Colombian-born and Latin Grammy Award-winning entertainer Maluma continues his Don Juan world tour in North American using a Clair Global Cohesion series PA system, as well as DiGiCo equipment, including SD-Racks, an Orange Box, DMI-Waves cards, and a complete Optocore network loop. The Quantum338 desks at both FOH and monitors are hubs for an audio infrastructure is performing at every show as flawlessly as the artist himself.
The adoption of the Quantum338 was a system-critical decision for the tour, says German Tarazona, who this year moved from mixing monitors to the FOH mix for Maluma (aka Juan Luis Londoño Arias).
‘We needed a system that could integrate with our requirements for this tour,’ he explains. ‘We wanted to be able to share gain structure to make fewer format conversions and access our tracks via Madi on the same network loop, and the Quantum series made that all really easy to design, with the support of Fernando Delgado from DiGiCo London and Clair Global, which supplied all of the tour technology.’
Tarazona says the Quantum Mustard and Spice Rack processing have streamlined the system both operationally and sonically.
‘At front of house and monitors, we are using the new Mustards, and they are a great combination of the legacy and the new DiGiCo technologies. The compressors in particular are amazing. At FOH, I use the new multiband compressors in the Spice Rack to control the sequences and the blend with the live band. They work extremely well and can be assigned to the faders, which assures complete accuracy when making changes during the show. In my main groups, I have a combination of Mustard compressors with their different models – Classic, Vintage VCA Optical, and the FET Limiter – which has allowed me to add different subtle yet expressive colours to my mix. Mustard is a true game-changer.’
The gear list for Don Juan extends from the FOG Quantum338 with one of two 56x40 SD-Racks with 32-bit I/O used for gain sharing with monitors, an Orange Box used to run sequenced tracks, and a DMI-Waves card for integrating two Waves Titan servers. Tarazona and monitor engineer Juan David Medina are both also using the SoundGrid Qrec app for multichannel recording on Reaper software on their respective desks.
In total, the show has 76 analogue inputs, plus 18 more via Madi, while monitor world has 40 outputs for 20 in-ear mixes and a dozen or so intercom channels. System technician Rick Soukup keeps the wheels turning, along with PA technicians Brandon Allison and Sam Pinson and RF tech Austin Dudley.
‘At first it was a challenge to initially build the overall gain structure of the show as a team, but by the time we were ready and started using the gain tracking at FOH, it is amazing how accurate and stable the console is,’ Tarazona continues. ‘We never had any problems. Each console can do virtual soundcheck at the moment you need it.
‘It’s a very dynamic show and Maluma is very diverse in his music – our show starts with a very intense intro and we go to reggaeton, pop, regional Mexican songs, salsa, and even batucadas. I mix more than 50 snapshots for different moments of the show where I sometimes have very slight changes, like a high- or low-pass filter, or radical changes of compressions and saturations in my drum, guitar, and bass channels. Whatever I need to do, the DiGiCo is ready. This console allows me to take my mix where I need it; it’s versatile, and being able to use all three screens for my workflow is the best of all. Without a doubt, my Quantum338 was the right choice for this tour.’
See also:
Maluma takes Quantum leap on latest US tour
