"As soon as it was available, I wanted to use it," López says of Live. "Just by reading 'SSL,' you know it's a quality console. An engineer friend of mine who used Live for another US tour provided the only training I needed. It's very user-friendly. Sound check was my rehearsal with the console. It just sounded correct, it was really great. Everything was there, the way I wanted it to be."
SSL Live's sonic quality was particularly noticeable on violins, López says. "We have seven violins for the mariachi. Sometimes it's hard to hear because it's loud on the stage. The first time I truly heard violins sound in the place I wanted them was when I mixed with SSL Live. What's more, we're running the mariachi musicians through a really small wireless microphone. It's hard to have power on those instruments, but that just came naturally with the SSL."
A 25-year veteran in the industry who also mixes FOH for Los Ángeles Azules and was previously with Marco Antonio Solís, López appreciates Live's versatility, which allows engineers to work exactly the way they want. "The console accommodates to the way you're mixing," he says, "not the other way around."
(Jim Evans)
