The mix team for Colombian singer/songwriter Maluma – front of house engineer Lucas Pinzon, monitor engineer German Tarazona and broadcast engineer Fabrizio Piazzini – are employing Waves plugins for the artist’s 2022 world tour along with a SuperRack plugin rack for FOH and monitors and an eMotion LV1 mixer to mix the Amazon Music Prime broadcast of the tour’s homecoming concert in front of 54,000 live fans in his hometown of Medellin.
“I’ve been using Waves plugins constantly over the last 11 years,” says Pinzon, “and today they are essential to my work on every show. I use them on my DiGiCo Quantum 338 console via its Waves IO port and the Waves SuperRack live plugin rack, and it’s amazing how creative I can be using this setup. It gives me unbelievable agility, where a split second is vital to get what I want in a live show environment.”
“I have several favorite plugins,” he continues, “and these are just examples — just some of my must-haves that help me deliver quality audio every night, in venues with complicated acoustics. The F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ is a great tool, since not only can I equalize with precision, I can also compress band-by-band according to my needs. Of course, F6’s real-time visual analyzer makes everything visually faster. The Scheps Omni Channel is a ‘Swiss army knife’ that I use a lot in my chains. I love it. In addition to having a very nice color and texture, it is totally customizable. It helps me build a unique sound, according to my criteria and taste. I can also include it as an external plugin into the internal chain. The PSE (Primary Source Expander) is a must for cleaning my vocals of disruptive mic bleed.
He also employes an Mo D5 Dynamics for certain dynamic requirements, a CLA-2A on bass and vocals, a CLA-3A on guitar groups, and a CLA-76 on drums. “I really enjoy the particular sound and color of the dbx 160 compressor/limiter because it leads me to a sound that I have stuck in my memory from analog times, with a unique punch and precision. Finally, the Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain is simply exquisite — an absolute work of art.”
Tarazona explains, “For me, SuperRack has been a new world and a total game-changer for my in-ear monitoring mixes. This is my first tour using DiGiCo with Waves integration, and it’s been my best decision. I have control from the console for any parameter of the plugins that I select, which allows me to be more precise when making changes during the concert.
“For this tour,” he continues, “I use a DiGiCo 338 console with a Waves IO port, two Extreme-C SoundGrid Servers for redundancy and a Mac mini for my SuperRack. During rehearsals, I like to use the touch-screen. It allows me to navigate very fast, but during the show, I am very careful with every step I take, so I prefer to use the Touch and Turn knob of my DiGiCo to change the parameters of my plugins. This is an incredible advantage of SuperRack’s integration with DiGiCo. I also have the privilege of having a singer and a band that are very well-versed in technology, so with every plugin I use we explore it as a team so that everyone enjoys the process of their instrument. What reassures me, as well, is that they don’t feel any latency in their mixes.”
Piazzini concludes, “We’ve used Waves’ eMotion LV1 mixer to broadcast our live show from the Atanasio Girardot Stadium in Medellin, Colombia, on both Amazon Music Prime and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch. The LV1’s sound quality is absolutely amazing, nothing compares to it. Open top end, super-fast transients, wide stereo image and almost infinite headroom. Furthermore, the audio engine is so clean – its stereo image is industry-leading and the ability to dial in any plugin on any channel really elevates this platform to be the best sounding around.
“Choosing the LV1 was the most versatile solution. Its portability is bar none. It allowed me to get the mix ready even if I was on holiday. What other desk this size fits in the back of my car along with my family and all luggage for a two-week holiday? This was a very strong point for the client as we worked together with tracks recorded on previous shows. Form factor is key in today’s touring, and we could fit two complete systems in the space of half of any other console available.
“As far as networking, the LV1 has huge possibilities. The really quick setup for multi-track and virtual soundcheck is a game-changer. Our setup is quite simple: Waves eMotion LV1, DiGiGrid MGB, Waves Extreme SoundGrid Server, DSPRO StageGrid 4000, Waves Axis One and Waves FIT Controller. The setup is very quick – 10 minutes and my two rigs were up and running.”
