One of Mexico’s most successful singers, Juan Gabriel has crossed the border for an extensive US tour. Supporting more than 30m album sales, Volver 2014 sees house engineer Rodrigo López at FOH with an SSL Live mixing console.
‘As soon as it was available, I wanted to use it,’ López says. ‘An engineer friend of mine who used Live for another US tour provided the only training I needed. Soundcheck was my rehearsal with the console. It just sounded correct – everything was there, the way I wanted it to be.’
López reckons that the console’s sound quality is particularly noticeable on violins: ‘We have seven violins for the mariachi,’ he explains. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to hear because it’s loud on the stage. The first time I truly heard violins sound in the place I wanted them was when I mixed with SSL Live. What’s more, we’re running the mariachi musicians through a really small wireless microphone. It’s hard to have power on those instruments, but that just came naturally with the SSL.’
A 25-year veteran who also mixes FOH for Los Ángeles Azules and has previously worked with Marco Antonio Solís, López feels at home with the control surface: ‘The console accommodates to the way you’re mixing,’ he says, ‘not the other way around.’
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
