No matter where Jose A. Rivera Jr., front of house mix engineer for Marc Anthony, travels to, he makes sure to take DPA Microphones along for the ride.
With a full drum kit to mic, Rivera trusts his DPA d:vote 4099D instrument microphones and d:dicate 2011C twin diaphragm cardioid microphones to deliver the sound quality he has grown accustomed to.
“I have been using DPA microphones for the last several years,” says Rivera. “I started with the d:vote 4099s and d:fine 4088 headset microphones, and have since added the d:dicate 2011Cs to my collection. DPA microphones deliver an amazing sound quality in a compact and lightweight solution, which is a big deal to any engineer who travels the world. I will not go on tour without them.”
Rivera, together with monitor engineer Eric Ramey, currently uses DPA d:vote 4099D instrument microphones for drums and d:dicate 2011C cardioid microphones to mic the full percussion section, which includes the toms, snare, timbals, congas, djembe and bongos.
“The first time that we used the d:vote 4099Ds, we immediately noticed that the off-axis sound rejection didn’t sacrifice the audio quality of what was directly in front of the mic,” says Rivera. “We were able to hear clarity and definition in the drum and percussion section both at the front of house and on stage. We only use the high-pass filter, and still enjoy the natural sound of the instrument. The d:dicate 2011Cs are placed as overheads for the timbals and fully complement the sound from the d:vote 4099Ds.”
According to Rivera, the DPA mics have also eliminated clutter, making the production crew very happy. “In switching to the d:vote 4099Ds, we eliminated twenty microphone stands and one microphone pelican. This cleans up the stage, cuts down on setup time and ultimately lowers the weight and case count when traveling around the world.”
Moving forward, Rivera is happy to use his DPA mics on future projects. “I have no doubt that I will continue to use my DPAs, and for now, I’m going to continue enjoying the DPA microphones on tour with Marc Anthony.”
Marc Anthony is a performing tropical salsa artists with 26 Billboard chart hits, more than 150 million views on YouTube and more than 80 million views on Vevo. He is currently on tour in the United States and Puerto Rico through December 2016.
