USA - The Hans Zimmer Live tour is currently touring in North America before heading to Europe later this year. In this “groundbreaking audio and visual show”, the multiple Academy Award and Grammy winning Zimmer, his band and an ensemble orchestra perform a selection of the composer’s scores from some of cinema’s biggest films.
The newly arranged concert suites include music from Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, The Lion King, The Last Samurai and Dune, for which Zimmer received his second Academy Award.
“The width of Hans’ music is so broad, it’s amazing to mix,” said Colin Pink, front of house engineer for Hans Zimmer Live and the World of Hans Zimmer. “As an engineer, it comes with a lot of challenges in the mix and the PA.”
To produce some of Zimmer’s most distinctive sounds, the capacitors are removed from all the keyboards during the production so they can reach frequencies as low as 10Hz. While humans can sometimes hear tones below 20Hz, at 10Hz people still feel the sound and low-pressure levels on their eardrums. The existing PA for the tour could not provide these frequencies to satisfy the auditory vision of the award-winning composer. Completing their research, the team found Danley’s DTS10 subwoofer, a high-definition subwoofer built for cinemas with an output down to these frequencies.
“They chose the DTS10 because it’s one of the few subwoofers on the market that goes down that low,” said Tom Danley, director of research and development at Danley Sound Labs. “It’s considerably more powerful than a vented box if you could even tune one that low and you really can’t.”
“We’re utilising 12 DTS10s across the front of the stage,” said Pink. “It actually looks beautiful as they just disappear. They are visually elegant boxes and giving us that low frequency extension that we need. What I love is that they are doing their job but there are no artifacts. The subs are just clean, powerful and elegant.”
“This is a special need,” said Jason Spencer, system design engineer at Danley Sound Labs. “This doesn’t happen with most live performances. It’s been fun to learn how much Hans loves bass, which is right in line with Tom Danley’s philosophy: the more bass the better, and if you can’t hear but you feel it that’s even better.”
Hans Zimmer Live continues with remaining North America dates in Nevada, California, and Washington in the United States and British Columbia.
