New York, NY (November 1, 2023)—Spanish pop star Rosalía has been a whirlwind the last few years, becoming a mainstay on the charts around the globe. While the singer / songwriter / producer / actress / musician may have 11 number-ones in her own country, she’s also taken home a dozen Latin Grammy Awards—all of which paved the way for this year’s ambitious Motomami world tour, which found her 68 dates at stadiums and arenas in Europe, Latin America, and North America, not to mention taking on high-profile festivals like Lollapalooza.
Along for the wild ride has been FOH engineer Ricky Ashford, who has been working with the singer for almost two years. To mix the tour for two million fans across three continents, Ashford opted for DiGiCo Quantum 338 and Quantum 225 digital mixing consoles, explaining, “I’ve been using the Quantum 338 since the console’s release three years ago. For the second phase of the Motomami tour, we utilized the Q338 alongside its slimmed-down version Quantum 225, with the Q225 also offering us as much channel count and robustness as we need for Rosalía.”
His decision to go with Quantum desks was supported by the management and production teams. “After getting the gig, I spent a week with Rosalía’s studio engineer to get a sense of her sound,” he shares. “After that, I had the free rein to do what I wanted. Since there were no rehearsals for me to coordinate with the singer, I had to plan everything very carefully.”
Fourier Audio transform.engine Debuts at AES
The result was a desk that included 60 inputs, 24 channels of playback, eight talkbacks, and four microphones, including the main microphone and two guest microphones, along with six audience microphones. In addition, Rosalía utilized 12 channels for keyboards, and there was also a grand piano in the middle of the stage for her solos, plus a guitar, and a keyboard player who incorporated an organ and other keyboards.
Among Ashford’s favorite Quantum attributes are the Mustard and Spice Racks and the EQs, but he also found himself leaning on the use of Snapshots: “I use multiple Snapshots in some songs. I also synchronize everything with timecode as I don’t like to freehand my shows. I’ve made it a point to be as precise with my sound as the lighting team is with the lights. If the show has SMPTE, I like to timecode the entire performance, allowing me to stay in sync with everyone.” That was teamed with the MIDI section, which allowed him to automate MIDI changes to external devices on the desk, he said, adding, “I don’t always want just one small preset. This way, as the Snapshots change, it changes the entire desk, along with other outboard units.”
With such a varied selection of instruments and a multitude of performances, including sold-out stadiums and arenas, among them the packed-out Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Primavera Sound Barcelona, Ashford say that he got “goosebumps” at some of the shows due to the incredible energy in the room. “We didn’t have an audience of fewer than 50 or 60 thousand people,” he said.
