s The Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr brought a unique and notable creative energy to their music. Over the years, Ringo Starr has had a successful career film, television, and a solo music career. Per the advice of Audio Analysts, a Colorado-based provider of concert touring audio systems, Sonnet's Fusion™ R400Q [now Fusion R400QR5] was recommended for Ringo's 10th All-Starr tour, having used the system successfully in previous tours for some of the entertainment industry’s best-known talent.

Along with the former Beatle, the 10th All-Starr ensemble included Colin Hay, Billy Squier, Hamish Stuart, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, and Gregg Bissonette. The band used two Fusion R400Q rackmount storage systems to capture concert audio. The Fusion R400Q yielded unwavering performance over the course of the tour, and its rugged, compact design provided valuable space and weight savings as the show moved from venue to venue across North America. The Fusion R400Q systems provided 2TB of mirrored storage for the 64 tracks of audio recorded to a Pro Tools|HD® 2 Accel during each All-Starr concert and enabled sound engineers to use Digidesign® Virtual Soundcheck workflow to refine live performance console settings by using a multitrack Pro Tools® session rather than actual band members.

In addition to protecting valuable concert audio from the troupe of legendary performers on the All-Starr roster, the Sonnet system recorded sound checks and jam sessions and served as a backup to the main audio truck brought in for the live recording at the Greek Theater. Audio recorded to the Fusion R400Qs will be preserved for archival purposes and also serve as a resource for CDs, DVDs, and Web releases.

The Fusion R400Q rackmount storage system offers up to 4TB of storage in four swappable SATA drive modules, supplying speed, versatility, and reliability in a variety of workflows. A high-performance SATA II port multiplier manages the enclosed drives, so Bavido was able to connect each enclosure to the SATA host controller card in his Power Mac® G5 system using just a single locking data cable. Because the swappable drive modules are compatible across the Fusion line, and additional modules may be purchased separately, Bavido simply handed the drives over to the band manager at the end of the tour.

To learn more about Ringo Starr, visit www.ringostarr.com.