As described in the previous TouchMix-30 Pro Live Performance Video blog article, we booked a day at a world class recording studio in Los Angeles, to record and mix a few live performances using the TouchMix-30 Pro. (Here’s the article from the first session with Ed Roth and Friends).
The second band for the day was Andy Vargas & Souleros. Andy spends much of his time touring the world singing with The Santana Band, but also leads his own Latin band, based in Los Angeles.
About the Session
We mic’d up the band with common microphones used in live sound applications and set up K Family loudspeakers for monitors. We did this to get a realistic test on how the TouchMix-30 Pro performs as a live performance recording system on its own. Note that the TouchMix-30 Pro can be used as a recording interface for a DAW in a studio, but for live performance recording it’s much more convenient to record directly to a USB hard drive.
As mentioned in the previous article, we didn’t use the vintage analog console, or racks of effects in the studio. Instead we re-patched the studio snake routing the microphones directly into the TouchMix-30 Pro input channels and multi-track recorded the band playing each song a few times through. We picked the best take of each song and mixed it. There were no overdubs, edits or recording tricks; just a full take of the live performance. We played the recorded tracks back through the same input channels on the TouchMix-30 (Record/Playback screen, channels set to “Track” mode) to mix the songs.
Jon Graves, TouchMix product manager and audio engineer for the session, started his mix by loading TouchMix channel presets for each input (i.e. Drums- Ch 1 Kick, Ch 2 Snare, etc.) He then added effects such as reverbs and delays to desired channels using the FX Wizard. Using Presets and Wizards gave Jon an great starting point to begin his final adjustments to create the mix. Once Jon was happy with his mix, he recorded the 2-track master bus channels, to a single stereo wav file, and sent the file over to the video editor, who imported it into his video software and sync’d the audio to the video.
In subsequent blog articles we will break down aspects of these videos below and share specific details such as an analysis on the vocal channels, or the drum channels. Feel free to post comments on what you would like to see in subsequent articles.
Enjoy!
Andy Vargas & Souleros
QSC artist Andy Vargas (vocalist for The Santana Band) brought his band Souleros to perform two of his original songs. Tu Y Yo combines rhythmic Latin Funk with Andy’s smooth R&B vocals. It’s a powerful and passionate number with virtuoso performances by the band. The Beat is a up beat, high energy driving tune with powerful horns and face-melting guitar.
Tu Y Yo
The Beat
Credits:
• Andy Vargas: Vocals
• Joe Mendez: Drums
• Clever Alvarado: Bass
• Israel Santiago: Keyboards
• Kay-Ta Matsuno: Guitar
• Branlie Mejías: Percusion
• Adrian Carrillo: Trombone
• Raul Aguiniga: Saxophone
• Mark Novelich: Trumpet
• Jon Graves: Engineer, Producer
More information: AndyVargas.com
Learn more: TouchMix Series Digital Mixers
Photo gallery from the session:
