Array of Microphones Ship Complete Transparency and Unmatched Pure Sound for Digital Performances That includes College’s College students, College, Employees and Alumni
CHICAGO, DECEMBER 23, 2020 – DePaul College, the most important Catholic college in the US, lately introduced its 14th annual “Christmas at DePaul” vacation celebration as a digital occasion. Lengthy earlier than the semester started, the college’s administration knew it might have to make some massive adjustments if the Christmas present was to soundly go on throughout these unprecedented instances. With some ingenuity and an help from DPA Microphones, the college discovered a approach to host the occasion nearly.
Main into the college yr, DePaul College’s Director of Operations & Occasions, Melissa Grady, knew it was going to be laborious to gauge what could be doable in a COVID world. “We needed to make the decision very early that we weren’t going to have an in-person occasion this yr,” she says. “The present’s creative director, Tony Peluso, and manufacturing supervisor, Jamie Davis, each alumni of DePaul, labored carefully with the college to create a plan that will permit us to pre-record our present. Whereas the present appears totally different than it has prior to now, we have been nonetheless in a position to make use of the distinctive abilities of our college students, school, employees and alumni whereas following COVID protocols to make Christmas at DePaul a actuality this yr.” Dan Steinman, one of many professors within the College Sound Recording Know-how Division, was instrumental in making the present successful.
To document and current this yr’s present, Steinman knew he was going to should depend on totally different tools and setups than earlier years. “For the reason that performers have been recorded in their very own separate dorm rooms, I wanted microphones that didn’t add any coloration and delivered an exceptionally pure sound,” he says. “As an expert audio engineer, I’m very accustomed to DPA’s merchandise and have used a few of their 4011 mics for dwell and recorded functions prior to now. I knew the DPA mics could be a superb resolution for this distinctive scenario, and we deployed them for all the strings, flute, and percussion devices.”
For the manufacturing, Steinman employed one DPA 4006 Omnidirectional Microphone on every double bass and the tympani; one 4011 Cardioid Microphone on every cello and the flute, in addition to two on the harp; a 2011 Twin Diaphragm Cardioid Microphone on the acoustic guitar; 4060 Miniature Omnidirectional Microphones on two violins and one viola; and two of the 4015 Extensive Cardioid Microphones for percussion.
“The DPA mics labored simply as anticipated,” provides Steinman. “I chosen the 4060s for the violins to reduce the buildup of room tone when the string devices are layered in a number of passes. I wished the miniature mics to function a contact mic to make sure that the room didn’t get in the best way. I selected the 4006 for bass and tympani to attain a extra constant sound, in addition to for the double bass to cut back the potential for tone variation. Regardless of how usually you inform college students how you can purpose their instrument at a microphone, they will transfer. Additionally, the event of the sound from the tympani and the double bass is a tough factor to seize. The tympani with that 4006 appears like you’re within the room subsequent to musician, I couldn’t be happier with the best way that recording turned out.”
A part of the problem of recording the musicians stemmed from the necessity to make the most of a vacant dormitory, the place every musician had their very own private recording area and tools setup. “The dorm being a big concrete constructing and never precisely constructed to be a studio a minimum of gave us one benefit in that each room sounded the identical,” explains Steinman. “We had three days of recording instrumentals within the dorms, adopted by about eight days of filming with the singers who sang to the pre-recorded music. For the instrumental recordings we used click-tracks together with the dwell audio combine, which everybody heard by way of their headphones, along with the dwell conductor offering cues for the musicians through a digital platform.”
Steinman was in a single room and the conductor, Jeff Schweitzer, and arranger, Tom Matta, have been every in their very own rooms. “We utilized audio talkbacks to make sure clean communication between takes,” provides Steinman. “Other than every musician having their very own distinctive headphone combine, there was additionally a sound combine fed to the on-site manufacturing supervisor, Jamie Davis, and the director, Tony Peluso, who was primarily based in Orlando through a high-quality audio stream.”
Along with the 15-scene “Christmas at DePaul” live performance itself, the recorded manufacturing additionally consists of filmed opening and shutting remarks from the College’s President and his spouse, utilizing 4060 miniature mics as lavaliers. A narration of the Christmas story by two of the College’s theater college students, which is weaved all through the manufacturing, was captured by DePaul alum, Joe Hampton, utilizing the 4060s and a DPA 4017 Shotgun Microphone with a wi-fi pack, to make sure social distancing. “The 4060 and 4017 are very pure sounding when it comes to voice seize,” concludes Steinman.
