“It was an incredibly challenging project because Krzysztof wanted it to be recorded 100% live,” Kurkowski explains. “Shooting took place in a 120-meter movie house in Służewiec, Warsaw, that had a ridiculously long and adverse reverb. All of the artists in the video play instruments so there was no chance of using hand-held microphones. Plus, part of the band was performing in a separate glass and concrete rotunda that was 70 meters away, and all of the artists had to move around the whole length of the hall during filming. Once the details of the project became apparent, I realised that my only chance of success was to choose the best possible tools for the task and count on the fact that some unfavourable factors could be eliminated.”
Despite initial reluctance from those responsible for the visual side of the shoot, Kurkowski secured permission to use
d:fine™ Headset Microphones and says the results exceeded his expectations.
“We recorded really great-sounding vocals in a very extreme situation,” he says. “Apart from muting the artists’ breathing when they were off camera, we didn’t make any corrections, dubs or edits.”
Once the audio was recorded, it was passed on to Los Angeles-based producer and sound director Rafał Smoleń who was responsible for mixing.
“The tracks from the movie set came to me for the mix, just as they were performed by the artists on set,” Smoleń explains. “The concept of a clip recording was a big challenge because it was supposed to be a master shoot, uninterrupted by any editing of the image or the sound. For the purpose of the clip the song was performed live and no elements of the song were played separately in the recording studio. Thanks to Bartek’s work the audio quality was great, but my attention was especially captured by the vocal tracks, which sounded exceptional. At that point I didn’t know they have been recorded using DPA microphones, but when I got the video file and saw the headsets everything became clear. Mixing audio of such great quality is a pleasure because I can focus on sound creation instead of having to save the audio using plug-ins.”
Kurkowski adds that the skill of the artists shouldn’t be underestimated as this was a key factor in the project’s success. “Hats off to the artists because what they did was near impossible,” he says. “The video was recorded around 2am and the vocalists played the whole song right through while running around the hall with their instruments, and with no corrections. Although I was there and recorded the whole scene, I still don’t know how they did it – it didn’t seem physically possible.”
Please watch the final video here...