In contrasts to artists who give their tours ambitious or humorous titles – or even simply the name of the album being showcased – 11-time Grammy Award-nominated singer Andrea Bocelli’s AB30 tour uses his initials and the number of years he’s recorded and travelled the world touring. Accompanying him on a run through North America, Brazil, Europe and a returning to the US are 60-plus-piece orchestras all conducted by Maestro Steven Mercurio. Equally consistent are two new DiGiCo Quantum852 mixing consoles supplied as part of a production package from OSA International.
‘Upon seeing the Quantum852 we knew it was the best choice for both the artist and OSA – nothing else touches it and we’re proud to have some of the first in the US,’ says OSA Executive VP, Carmen Educate. ‘Adding the Quantum852 desks to our locations in Las Vegas, Nashville and Chicago is a win for our clients, and these world-class desks perfectly complement the top-tier equipment and services that we proudly offer.’
For the AB30 tour, both desks are used at FOH, one for mixing the orchestra – which ran to 68 musicians for São Paolo dates – helmed by Stefano Serpagli, and the other for the overall mix, managed by Davide Lombardi. He takes Serpagli’s mix and blends it with the band – used for the more pop and Latin numbers – choir, some occasional playback tracks from Pro Tools and Bocelli’s voice. In addition, the consoles also provide all onstage monitoring required.
‘I come from a pop background, but I’ve also done some classical music before, and I love it,’ says Serpagli, who has previously mixed live sound for Natalie Imbruglia and Dido. ‘The complexity with orchestras is that there’s a large number of live mics and musicians, and it’s all about the subtleties and finding the right balance. There are also differences between orchestras: you can go from the London Philharmonic, obviously so well drilled, and then we have a young and enthusiastic orchestra like São Paulo’s. The difference can be huge from what you get out right out of the box. And even a great orchestra will just give you a good starting point; the challenge is the difference in environments we encounter. Bocelli is an arena- and stadium-sized artist, and so you’re dealing with the subtleties and the complexities of mixing an orchestra in environments like these.’
Serpagli says the Quantum852 his prior choice for mixing orchestras to the next level: ‘I’ve been a DiGiCo user since the D5 and then into the SD-Range, and I love how it has progressed with regards to onboard dynamics – and then came the Quantums,’ he says. ‘We’ve used the Quantum338 and the Quantum7, which was previously my favourite. But the Quantum852 is its own category; it has a huge, intuitive surface that is absolutely incredible to work on. There are no compromises on this console. I can have whatever I want and as much of it as I want. And although I was already impressed with the clarity of the Quantum7’s screens, the Quantum852 makes visibility and control even better.’
He’s also a fan of Quantum processing: ‘I use the Chilli 6 [six-band, dynamic multiband compressor] across each section of the orchestra to help me smooth it out. For instance, the younger orchestras may have more attack, dynamically speaking, and it lets me deliver a smoother result for Davide to mix in with the other vocals and the rest of the show.’
Lombardi has worked with Bocelli since 2009, and has the role of audio supervisor as well as sound designer and co-FOH engineer for this tour. He has also enjoyed employing the progressively more powerful Quantum processing during his time with Bocelli. ‘The Quantum852 is a natural progression to the future, with bigger screens and extra power,’ he says. ‘That really helps because we also do stage monitoring from out front, and the availability of the Spice Rack and Nodal Processing offer us excellent tools for that. We can have as many as we need, and we can automate them, so we can cover both monitors and front of house at the same time. There is not a large amount of monitoring onstage, but what there is needs to be very precise, and Quantum852 makes it very easy for us to be able to do different cues for different sets.’
Lombardi is managing 158 channels of audio for each show, including the mix sent over from Serpagli’s console and Bocelli’s vocals from a Schoeps Mk21 microphone capsule on his DPA headset, which passes through the 32-bit Stadius mic preamps on the DiGiCo SD-Rack onstage.
‘The Quantum852 lets me lay out the console exactly the way I need to manage the show,’ he says. ‘That’s something else that DiGiCo has gotten right – every new console model is more ergonomic than the one before. I can only imagine what they’ll think of next.’
