After three decades of silence, Manolo García and Quimi Portet shared a stage again in Barcelona. The Estadi Olímpic hosted 56,000 people who sang along to anthems of the neighborhood and skepticism. The night evoked a city before the Olympic Games, with songs that blend asphalt, the underground, and doubt in the face of progress that never fully arrives.
Sound engineering in a stadium of 56,000 souls 🎵
Setting up a live show of this scale in an Olympic venue required a sound system with over 120 reinforcement points. State-of-the-art line arrays were deployed to avoid overlap and ensure clarity in every corner. The central digital console managed 64 simultaneous channels, with dynamic processing to control the stadium's natural reverberation. A technical deployment that allowed every acoustic to reach the last attendee clearly.
The progress that never arrived, but the delay pedal did 🎸
While the attendees sang along to the line that progress does not reach their neighborhood, the technicians busied themselves adjusting Quimi Portet's delay pedals. Ironies of the live show: 56,000 people denying technological advancement while enjoying a sound system that would cost more than the GDP of an entire neighborhood. In the end, everyone was happy: the engineers, the musicians, and those still waiting for that progress, but with better sound.