Judas on Final World Tour with DiGiCo SD7

After storming the globe for nearly 40 years, Judas Priest, is going out strong as they rock the planet on the massive EPITAPH tour. Hitting all the major cities throughout the world on what will be their final world tour, the metal masterminds hit the pavement this past June throughout Europe, followed by U.S. dates from October through December of 2011.

Tending to the live sound needs for iconic rockers from Slash to Whitesnake for many years, engineer Martin Walker returns to the Judas Priest fold, with whom he has toured with for over a decade. The self-confessed analog maven has seemingly crossed over to the digital domain for good, favoring DiGiCo consoles for the past several years, beginning back in 2008 with a D5 on Priest's 'Nostradamus' tour-prompted by the difficulty in finding an analog solution that could accommodate the band's needs. In subsequent years, he's used an SD8 with Slash and very briefly with Taylor Swift, and traded up to an SD7 this spring, working with another longtime production provider, Major Tom, supplying monitors and control for the tour.

"I love the DiGiCo product and asked for an SD8 on the Judas Priest tour," Walker recalled. "Major Tom's Lars Brogaard admitted he didn't have one available to me, so promised me an 'upgrade', leaving me with an SD7, something I was more than happy with."