Grammy-Nominated Classical Cellist Uses the DPA 4061 and DPA 4088 Microphones for All Performances on the Silk Road Ensemble Tour
Yo-Yo Ma’s Audio Engineer Jody Elff relies on DPA Microphones’
4088 cardioid headset and
4061 omnidirectional miniature microphones for the
Silk Road Ensemble tour.
The
Silk Road Ensemble, featuring the Grammy-winning classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma, explores the intersection of a variety of musical traditions, drawing inspiration from the historic Silk Road network of trade routes, where wildly diverse cultures and ideas mingled and evolved. The tour combines Western instruments like the violin, viola, cello and bass with such Eastern instruments as the shakuhachi, kamanchech, oud, pipa and sheng.
Elff has been the audio engineer for the
Silk Road Ensemble tour for the past five years. Prior to this he worked as an audio engineer for such artists as Hall & Oates, Diana Krall, Smokey Robinson and Laurie Anderson. The
Silk Road Ensemble tour, ongoing since 2000, employed DPA mics even before Elff joined. As performers on the tour participate in different combinations from piece to piece, there is a constantly evolving ensemble on stage. As such, providing each musician with a specific cabled-microphone would be impractical and visually chaotic. DPA mics offer a low profile while still providing studio-quality sound—helping to make the performances shine.
“By using DPA miniature microphones on wireless systems, we are able to maintain very high quality micing that is also visually elegant,” Elff explains. “The mics simply attach to the instruments themselves and leave the stage when that performer’s piece is over. Beyond that, the performances of the various DPA mics are exceptional. The frequency and dynamic range are fantastic and reliably deliver an excellent picture of whatever instrument you have them attached to.”
The typical setup for the tour utilizes a combination of up to 14 DPA 4061s and 4088s, all on wireless beltpacks, so that the musicians can appear on and off the stage easily for different pieces throughout the performance. The DPA 4061s are ideal as live and studio microphones for acoustic string instruments. Offering great detail and resolution, they provide a neutral sonic character and are very natural sounding. In addition, they have a very low-noise floor and impressive sensitivity, allowing them to handle high SPLs. The DPA 4088, meanwhile, is a miniature cardioid microphone that provides the best sound possible for live performance environments, even in noisy situations.
“With the DPA mics, the physical impact of the mic itself on the music-making is so small that it’s almost invisible to the audience and the musicians,” says Elff. “The musicians are never worried about having to maintain some physical relationship to a stand-mounted mic while on stage and can just pay attention to making good music. Add to that the fact that the mic sounds fantastic and you’ve got a winning combination.”
For Elff, the tour has been both exhilarating and a challenge. “The foremost consideration, always, is to make the musicians feel absolutely comfortable on stage, so they feel free to make music as effortlessly as possible,” says Elff. “The listening environment on stage has no amplification, so a typical performance can be chaotic, due to the convergence of such a wide selection of instrumental timbres. Carefully using the mics on each instrument to provide both on-stage reinforcement for the musicians via their stage monitors and selective reinforcement for the audience is literally essential to making this kind of ensemble possible.”