DiGiCo Rides the Paraiso Express with Alejandro Sanz

Spanish superstar Alejandro Sanz has spent 20 months touring in support of his hugely successful, Grammy-winning eighth album Paraiso Express. Taking in 22 countries and over 100 shows, front-of-house engineer Fernando Diaz relied on two DiGiCo SD7s to mix this extensive tour.

Travelling to the US, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica, was nominated for Billboard's best live tour of 2010, yet it still had months to run.

Diaz is a veteran of 30 years on the road and has worked with Sanz for the past decade. Using DiGiCo consoles since the company was formed, he was an early adopter of the SD7, along with monitor engineer Frank Aponte. "I remember perfectly the first day, three years ago, that Tim Shaxson from DiGiCo came to Madrid to help us with setting up the SD7. My first impression was, 'Oh, that beauty!' Design, ergonomics -- it was almost love at first sight," he says.

Previously, Diaz had done several world tours with the DiGiCo D5, but seeing and hearing it firsthand, he agreed with the company that the SD series, powered by Stealth Digital Processing, represented a major step forward. "I have not heard warmth and definition of sound as beautiful as that provided by the SD series," he says. "Having mixed over 4,000 shows in my career, with the SD7 I could finally say that I no longer missed the sound of those old analog consoles that we loved so much."

Ten days were spent in production rehearsals with Sanz and his international band of musicians to hone the tour's two-hour set. The entire audio and lighting production was supplied by Fluge Sonido Profesional, with Neotecnica (Spanish distributor for AKG) sponsoring the microphones and wireless systems.

"Alejandro wants his fans to enjoy the best sound and so was very happy to have the SD7s on the tour," says Diaz. "There were over 60 stage channels and 52 UHF frequencies running at the same time, on top of which were processors and effects. But the power of the SD7 means that we could enable more channels to mix the support acts as well, when needed."

Two of the tour's challenges were the extremes of temperature and humidity experienced in different territories, but the SD7s coped with no problems. "The performance of the SD7s was magnificent. They never gave the slightest problem," Diaz continues. "The show was recorded in Madrid for an HD DVD in 5.1 sound and a live album. I recorded the show on the SD7 and then mixed it in my own studio, also on an SD7. The sound quality is extraordinary and the DVD has been nominated for a 2011 Latin Grammy Award.

"DiGiCo gave us great support and we were really grateful for their help, as well as Juan Carlos Garcia, David Lopez (front-of-house and monitor assistants respectively), Fluge general manager Luis Berlanga and his team and that of DiGiCo's Spanish distributor, Meyer Sound España. It couldn't have happened without them," Diaz says.