Design and installation of new recording equipment is complete at Packard Hall for the Colorado College Music Department, just in time for their annual Summer Music Festival!

The new system features adjustable microphones on servoreelers, preamps and monitor control from Grace Design, and a Dante network for distribution of audio signals to other spaces in the building.

All this in addition to upgraded room acoustics finishes, improved sound isolation to the hall, and noise control improvements in the recording booth!

Here’s an audio sample we recorded on 16 June 2016:

Dvořák – String Sextet in A Major, Op. 48; I. Allegro moderato

Equipment List

Microphones

• (4) DPA 4011C (on servoreelers)
• (2) Sennheiser MKH8050 (stereo pair on servoreeler)
• (2) AKG 414

Microphone Preamplifiers

• Grace Design m201 with ADC
• Grace Design m802 with Dante card

Recording Interface/DAW

• RME Fireface UFX
• iMac/ProTools 12
• Allen & Heath ICE16 backup recorder

Monitoring

• Grace Design m920
• Genelec 8030B

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Appropriate space layouts for recording, control, and equipment rooms are essential. Room acoustics, sound isolation, and noise control are design issues which are often overlooked, but which still have a tremendous impact on the overall operation of the facility. In particular, sound isolation and HVAC noise control should be considered at the outset of a facility design since retrofitting these improvements is difficult and costly.

Some music schools have multiple venues for different uses, such as a concert hall for large ensembles and a recital hall for soloists and small ensembles. In situations where a room must be shared between different ensembles, however, variable acoustics allow the room acoustics of the space to be adapted and changed to the needs of each ensemble. While variable acoustics are traditionally implemented with adjustable curtains, moveable panels, and reversible hinged baffles, one emerging trend is to vary acoustics with electronic enhancement systems.

While variable acoustics are traditionally implemented with adjustable curtains, moveable panels, and reversible hinged baffles, one emerging trend is to vary acoustics with electronic enhancement systems.

Since these systems change the acoustic response of the room itself, electronic variable acoustics can provide some interesting possibilities and alternatives for recording engineers accustomed to recording with software reverb plug-ins. Electronic acoustic enhancement technology is developing and improving quickly, notably by companies including Acoustic Control Systems, b.v. and Yamaha Pro Audio.

Control room acoustic treatments are no less important to the successful operation of recording facilities in music schools and may also be easier to retrofit than sound isolation or noise control upgrades. Since many music schools also include courses in audio production, some control rooms must function also as classrooms with seating for both instructors and students. Carefully considered selection and placement of monitor loudspeakers, sound absorbers, and sound diffusers can help to broaden the optimal listening area in control rooms. Listen Audio has recently developed a new line of sound diffusers which are quite useful for this application.

Network-based audio distribution is opening new doors for audio recording in music schools, by offering more flexible routing between rooms with good audio quality and high reliability while reducing infrastructure costs.

Audio routing and signal flow between rooms sometimes separated by large physical distances must be carefully considered. In the recent past, routing analog signals between rooms was commonplace. This approach typically requires large patchbays and relatively expensive wire pulls which are prone to audio problems. The signal routing complexity of these systems can also quickly become a major impediment for students and other less experienced engineers to make audio recordings. Audio distribution via Dante networks, in particular, is opening new doors for audio recording in music schools, by offering more flexible routing between rooms with good audio quality and high reliability while reducing infrastructure costs. Dante is an audio networking protocol developed by Audinate and is seeing increasing support from a wide variety of audio equipment manufacturers, including Focusrite and Grace Design.

The post Designing Audio Recording Facilities in Music Buildings appeared first on Soundpost Acoustics.

Last weekend we had the privilege of recording a series of concerts and rehearsals for Kantorei, one of the premier choral ensembles in the country. The concert entitled “Echoes: Chant & Beyond” included classic works from the choral repertoire, such as “Miserere Mei Deus” by Gregorio Allegri, and took full advantage of the reverberant acoustics at both Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church and Bethany Lutheran Church in Denver. Concertgoers were treated to a true surround sound experience in both of these venues.

Of particular interest at this concert was a new work by Norwegian composer Kim Andre Arnesen. Kantorei has recently named Arnesen as its Composer in Residence for its 2015-2016 season, and performed the USA premiere of “O Sacrum Convivium” in this concert series.

Here’s a snippet of the piece – we hope you enjoy it as much as we did, and we look forward to hearing more!

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Last week we returned to Harris Hall in Aspen to engineer a live broadcast of the Aspen Music Festival and School‘s winter concert series. The concert was a piano recital played by Orli Shaham on a brand new Steinway grand, and the concert was broadcast live on Colorado Public Radio.

An event like this requires the collaboration of several people working behind the scenes – stage manager, piano technician, engineers in Aspen and Denver, production crew, radio announcers, and, of course, ….. the artist!

Command central on the Aspen end looked like this:

Note the venerable Yamaha DM2000 console, and the laptop for monitoring the broadcast stream via CPR’s online music streaming channel. The audio is delivered to CPR’s Denver studio via a dedicated ISDN line, and it is a unique experience to sit in the control room and listen to the audio come back to the laptop via WiFi with only a second or two of delay! Not pictured is the second laptop running Google Chat to allow direct communication with CPR in Denver, so they can be advised of the live action such as stage entrances, houselights, and whether or not the artist is coming back for an encore…

The stage setup looked like this:

At around 500 seats, Harris Hall is a fantastic intimate venue for an event like this. Background noise levels are wonderfully quiet. The acoustics are lively yet warm. Based on our previous experience recording in this hall, the piano technician’s voicing of the new instrument, and Ms. Shaham’s concert repertoire,  we chose a combination of microphones placed at varying distances from the piano. The hanging microphones were Schoeps MK4 capsules in a fixed ORTF configuration, flanked by a widely-spaced pair of Schoeps MK2h omnidirectional capsules on CMC6 bodies. The close mics on stands were DPA 4006-TL omnis, which gave a beautiful sound – clear and transparent – and formed the foundation of the audio mix.

Thanks to the careful preparation and collaboration of the whole production crew, the event went smoothly. We were pleased to be a small part of bringing this wonderful music to a larger audience beyond the concert hall.

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Gates Hall is renowned for its excellent acoustics, and is in demand as one of the top performance venues in the Denver metro area. Recording in this venue has special significance for us since Tim was closely involved in the acoustical design of Gates Hall.

We hope to share some audio samples in a future post!

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We are gearing up for a new season of recording projects, and are putting the finishing touches on a new mobile recording rack! For you gearheads out there, the system boasts a Grace Design m802 8-channel mic pre, Allen & Heath QU-16 digital mixer, Tascam SS-CDR200 recorder, and a Mac Mini running ProTools 11. The system has been optimized for live recording, but offers great flexibility for lots of upcoming audio production and technology development projects we have in the works… We especially like that it has wheels! A special thank you goes to Dan Gonko for his expert assistance with the ProTools system.

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