R&B stalwarts, Earth Wind & Fire, are without a doubt one of the hardest working bands in show business. The multiple Grammy Awarded, Rock & Roll Hall of Famers came together in the suburbs of Chicago in the 70s, and have persevered and flourished in a career that has spanned over 35 years. These days, the band still performs consistently throughout the year—be it a club, concert venue or corporate setting. For the band’s long-time FOH engineer, Terry “TJ” Jackson (who has also worked with Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, George Duke, Anita Baker, and Toni, Toni, Toni) the migration from the DiGiCo D5 to SD7 was a natural one, offering a streamlined roadworthy rig, and giving him the tools to flex the overall sound to the venue at hand. The EWF tour—with production partner Eighth Day Sound—was one of the first tours to head out stateside with the new SD7 console.

“If you knew my background, which is electronics, you wouldn’t be surprised,” he muses. “I like the challenge of figuring out new gear, and as a long time DiGiCo fan, I was excited to get my hands on the SD7. It has a lot of features that I like in a digital console; I like the cleanness of the board. The problem with digital consoles in general is that you can’t move around enough. It’s not a quality issue, it’s just that on live shows you have to get to a section and hit and then get back out. This band has a lot of inputs, 72 in fact, and this console is flexible enough to route my inputs from pages of information right on the surface. That’s important to me. Even though I know how to use snapshots, I don’t use them. This is a fairly straight mix and on this console, other than the routing, it has faders on top so I can move around quicker. I actually like to mix and try new things during the show…. and this board allows me to do it.”

The SD7’s 4-band parametric EQ is also a bonus. “I don’t really take advantage of all the processing but I’m looking past this band, to projects down the road in the fall, which includes an award show in LA in October. The SD7 will be my first choice for that.”

Overall, TJ says there is a noticeable difference in sonic quality with the SD7. “For the first two shows out with the console, I hooked up all my outputs to the console and first thing I noticed was the high-end. At first, I thought it was the PA, but the sampling rate is a lot higher than the D5 - and it’s noticeable. You can tell difference; it’s pristine. It’s definitely changed the way I EQ now.”

For more on Earth Wind & Fire, go to: www.earthwindandfire.com

Picture Caption: Terry “TJ” Jackson - FOH Engineer

About the DiGiCo SD7:
DiGiCo’s SD7 is the first live console to use next generation of FPGA called Super FPGA for audio processing (not the usual DSP platform other console manufacturers use). DiGiCo was the first company to use Analog Devices SHARC DSP in its consoles and are also the first to use the next generation called Tiger SHARCS, which are purely used for Control and Effects.



The SD7 is the most powerful live performance console with a totally flexible bussing structure with an incredible 128 busses possible, 256 processing paths, plus a 32 x 32 Matrix, 32 x 32 band graphics EQ and a
plethora of internal effects. The SD7 is the only console where not only the engine fits inside the work surface (as in the D5) but also has a redundant engine as well.  

About DiGiCo
DiGiCo is a UK-based manufacturer of some of the world’s most popular, successful and ground-breaking digital mixing consoles for the live, theatre, broadcast and post production industries and is exclusively distributed in the U.S. by Group One Ltd. of Farmingdale, New York. For more information, go to: www.digico.org

Press Contacts:
Dave Webster at DiGiCo
Tel: +44 1372 845600
Email: webby@digiconsoles.com
Web: www.digiconsoles.com

Diane Gershuny
DGPR
Tel: 562-366-8869
Email: dgershuny123@gmail.com