Los Angeles, CA (March 13, 2024)—Revered for its fun mix of everything from funk to salsa to dancehall to you-name-it, Ozomatli has been wowing the crowds for nearly 30 years, making a name for itself as an unstoppable machine onstage. Tying all those genres together is the complex, yet seemingly effortless beat—and that in turn is captured nightly with Audix microphones.
Tour manager/FOH engineer Reiley Brinser picks up that blend of world percussion and drum kit by using a D6 on kick, D4 on toms, i5 on snares, MicroD on snare bottom, MicroHP on congas and bongos, D2 on timbales, SCX25A as drum overheads, and M1280B on assorted handheld percussion.
Miking a Piano to Be Played, Scraped and Struck
Reiley uses the i5 both the kit snare and the percussionist’s snare; he explained, “I like the top end of the i5; it doesn’t break up or get crinkly sounding. I also think it’s way more durable. I haven’t found anything like the i5 when it comes to getting the snare but not getting toms or anything else I don’t want. Also, a little secret of our snare sound is that I use the MicroD on the bottoms of the snares. It really captures the snare wires themselves.”
As for the Ozomatli percussion station, Reiley places miniature MicroHP microphones on congas and bongos using Audix’s Dvice series of mic clamps. “Sound-wise, the MicroHPs are night and day from anything I’ve ever used before,” he said. “They pick up everything I want in those channels and nothing I don’t. The D2 is on timbales, right in between the shells. One of my secret weapons is a little pencil mic called the M1280B. I use a pair of those to capture all the percussion toys: bells, cowbells, shakers, guiro. They just pick up everything perfectly.”
