BLACKBOX BBR1B makes live recording “easy” declares FOH Engineer Mattia Sartori.
With an incredible live set at the inaugural RPMM Festival in the Portuguese city of Porto, Francesca Lombardo – famous for her unique electronic sound – gave rise to a thrilling fusion of live and pre-programmed music. At Front of House was Live Engineer Mattia Sartori, who captured the set on one of his 2 JoeCo BBR1B BLACKBOX multi-track recorders.
London-based Sartori has held senior audio engineering and project management posts across the world and regularly takes his BLACKBOX recorders out on the road, enjoying “a totally robust and reliable recording solution with no worries about software and compatibility issues”.
He acquired his first BLACKBOX recorder in 2016 and since then has recorded a variety of artists, from classical singer Carly Paoli at London’s Cadogan Hall, to the percussion-driven, electronic quartet Penya.
With performances that incorporate piano, vocals and DJ sets, Francesca Lombardo is among the most dynamic of all contemporary electronic artists. For her live set at the RRPM festival, Sartori had “every instrument stereo or mono, and several microphones coming into the recorder.” A total of 18 channels into one BBR1B to capture her dynamic electronic sound without missing a single detail.
“Once again, the BBR1B performed brilliantly,” he said. “And in fact, the show reminded me that there is a real sweet spot in the unit with regard to where it performs best in terms of sonics. In my opinion, that’s where it hits the red light – you have to go into the red every now and then! That’s where it can really come into its own, sound-wise.”
Sartori reports that the BLACKBOX played an integral part in his success with Lombardo’s set, explaining that it is “one of those pieces of equipment that you can just set up and forget about. You plug in the USB stick, format it, press record, and you are done. Then at the end of the show, you pick it up and you are on to the next thing. It’s so easy.”
For Sartori, the 2018 live show period is now beginning to wind down, and he will spend more time over the coming months working on studio and tech-based projects, including the restoration of an iconic EMI TG12345 solid-state console. But when his live recording work picks up he will reach once again for his trusted 24 channel BLACKBOX BBR1B recorders.
“In all the time I have been using JoeCo I have only had to call on support once, and on that occasion, it was both easy and responsive. I really have only positive things to say about my experience with JoeCo and the BLACKBOX Recorder,” he concluded.
