Depeche Mode World Tour Captured On Avastor Drives

“Touring The Angel” World Tour played to more than
 2.5 million people in 31 countries

London -- October 25, 2006 -- Avastor HDX series hard drives were chosen as the master hard drives to record Depeche Mode on every date of their just concluded world tour. The first live recordings happened April 27, at San Francisco’s Shoreline Amphitheater and after numerous dates across the United States, Mexico and Europe concluded August 1, in Athens, Greece. Depeche Mode in collaboration with Live Here Now recorded 50 dates, this ambitious project is being released as limited edition CD’s and digital downloads.

Every concert was recorded to Avastor drives, by an engineering team from Mute Records and Will Shapland Mobiles. The live recordings were mixed by Will Shapland –a veteran live engineer originally with the legendary Virgin Manor Mobile studio. Using two Pyramix digital workstations to record each show, Will’s choice of master hard drive was the Avastor HDX-800 triple interface (FireWire 800) solution.

Will comments, “I was very impressed with the build quality and spec of the drive. Although we recorded the shows powered by a 240v UPS, Chris and Dave (engineers) regularly spot checked the drives in their hotel rooms- where the internal switchable AC power supply could flawlessly accept different voltages in each of the 31 countries by simply plugging it in. This solved the huge headache of not having to use step down transformers of different voltages. Secondly, the ultra quiet cooling fan was very reassuring to optimize the performance of the drive in some of the extremely hot and humid environments we recorded at. Recording each live show direct to the Avastor drives comprising 64 tracks at 16 bit 48KHz resolution, meant drive failure was not an option, and the Avastor drives delivered. Finally, the excellent Lockbox packaging with a pro label set, really rounded off a well thought out professional hard drive product. It was reassuring audio professionals had developed this product, with the performance demands of pro engineers in mind.”

Depeche Mode are one of the most influential and ground breaking bands of the last 25 years. During the “Touring The Angel” 2005/6 World Tour they will play to more than two and a half million people across 31 countries. Their new album ‘Playing the Angel’, released in October last year, reached Number 1 in 16 countries and has sold two million copies worldwide.

Headquartered in Peachtree City, GA, Avastor was founded in 2005 to bring full-featured digital storage devices, with the highest quality and performance, to the professional audio and video marketplace. The company's flagship product, the HDX hard disk drive system, is produced in the USA with a mandate for superior build quality and 100% quality testing, aimed directly at the demands of professional audio and video applications.

For further information please see:

www.willshapland-mobiles.co.uk
www.depechemodelive.com
www.liveherenow.co.uk

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