Sound designer Colin Pink has specified DPA miniature microphones for a new UK tour of Chess, the opus of Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. The UK tour opened at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle in late August featuring a cast of West End stars, and continues into 2011.
Pink explains that there were some unusual considerations to take into account when specifying the mics for the tour. “This is an actor/musician production, which means there are 30 performers on stage who sing, play and dance, often all at the same time,” he says. “With this in mind, I needed mics that would work equally well on voice and instruments. The DPA 4061 miniature omnidirectional mic seemed to be the perfect choice for the job, as it is equally at home with vocals and instruments and is very open sounding, with a good dynamic range.”
Pink experimented a little with mic placement, starting with the mics in a ‘normal’ forehead position, biasing the left side for the violins and the right for flutes. For clarinet and brass player, Pink kept the mics in a central position, which he found surprisingly picked up instruments better than the voice.
“I ended up moving all the mics nearer the mouth, and swapped six of the vocalists’ mics for DPA 4066 omni headbands,” he explains. “This method, in conjunction with some grill choices, including high boost grills on the brass to make them ‘cut through’ a bit better, worked very well and gave me a great balance between voice and instruments, with good separation between performers.”
In addition to the 25 headworn mics, Pink used DPA 4061s clipped onto two cellos.
“I’m very happy with the full and rich sound of the show,” concludes Pink. “I’m able to get a lot of control from the DPA microphones, which also provide the show with a very natural sound.”
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