Gruppen was written for 109 players divided into three orchestral units, each with its own conductor, deployed in a horseshoe shape to the left, front and right of the audience. The spatial separation was designed to keep simultaneously played, musically separate passages distinct from one another, but in some passages a single musical process passes from one orchestra to another. This setup required three discrete sound systems.
The 4060s and 4061s were used for all string instruments: violins, violas, cellos and double basses. They were attached to the instruments with DPA MHS6001 microphone holders for strings.
The mics were supplied by Dutch rental company Da Capo, which specialises in orchestra miking and own a large DPA inventory. The sound engineer working on the project was Paul Jeukendrup who explains the techniques he used: "I chose to close mic the instruments because I wanted to avoid comb filtering and crosstalk, which both happen when using many overhead mics," he says.
"The music is very detailed and I wanted to bring this out in the auditorium. Rather than dealing with a large string section as in symphonic music, the 109 individual musicians were divided between three different stages, so I had to consider each musician as a potential soloist and thus be able to control the level of each individual instrument."
(Jim Evans)
