05/09/08

Digidesign VENUE and ICON consoles streamline production for the Emmy-award winning music show.

Creative Sound Solutions 96-Channel D-Show Profile

The hit TV show American Idol continues to rule in its seventh season and Digidesign systems continues to play a major role in addressing the complex production demands of America’s favorite music show.

Creative Sound Solutions (CSS), founded by audio pros Randy Faustino, Butch McKarge, and J. Mark King, handles all of the show’s live audio production with a little help from a 96-channel Digidesign® VENUE D-Show Profile™ system, which fully integrates with the company’s Digidesign Pro Tools|HD® system and array of TDM dynamics, EQ, effects, and other processing plug-ins — all within a compact footprint that fits well in the mix room. CSS uses the VENUE system to track the instruments as well as create stereo mixes of the band, vocalists, dialog, audience, and more.

“Certainly there were practical reasons for purchasing the Profile,” says Faustino, “but once we started using it with live bands, we realized immediately how great it sounds. It reminds me of mixing on an old Gamble EX56, one of my all-time favorite consoles. The bottom is nice and fat, the top end is smooth, and the console itself is very user-friendly. It’s like working on a great-sounding analog desk, but with the power of a digital console.”

Faustino points to an arsenal of Digidesign and third-party plug-ins that provide CSS with a wide sonic processing palette in lieu of the usual excessive amounts of outboard hardware. “I love the sound of the Reverb One, and the TC Electronic plug-ins are amazing…. And the Waves Live bundle speaks for itself.”

	The ICON D-Control at Levels Audio Post

Assembling the video vignettes of the performers and other content segments into the final broadcast production is a job that falls to Levels Audio Post, a Hollywood-based facility known for such high-profile projects as the Academy Awards and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shows. Engineer Brian Riordan dubs the show in 5.1 surround using one of the facility’s five Digidesign® ICON mixing consoles.

“I’m sure we could never deliver the intense turnaround times a show like Idol requires without ICON,” says Riordan. “ICON offers us the power, musicality, and workflow that used to require a large, high-end dubbing console to achieve, while incorporating seamless control of Pro Tools and its plug-in architecture.”