AudioMedia - June 2008 - (Page 68)

06|08 AMSR Pink: “I have three click sends, one of which goes to the orchestra, which I mute and un-mute when necessary, and then there’s two sends to George, who has an IEM – basically, a constant click, and an intro-only click; he can switch between the two, so if he’s on constant click and wants to conduct free for a while, he can just switch that off, and then switch it back on when he wants to get back into it. Obviously, he also has the timecode and streamers so that he knows where he is, and that’s kind of how the show’s kept together.” Adds Cox: “Because the conductor is the composer, driving the orchestra from a conducting point of view, he drives them best from the pictures. Bearing in mind where the pictures are, relative to his view scope, he has a separate source that displays timecode, stings, and all that; nevertheless, it’s right in his face for a piece that he knows intimately. He tends to drive the orchestra to picture, which is what he does for a living, but he’s doing it live.” George Fenton is evidently a brave as well as talented individual a rare breed, indeed. Were it not for Fenton, chances are The Blue Planet Live! would never have happened. Or if it had, it would have probably sounded very different. > charged with overseeing those eye-popping video projections, and much more besides. Continues Cox: “There are a handful of bits that might be from a sound perspective, because, slightly unusually, the replay system is from a video point of view, so we’re using the updated bonzaiDRIVE from Rosendahl, which has got ADAT embedded; there’s some tricks we’re playing with that, because we’re running two sets of everything in sync. The primary screen displays George’s click and streamer, and that’s all doubled up. I’ve put in the new MOTU 828mk, because it’s got 16 channels of ADAT, so we can seamlessly switch over on the ADAT lightpipes between primary and backup, and we’re doing primary and backup clicks as well, because there are certain points in the show where certain members of the orchestra need to pick up a click to do the links for certain transitions. In terms of keeping this thing together, there’s quite a lot going on that’s completely invisible to the audience.” Professional Audio Personalized Sing Play Listen Record Duet is a two-channel FireWire audio interface for the Mac featuring the sound quality and ease of use Apogee is famous for. With Duet’s portability and direct integration into GarageBand, Logic Pro, and Soundtrack Pro, you can e ortlessly make professional recordings anywhere your music takes you. Introducing Logic Studio A suite of powerful, easy-to-use music creation and production tools, Logic Studio gives musicians everything they need to write,record, edit, mix and perform. Reproducing such a detailed soundtrack-style performance live in unforgiving arenas also dictated Pink’s choice of accompanying sound reinforcement: “Last time we did the show we used d&b [audiotechnik] Q-Series and Q-SUBs, which worked very well, but were just about running out of steam, so this year we opted for the d&b J-Series – lovely boxes, because they’re smooth sounding, and they throw forever, it seems – and J-SUBs, which we ran in hypercardioid mode, which worked incredibly well, because one of the big aspects of the show is that all the sound effects add a lot of impact, and when there is a lot of – for want of a better word – film soundtrack effects, the sub-bass has to really thump. I was very impressed with the J-SUBs for that application, because they throw the sound for miles, and you still get a very big impact 17 metres back.” Coincidentally, both concert hall venues also feature in-house d&b audiotechnik sound systems – C4-TOPs and C4-SUBs in Birmingham Symphony Hall, while Cardiff St David’s Hall had taken a Q-Series route, which suited Pink down to the ground. “The problem with box selection on a show like this is not so much in the arenas, but in the concert halls, where it’s so dependent on the acoustic of the hall,” he reasons. “In some ways you’re better off using the equipment, provided they’ve done some research and had some boxes in for auditions, because if you bring your own boxes in, you never know exactly how they’re going to react with the room. So if someone else has done that homework for you, it gives you that bit more time to tweak it and get your head around it. If it was a box I’d never worked with before then, obviously, I might rethink that, but, in this case, everywhere we went – Cardiff and here – I’d used the boxes before. I know them well, so felt quite comfortable. “My big ethos is never try and fight the room, because the room will always win, so it’s just a case of working out the best way of making the best of what the room is offering you.” Wise words indeed, though easier said than done in the hands of a lesser-skilled and lessexperienced engineer than Pink. Hearing Is B elieving Whatever the sound system, one thing’s for sure: such gigs are few and far between – perhaps once in a lifetime, even, in the case of The Blue Planet Live! As Pink considerately concludes, “It’s the best show I’ve ever done in my life, because as a sound engineer you so rarely get an opportunity to work with a 78-piece orchestra and a choir in a live environment where you’re trying to match the scale of some beautiful film footage. For me, it’s the ultimate mix, because you’re doing a film soundtrack live to five- or six-thousand people, which never happens, really. It doesn’t come around very often. It’s an utter joy – especially working with George and his team, because the music is so emotionally driven.” ∫ G reat G ig I n The S ea 68 AUDIO MEDIA JUNE 2008 http://www.sonic-distribution.com http://www.sonic-distribution.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AudioMedia - June 2008

AudioMedia - June 2008 Contents Recording Post Broadcast AES Review What's Up UK? Geofocus: Australia For the Record Special Report: Videosonics Newstalk: DPA New Microphones Novation SL Compact Allen & Heath IDR-8 Eastwest Quantum Leap SD2 & Goliath Final Cut: Indiana Jones Merging ADR Module Koolworld SSL Duende Good Product Sampler: Microphones Video Guide AMSR Meyer Sound The Blue Planet Live! Royer Labs Mics R-121 & R-122

AudioMedia - June 2008

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