Techno Flamenco
On a recent work trip I was lucky to hear this band at the Marriot Reforma hotel, Mexico City. From my seat at the bar, I could only see the guitarist with a spanish/flamenco guitar and the vocalist. I could clearly hear good basslines and sometimes a hint of synth-y strings, so there was definitely a bass player and probably a keyboard player hiding back there too.
I was surprised when I got up to find that in-fact it was just a trio! Felipe on guitar, Violette singing + percussion and Oviedo on bongos/percussion. How were they producing so much sound? I knew it wasn’t programmed… these guys were paying loose, not something you can do with a computer.
During the break I walked over to talk to the guitarist, Felipe. I let let him know how much I appreciated the music and to ask him how the heck they were pulling this off! The answer turned out to be surprisingly high-tech. Thankfully his English was better than my Spanish, so I was able to gather this from the setup….
Guitar
This guiar is from a company in Canada called Godin and it’s the key to this setup. Unlike a normal guitar, this has 2 output jacks - one standard 1/4 jack which outputs the “natural” sound of the guitar and a 13-pin output compatible with a guuitar synth / effects processor.
The guitar also has a special “hexaphonic” bridge pickup - that is, it provides a discrete signal for each string through the 13-pin cable.
Guitar Synth
The “synth” allows you to model sounds and (because of the pickup capability) even assign those sounds to specific strings. Felipe took advantage of this to assign the bass sound to only the bottom 2 strings! That that output goes to a bass amp and whallah - you have a rich, convincing bass sound.
Additionally, for some songs he added a very light orchestral string sound to follow his chords. Felipe could blend this in and out using an expression pedal on the synth.
Digital Mixer
This is an 8-channel mixer but the main controls are on a digital screen. By itself I wouldn’t consider this a plus… I think given the choice, most musicians would prefer real sliders and knobs.
However a big advantage is the ability to control the mixer over wifi via an app! The convenience of this in a live environment will be understood by any gigging musician. It separates control of the mixer from the box with all the wires going in & out of it. Instead of turning his back to the audience to make adjustments during a song, Felips just reaches over to the iPad clipped to his mic stand.
Look closely and you’ll see separate channels for mixing guitar, strings and bass - all played from the same instrument!
Real Musicians
What impressed me most was how all this tech blended in so seamlessly. I’ve seen other small or 1-man bands use programmed drums or backing tracks that often sound unnatual and take away from the performance. To me, this was simply adding to the musician’s toolkit to make a great band sound even better.
These are few tunes Felipe played for my benefit at the end of the night. My phone doesn’t do the sound justice - you’ll have to go to Mexico for the real thing. I can’t wait to get back there myself and hear them again.