Hi Charles,

Regards from Spain.

I´ve seen you have mixed some Julio Iglesias tracks. Could you please tell me which reverb did you use ??

I´m trying to mix something similar but I can´t find that warm Julio´s reverb...

I´m eager too. In fact I recently mastered a brazilian singer singing in spanish romantic songs and some JI stuff was the refernce...

As far as I understand Julio has a vocal engineer ? Someone that's been taking care of his vocals for years.. Is that true Charles?


Cachemira, any famous spanish bands you've mixed I could probably know ??? Alecio ??Not many latin AE in here, would be nice to know.

cachemira,

I did my best to get what I heard in my head as a large, warm almost pillow-y verb for his voice, but I may not be able to help you. When people hear my Julio mixes they interestingly enough say the same thing Julio said when he heard them the first time, "I love it, you made me sound like Bono!" (Not really the reaction I expected, but he liked them nonetheless.)

So, if you'd like to know what verb I used to make Julio sound like Bono, here's what I did. I used a combination of verbs (three in fact), a delay + a harmonizer:

• LexiVerb: Short Bright Plate (kind of like a Drum or Snare Plate), 1.0 - 1.2 sec
  
  LexiVerb: Vocal Plate, approx 1.7 sec
  
  TC|Megaverb: Large Hall (factory default setting) approx 2.2 sec
  
  DigiDelay: 1/4 Note Delay, LPF approx 2k, FDBK approx 33%, with lots of the Lg Hall on the return (-6 dB) Set level of delay so you just felt it, but not sensed the actual repeat of the lead vocal. Almost blended in with the Lg Hall.
  
  DPP-1: Split Harmonizer effect for a little thickening.

I started out with one reverb, but it didn't sound like enough (he does like his reverb) so I added another. It still didn't sound like enough, so I added the delay. Again, it needed more. So, lastly I added the Lg Hall and that sounded like I had it.

BTW--I now use Reverb One in place of both LexiVerb + TC|Megaverb. If you have it, you should have no problem coming up with patches that sound as good.

But for the real story, my understanding is the reverb Julio actually prefers on his voice when mixing (I somehow got under the radar) is the EMT 250 @ The Hit Factory/Criteria in Miami. Or in an absolute emergency he'll use the EMT 250 emulation on a 251. So, for your mix, if you have a convolution reverb + can get an impulse response of an EMT 250, give it a try. That should give you the real Julio reverb.

And set the decay for real loooooooooooooooooonnnnnngggg.

Hope this helps.

Jose,

Yes. I'm not precisely sure of the details of who records what when, but between Carlos Alvarez + Carlos Nieto, both very talented engineers who I've known for years, they've recorded Julio's vocal + everything else on nearly every record he's made for a long time.

Great guys both of them. Carlos A. worked with us on the PT Guidelines committee.

Mann..I love that thing on vocals.....it's so pretty...I've been addicted ever since I first patched one in.....

Thanks a lot Charles !!!!!!!!!!

José, last I´ve produced is "El Norte", a spanish pop band.

We recorded the album with musicians from Hombres G (Javi Molina), Modestia Aparte (Javier Portugues), Complices (Teo Carrlada) or Los Secretos (Javier Urquijo) or Amistades Peligrosas (David Tarifa). I hope you know any of them.

www.elnortepop.com

Regards.

Jose,
I do mostly Pop/Gospel/Classical stuff. Ocasionally, reggae and Hard Rock. 80% are independent brazilian artists, 20% medium/major stuff..

Thanks Charles for the tips!! I always wondered how to set up effects that sound like Bono!! Julio Iglesias, is probably the Bono or Frank Sinatra of spanish speaking music. heh Congratulations though, pleasing Julio is probably a very very very hard thing to do.

Cachemira, Yes I heard of some of them excellent musicians! Hombres G is pretty big down here.. Good to know you are doing well!! how is the music biz in Spain? are many new bands getting signed ? I like Oreja de Vangoh alot.. they are huge in south america. Congratulations on being part of the good stuff coming out from there.


Alecio, Brazil is probably full of great musicians. Some of the best musicians I ever heard where either Brazilian or Cuban. I don't know what the hell is it, but there is something weird going on in the blood heh Please send some to Bolivia, I'm right here next to you guys and probably full of the worst drummers in the planet!!!! Could you please send some ???? Thanks!!! heh

From what i've heard convolution reverbs just don't caprture the depth of the 250.

The unit that i've used that comes closest to the sound is the Dynatron 255 from G Prime.

www.GPRime.com

You have to EQ it some but its definitely worth it.

The guy that created it is really nice and he will give you a great deal on one if you are interested.