This is generally done using one or more stand alone digital recorders such as those made by Tascam, Alesis, or IZ Radar. Unfortunately, even though these machines are very dependable in the safety of the studio, traveling night after night across the continent on bumpy roads inevitably takes its toll and these machines invariably fail due to the inordinate abuse. When disaster occurs, a backup recorder is required.

During the SW8’s development, we consulted with a wide number of stage technicians that work with performers such as Pink Floyd, Madonna, U2 and so on. These guys know all of the ins and outs of road travel and helped us establish a common feature set. The result is the Radial SW8.

One of the underlying themes with all Radial products is to make sure we thought of everything and then jam as many of the cool features
we can into a box so that it can be adapted to all types of situations. For instance, we could have just installed D-Sub connectors; instead, we chose to add ¼” jacks to allow greater flexibility to interface with systems offered by MOTU and other sound card manufacturers. Furthermore, we added transformer isolated XLR outputs on the front panel to allow the SW8 to reside on stage and connect to the PA system and snake just like a direct box. This way, the SW8 could live anywhere.

We also when full-tilt on the switching: We could have simply offered auto-switch on or off… instead we added the ability to hook up a footswitch so that the keyboard player could keep playing while his right foot does the switching! We also provided a contact closure that could be used to turn on a remote alarm. Extra features that don’t cost a whole lot, but can really help in a pinch!

Now the coolest feature on the Radial SW8 is without a doubt the auto-switching circuit. To make it work, all you do is record a drone or steady state signal onto track one the master recorder. If ever the drone goes away, the SW8 will automatically switch all 8 inputs from set A to set B and your second backup machine is now alive. If ever the main playback machine starts up again, the SW8 will automatically switch back to the main playback system. You can also use an external tone and connect it to the deditcated auto-switch ¼" input. This extra feature leaves all eight channels free to be used for audio.

Of course you can set the SW8 to manual mode and use the front panel A-B selector if you like. Once depressed a series of sealed gold contact relays hop into action! And if you have more than one SW8 linked together, the slaves will of course all switch to set B receiving their command from the master deck.