Better known as Coti, Argentinian singer-songwriter Roberto Fidel Ernesto Sorokin Esparza recently completed a 20-date tour of Spain, culminating in a performance at the Gexto Sound Festival. With numerous Platinum discs to his name, Coti placed an Allen & Heath dLive Wings system in the hands of monitor engineer Alejandro Blanco for the tour.
Comprising a dLive C1500 19-inch Surface fitted with WavesV3 card for multitrack recording, and a DM32 MixRack fitted with a Dante card, a superMadi card for digital splits and AES10 card, the system ran wedge monitors and side fills.
‘dLive is the best sounding console on the market right now and in my opinion, there’s no other mixer that offers the capabilities of dLive, without the need of third-party plug-ins or servers – the power and quality of the Deep plug-ins is impressive,’ Blanco explains. ‘Apart from the quality, weight and size is very important and it now only takes 15 minutes or less to set everything up, which is perfect for festivals with quick changeovers.’
The show required in-ear mixes for Coti and his violinist, keyboard player and backing vocalist, plus four wedge monitors and side fills. As such, a portable DX168 expander provided additional I/O onstage. ‘I run dLive Director and load my iPad with the MixPad app to facilitate soundchecks,’ Blanco says. ‘As we don’t carry a full production, every show has a different monitor mix, so having the ability to roam the stage is fundamental – particularly when you work with an artist who doesn’t perform soundchecks. It’s essential that I’m able to hear what Coti hears, in order to create the perfect mix for him.’
Introduced in dLive’s V1.8 firmware update, Blanco uses MCAs in conjunction with DCA spills, enabling full and simple control over his IEM’s. ‘As a small “trick” on my C1500, I have all my individual channels grouped into different DCAs,’ he says. ‘This means that I can immediately access the member channels I need via DCA Spills and access each mix through the softkeys. MCAs are also perfect for mixing the artists’ IEMs.’
Blanco also made extensive use of dLive’s Dyn8 processor for dynamic EQ and multiband compression: ‘Dyn8 is a total live saver for vocals, it’s always clear and on point, no matter if the singer sings softly, shouts or cups the mic. The combination of Dyn8 and the Opto compressor, which I place on each of my outputs, is great and provides this sweet and balanced sound. The musicians have even said how happy they are with their mixes now.’
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