"With the DiGiCo S21, the company wanted to rewrite the rule book. To test the conclusions we reached at Prolight+Sound, without a release or unlocking the full potential of the software, or even the planned launch of the specifications," says DiGiCo Managing Director James Gordon. This approach makes sense when you carry DiGiCo's Stealth Digital Processing at the core of the S21. This FPGA-based technology is the key that unlocks the flexibility R&D designers need to specify and deliver the latest DiGiCo console.
This has been demonstrated to current customers, since every console in the SD range has benefited since its launch from further software advances, at no cost. "We initially wanted to design a console that kept DiGiCo's hallmarks and values in terms of quality, ergonomics and style, and we are very proud to offer it at a price that lets even more sound engineers join the DiGiCo family. In fact, that was the condition John Stadius set for his design team. That's why the console has been kept under wraps during its development for the past three years or so," confirms James.
When you approach the console you can see at once that it is a full member of the DiGiCo family. The quality of the materials and the design take DiGiCo's core values: aluminum extrusions, RGB-switch rotary encoders with integrated HTL (lighting), polycarbonate coverings and two touchscreens that give the operator an unmatched overview of everything within reach. 
"The challenge for the R&D team was to deliver a high-quality console at the desired price," adds John Stadius. "The brief we had was very strict; we had to develop a console that gave the operator all the feelings they got when they were behind an SD7." "This requirement really motivated the team and the S21 is the result. The surface design speaks for itself, but in terms of audio, it has the same FPGA algorithms as the SD7 and has the 192 kHz mic preamp from the SD-Rack. The audio specs for this console are very high and should surprise DiGiCo engineers all over again. Ahh, and it runs at 96 kHz with no processing limitations from day one, like all DiGiCo consoles. As I said, no compromises were granted!"
Features
- 96 kHz sample rate as standard
- 24 mic/line inputs
- 12 analog outputs
- 2 AES I/O (mono)
- Word Clock I/O
- 1 GPI and 1 GPO
- 1 DVI out for an external monitor
- 2 DMI slots (up to 64 I/O per slot)
- 2 Ethernet connections so it can be used as a switch.
- 2 24-segment meters for Master/solo
- Touch-sensitive rotary encoders with switch and integrated HTL.
- 2 multi-touch screens, 21 touch-sensitive faders
- 4 layers of banks of 10
- Fully configurable banks and channels
- Scenes can be created
- Integrated USB2 Audio I/O
- 46 output buses: 16 x stereo (32), stereo Master (2), solo buses (2 stereo, 4 total) and 10x8 Matrix (8).
- 40 mono or stereo processing channels (equivalent to 80 DSP channels)
- 16 x mono or stereo output buses (equivalent to 32 DSP buses)
- 8 x FX engines (reverbs, delays, w/modulation and Audio Enhancer)
- 4 x assignable Digitubes
- 4 x assignable multiband compressors
- 1 x compressor per channel and output bus
- 1 x gate per channel and output bus User-defined macros
- 1 extremely powerful headphone amplifier
- ¼-inch and mini-jack headphone connection
