2006.12.05 - LSi Online - Guns N' Roses Go Digital In USA

Guns N' Roses Go Digital In USA

Guns N' Roses are currently on tour through North America. To handle the live shows, audio veteran Toby Francis was tapped for FOH duties, Andy Ebert was selected for monitors, and the Digidesign Venue live sound environment was chosen to run the show, with two Venue D-Show systems in tow for FOH and monitor mixes.

"This is what I've wanted for years," says Francis. "I've tried everything — at least demoed everything. This is the first console I've wanted to own. I've always looked at the others as a temporary step. Even though some of them I used for four or five years, I was just waiting for technology to advance."

Ebert is equally enthusiastic: "I had used digital consoles before, but I never really liked them because of their sound quality and the fact that they're so complicated to operate. What I'm looking for in a digital console is something that's the most like analogue."

"Guns N' Roses' rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus asked me what plug-in I was using on his guitar and was blown away that it was the same one he used in the studio," recalls Francis. "This is when I first started working for Guns N' Roses, and it helped us get a rapport going. Bassist Tommy Stinson pulled me aside last night and said, "This is awesome — I had the monitor engineer [Ebert] put a Fairchild plug-in on my bass and it sounds just like it does at home! I got the same thing in my ears that I'm used to hearing."