The DigiCo SD11 is a small 19″ rack-mountable mixer that packs the punch of the larger DigiCo desks. Dominated by a large touchscreen, there’s lots of control available as well as powerful dynamics and FX processing.

This is my first introduction to a DigiCo desk, and it took a while to get used to the way of working. The trade-off between power/flexibility and instant user-friendliness is tilted towards the first – I’m not sure you’d want to dry-hire this desk to an untrained operator. There were several moments where I had to refer to the manual – but that may just be that I’m steeped in the procedures of other desks.

There’s no patchbay as such, and all patching is done on the channels themselves. Likewise, there’s a master screen that can be configured to suit the show. All this power is great if you have a chance (and time) to set the desk up to your liking – I’d need to be a lot more familiar with it before I could use it live on a festival stage.

Overall, the pedigree of this desk is obvious in it’s power and control. There’s reams of functions you just don’t see on other desks of this size, and there’s the define feel of a premium audio product for professional use about it.

Oh, and that big touchscreen means it looks spookily like a MagicQ. Beware of confused lighting engineers!