New York, NY (December 11, 2023)—RBD ruled Latin Pop in the 2000s, selling more than 15 million records worldwide and embarking on a string of major tours before calling it a day in 2009—so when the group announced it would reform this year for a 26-city, 54-date tour across the U.S., Colombia, Brazil and Mexico this year, it was big news. While the production kicked off at El Paso, Texas’ Sun Bowl stadium in August with rave reviews and a packed house, the journey is now nearly complete, as the final three shows begin this weekend in Mexico City.
Along for the ride is a sizable system from Clair Global, which FOH engineer Miguel Tapia is running through his preferred mixing platform, an Allen & Heath dLive based around a DM64 MixRack and an S7000 Surface. Perhaps the choice was something of a given since Tapia is also Senior Consultant for Allen & Heath’s Mexican distributor, Representaciones de Audio
Mixing The Mavericks’ Road-Ready Revelry
The DM64 MixRack, featuring 64 XLR inputs and 32 XLR outputs, is the center of the system, providing 128 input channels and 64 mix outputs coupled with a configurable 64-bus architecture. As the largest surface in the dLive range, the 36-fader S7000 has a pair of 12” touchscreens and numerous configurable SoftKeys and rotary controls for customizing mixing workflow. With the analog split allowing Tapia to choose which preamps feed the FOH mix engine, Tapia augmented the system with a pair of DX32 modular I/O expanders that between them house four Prime input cards and two Prime output cards for a total of 32 Prime preamps and 16 Prime outputs in addition to the 64 inputs and 32 outputs offered by the DM64. The remaining slots in the DX32 were populated with AES input and output cards which were used to interface with a Cedar DNS8; meanwhile, a Waves card was chosen for multitrack recording and playback duties.
Tapia chose to use Prime on the five lead and two backing vocalists as well as as guitar, bass and drums. The remaining Prime I/O was used to interface with his Neve Portico II Master Buss Processor and provide feeds to the PA.
Elsewhere in the setup, Tapia used dLive’s Deep processing emulations of classic hardware and Dyn8 engine for his signal processing: “I absolutely love the native dLive processing; I think I use just about everything. I really like the Mighty compressor on snare and kit subgroup, and I also like the Dual Threshold Expander on drums. I use a lot of Dyn8 (multiband compressor and dynamic EQ), the transient controllers, the de-esser and more.”
“The dLive system has been fantastic so far, especially the Prime Input Cards and Outputs,” Tapia said. “The dLive system is super robust and delivers a big, clear sound, making every show a memorable experience.”
