and winners were honored last weekend for the magic they created in the studio, some of the top honorees relish in knowing that they can get their same studio-quality sound live on stage thanks to the Digidesign® Venue live sound environment. In fact, four of the five artists nominated for Record of the Year—Mary J. Blige, the Dixie Chicks (who won this category), Gnarls Barkley, and Corinne Bailey Rae (along with John Mayer who was nominated for Album of the Year)—rely on Venue to reproduce their Grammy-nominated sound live on tour.

“I’ve been wishing for this console for years,” says audio industry veteran Horace Ward, former front of house engineer for Blige. “It’s one of the best-sounding, fully digital consoles out there right now.”

Not only does Venue deliver stunning audio clarity in a live environment, it offers many of the same features and tools that sound engineers are accustomed to using (and artists are accustomed to hearing) in the studio, including access to over 100 professional TDM plug-ins by some of the most influential innovators in the industry. Plus, its seamless integration with Pro Tools provides even more production opportunities, including capturing live performances and performing “virtual soundchecks.”

“It is the whole package,” Ward raves. “The EQs are wonderful, and I like the visuals. I like the fact that Venue has built-in plug-ins, and that the gates and compressors on each channel can also be augmented by an additional four plug-ins per channel. The flexibility is marvelous, the sound is marvelous, and the seamless linking of Pro Tools® for recording is completely over the top. It's a tool that I cannot do without. Venue is a console for engineers who want to expand their ideas and bring studio quality to live sound.”

Robert Scovill, Digidesign’s live sound market manager, is delighted that more and more artists are adopting Venue for their tours. “Venue brings comparable tools from the studio to the stage, which has never before been available,” he says. “It’s no coincidence that all of the Grammy nominees this year are some of the hottest touring acts worldwide, and we wish to congratulate all of the nominated artists that share this vision through employing Digidesign products. It’s very rewarding to see Venue as a centerpiece for presenting award-winning music to a live audience.”

The 49th Annual Grammy Awards was held on February 11, 2007, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA, and televised live on CBS.