For those who think Neapolitan music is just mandolins and tambourines, singer/songwriter Pino Daniele will be a big surprise: this singer/songwriter’s talent has been appreciated by musicians of the calibre of Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Gato Barbieri; just a few of the world-famous artists who have played or recorded with Daniele.
Shortly after the release of his 2004 album “Passi d'autore”, the eclectic artist set off on the "Pino Daniele Ensemble Tour", playing in some of Italy’s most prestigious theatres, followed by a series of summer dates in amphitheatres throughout the country.
Backed by a trio (piano, bass and drums) and a vocal quartet, the Neapolitan artist played his highly original fusion of genres: from renaissance sounds to Bossa Nova, Latin Jazz to Blues, via Reggae and a multitude of other influences, played and sung with his unmistakeable sound.
To ensure perfect reproduction of the more rarefied musical atmospheres and up-tempo electric pieces by Daniele and his ensemble, audio contractor Musical Box Rents brought in two Yamaha DM 2000 digital consoles.
While the monitor engineer was already a digital veteran, FOH engineer Massimo Bigotti was at his first outing with a digital desk.
“This is the very first time for me, as I was a convinced analogue user, but I must say that the DM 2000 has a really intuitive interface and is great to work with. Plus, it sounds really good and we get precisely the sound we want”.
Bigotti made wide use of the mixer’s plug-ins, particularly the 276 and 260 compressors, used on guitars and double bass.
“They work really well” he added, “and, once attack and release times are set, they’re inaudible and do their job perfectly, so we’ve a very small outboard rack - maybe we could even eliminate it!”
On Pino’s vocals, Bigotti also used the Reverb Package, with its programs based on the REV-X algorithm, which were particularly appreciated in the suggestive a cappella pieces with the vocal quartet.
Concluded Bigotti: “Another very useful feature of this new digital modus operandi with the DM 2000 is the “User Assignable Layer”, which enables to group any of the channels on your own ‘personal’ layer, in order to keep precisely those required constantly in sight. We also made good use of Show Manager - for pre-programming, doing all the initial patching, and other work that could be done without sitting at the console”.
Monitor engineer Mauro Pagiaro is a real “veteran” DM 2000 user: ”I’ve been using it for two years on musical theatre shows – by itself, using it to control monitors from the FOH position, or along with another mixer. So it’s a desk I’m very familiar with – I’ve done over 200 hitch-free show!”
On the Pino Daniele tour, the audio system was interconnected with an Optocore fibre optics network, consisting in an LX4A 96k unit on stage, with 48 input channels with selectable gain, connected via fibre optic cable with two DD32 interfaces (one for each DM 2000) each with 32 main ports, able to be used as 64 digital audio channels.
The two engineers were enthusiastic with the set-up and Magiaro explained, “I’d never tried this type of technology because, while in the lighting field, it’s sufficient to send a DMX value to move or change something, with audio, there’s the passband, dynamics and various other things to be fed to the other end of the cable…. but l was curious and, working with digital desks, I thought it was ridiculous to carry huge analogue multicore cables around with us.
I must say that you can hear the difference, which I think is due to the type of connection, which enables the console to work in ideal conditions - the signal comes down from the stage and goes back up there without any more hum problems, as fibre optics cables are interference-free”.
As far as console programming was concerned on this very acoustic concert, it was decided to create some “blocks” for the memories of the DM 2000 used on FOH, for example when Daniele played electric guitar, and any small changes required were done manually. For this reason, a function particularly appreciated by Bigotti during rehearsals was Global Paste, which greatly reduced setting times.
On-stage on the other hand, where things can change a lot, even from one evening to the next, Pagiaro preferred to prepare the scenes individually, “At the Bologna debut, I already had 32, but might reach sixty-odd by the end of the tour!
We’ve got Version 2 of the software, and I’m trying out all the utilities - I’ve already found two or three that are fantastic, such as Aux Solo. I’ve also used Studio Manager a lot – I go back to the hotel, make my changes on the laptop, store them and the next day load them on to the desk… it’s an invaluable facility!”.
After a short break, the Daniele entourage set off on a long series of summer concerts in some of Italy’s most suggestive locations: from Villa Erba in Cernobbio to the Greek theatres of Taormina and Messina, via Cava della Rocca in Monselice, Macerata’s legendary Spheristerion and Frascati’s Villa Aldobrandini.
In these, and many other unique breathtaking locations, the audio team was able to make the most of the numerous functions and flexibility of a new console: the Yamaha PM5D.
Featuring a “one-box” design, this new digital mixing console combines the advanced characteristics and design of the DM2000 with the operating style and functionality of the PM1D. It also has 64 input channels (48 mono inputs + 4 analogue stereo inputs, 4 internal stereo returns). All A/D and D/A conversion is via 24 bit/96kHz converters and outputs include 24 mix, 2 stereo (A and B or L-C-R), 8 matrix, 8 Mute groups and 8 DCAs.
