The Acme team uses DPA mics for all almost all of its theatre projects. "One thing we've come to believe over the years is how important it is to use the best mics you can find,” says sound designer Tom Clark, Acme Sound Partners. “You don’t want to ruin things at the very beginning of the signal chain." The numbers were daunting, however: “We were dealing with a situation where the ‘house band’ is the Russian Symphony Orchestra, with 110 pieces. Of course, DPA came to mind, as they are our favorite mic supplier.
In its second year, the Festival of the Arts, Boca, in Boca Raton, Florida, brings a broad array of serious music offerings—both classical and jazz—to the South Florida audience. The lineup for this year's festival, held February 29-March 16, included Joshua Bell, Chick Corea, Renee Fleming, Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway, The Gipsy Kings, Lang Lang, Pat Metheny, and the Russian National Orchestra.
One nagging issue had to do with microphones. The Acme team uses DPA mics for all almost all of its theatre projects. "One thing we've come to believe over the years is how important it is to use the best mics you can find,” says sound designer Tom Clark, Acme Sound Partners. “You don’t want to ruin things at the very beginning of the signal chain." The numbers were daunting, however: “We were dealing with a situation where the ‘house band’ is the Russian Symphony Orchestra, with 110 pieces. Of course, DPA came to mind, as they are our favorite mic supplier."
"Of course, it’s not always easy to mic classical artists, most of whom are likely to look upon amplification technology with suspicion at best. “The response varied from person to person,” says Clark. “The lead artists were Lang Lang, the Galways, Joshua Bell, and Renee Fleming, so we found ourselves in mic situations for piano, flute, violin, and voice, all of which are happier not being amplified—and, in indoor concert halls, mostly they’re not. But everyone realized that it had to be done. We hope we made it less painful for them."
By Lighting & Sound America, June 2008