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Colombian Rock for D Live
Being named ‘One of the Most 100 Influential People in the World’ by Time Magazine is an accolade not usually bestowed on musicians. Yet, Juanes, the latest Latin musical sensation to be touring the globe, takes it all in his stride — along with many music charts across the USA and Europe, where recent conquests have included number ones in Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain and Switzerland. Throw in five recent nominations for the Video Music Awards together with three Latin Grammy nominations for his multi-platinum album, ‘Mi Sangre’, and it quickly becomes apparent why the Colombian rock-superstar is causing such a stir. Now, with his current single, ‘Camisa’, still in the Billboard Top 10 Hot Latin Tracks more than seven months after it originally hit the airwaves, Juanes is wowing his fans on his extensive World Tour.
FOH engineer, Rob Colby, is no stranger to Latin flavours with the likes of Ricky Martin, Shakira and Luis Miguel all having passed through his mixing desk over the last three years, while his resume reads like a back catalogue of artistes from the 80s and 90s. “Fernan Martinez, Juanes’ manager, and I exchanged a few phone calls last December and he asked if I would like to come along for some fun and good music. I had just done a long tour and was looking forward to staying at home for a minute,” Colby recalled. After a little conversation Colby remembered that Juanes was a performer at the Latin Grammies, a show he had mixed, and finally decided to do two showcases. The rest, as they say, is history and Colby has now been mixing Juanes since January 2005 racking up 90 shows so far with 17 sold out in Spain.
The sound system for the tour is being supplied by Showco — a company Colby has worked with for 28 years: “The guys are just great and have always been such a great support network, not only for the gear but people as well,” Colby said. For the ‘Mi Sangre’ tour the company has supplied a DiGiCo D5 Live digital mixing console, something that makes Colby a happy man: “I’ve been using this console for about three years now and I love it. The way in which the console is laid out means I can find my way around the desk without too much difficulty, but the thing I like the most is that it sounds great!” he enthused.
Dealing with a large energetic band means Colby has to be on top of the mix at all times and the D5 is there for support supplying all the dynamics processing for the band, bar two Avalon Design 737s for vocals and two Empircal Labs Distressors on Bass. As well as ensuring the mix sounds great for the audience, the D5 is also used to integrate with Steinberg’s Nudendo software on certain shows: “The system interfaces very well with the console. We get this recording package through Delicate Acoustics in LA, which consists of an 112 track system recorded onto external hard drives for archives,” Colby detailed.
With seven more months of the tour still remaining it looks a long while until Colby can put his feet up at home, until then a flightcase and the D5 armrest will have to suffice.
21st October 2005
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