After the release of their latest album, Cada Vez Cadáver, Fito & Fitipaldis embarked on a colossal tour in early 2022 that spanned the country until last April.
This musical journey consisted of two parts. The first part, named Cada Vez Cadáver Tour, was designed for large venues and made stops in several cities in Spain. It achieved milestones such as nearly 50,000 fans enjoying the live performance at the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao and four sold-out shows at the WiZink Center in Madrid. The second part, Cada Vez Cadáver Tour Teatros y Auditorios, took a more intimate approach with acoustic concerts featuring a variety of instruments like the violin, mandolin, accordion, etc. This leg visited over 30 cities over a six-month period, starting last summer.
Since 2018, when he began working with Fito & Fitipaldis on their '20 Aniversario' tour, PA Operator Ángel Martos has been in charge of the technical aspects of the popular Bilbao-based rock and roll band's live performances.
With over 30 years of experience as a freelance PA Operator, Ángel stumbled into this industry casually. Being a musician and a regular visitor to recording studios, he had always been curious about sound and found it fun and intuitive. He would take every opportunity to ask engineers all kinds of questions. He took his first steps in the early 90s in a concert venue that hosted national and international bands almost daily, and then began substituting for bands like Los Toreros Muertos, El Norte, Tam Tam Go, and Gabinete Caligari before eventually becoming a regular member in many of them.
Since then, he has toured with renowned artists such as Miguel Ríos, Leiva, Ariel Rot, Andrés Calamaro, Marlango, Los Planetas, Tequila, Juan Perro, Jaime Urrutia, Iván Ferreiro, Omega con Enrique Morente, Fito & Fitipaldis, among others. In his own words, "What I enjoy most about my work is, on one hand, the responsibility of having the entire sound of the concert in your hands, and on the other hand, making the bands sound as natural as possible, respecting the original musical concept that each one possesses".
In addition to his live sound work, Ángel has had a small studio, Phantom Studio, specializing in mixing and mastering for almost 10 years. Esteemed artists such as Pedro Guerra, Miguel Ríos, Álvaro Urquijo, Leiva, Andrés Calamaro, Marlango, Ariel Rot, Alejo Stivel, Santiago Auserón, among others, have passed through his studio.
Regarding the technical approach for this project, in addition to following Fito and producer Carlos Raya's instructions, the nature of the tour being in theaters and auditoriums with many acoustic instruments on smaller stages called for a vocal microphone that offered the best of both dynamic and condenser microphones. Ángel states, "We found that in the Shure KSM11 capsule, without proximity effect and with the quality of a condenser microphone", He adds, "It has also helped us take care of the sub-bass on stage, which was a concern for Fito. We needed to keep it very clean from those frequencies".
Having received excellent feedback about the Shure capsule from professional colleagues, Ángel decided to discuss it with Monitor Operator Mateo Moracia, and they both thought it was an excellent idea to try it out for this project.
We spoke with Luis López and Paco Antón from EARPRO&EES, to whom I am grateful for always being so attentive, and the truth is that as soon as we tried it, we immediately realized it was what we needed. Without a doubt, a great success.
Regarding what stands out most about the KSM11, Ángel emphasizes its dual function as a condenser microphone, "with audio quality, brightness, clarity, and defined bass", and as a dynamic microphone, "due to its lack of proximity effect and its deep and highly uniform cardioid polar pattern, which reduces phase distortion off-axis and achieves impeccable vocal reproduction, ideal for this format".
Ángel also mentions the suspended suspension design of the KSM11, which nearly eliminates handling noise. He describes it as a relief because during concerts, Fito would often pick up the microphone and put it back, causing noises that became virtually inaudible with the capsule.
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In addition to the KSM11, the Shure lineup included the PSM 1000 monitoring systems, the rest of the Axient Digital wireless systems, SM58 choir microphones, SM57 for guitars, Beta 52A and Beta 91A for kick drums, and SM57 for snare drums.
In all of his tours, Ángel works with the aforementioned Shure microphones, and he also uses the SRH840 studio reference headphones.
This equipment was supplied by PRG España, the provider of all audio systems for Fito & Fitipaldis' tours in previous years. Ángel started working with them in 2018 and highlights their professionalism and excellent team, led by Alejo Fonseca, César Lamadrid, Efrén Sánchez, and José Mourín (Mou).
