They decided to make a live recording of the performance of the Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, which would be reproduced during the evening, burned onto pre-printed CDs, placed into pre-printed wallets and handed to each of the 350 guests as they left after dinner. This ambition was achieved in a special partnership with a team of technicians from Sennheiser UK.
The guests included the respective American and European Ryder Cup teams, their wives and partners, management, Ryder Cup sponsor representatives as well as significant VIPs from Europe and America. Sennheiser's team of Dave Wooster (live sound specialist), Andy Lillywhite (chief engineer) and Alan March (product specialist) arrived on the day armed with an array of microphones, a pair of Klein + Hummel 410 monitor speakers and a DiGiCo SD9 digital mixing console, through which the performance was recorded via a MADI feed to a pair of macbook Pro's.
"A total of 19 Sennheiser and Neumann microphones were deployed," reportss Lillywhite, who worked with March and Wooster to set up and operate the system during sound check and the performance. "The main components were three Neumann U 87 microphones spaced around the conductor's podium, which were supplemented by additional microphones positioned around the platform."
These comprised two MKH 800 twin stereo microphones for the chorus, an MKH 60 shortgun mic for the soloists, a Neumann TLM 102 for percussion with an MKH 800 for struck percussion (glockenspiel, etc), five Neumann TLM 103 for the brass section, drum kit and double bass, whilst strings and woodwind utilised two MKH 8020 and two MKH 8040. Finally, a crossed pair of Neumann KM 184 microphones were rigged as ambient mics on the circle front.
"The U 87s were placed and panned left, centre right of the music stand, with the top of each mic at music stand height," says Wooster. "Choir mics were placed in standard left and right positions using phase control from the desk to adjust their respective polar patterns, with the remaining mics placed around various sections of the orchestra to compliment the main U 87s and the ambient pair.
"The ability to 'remote' adjust the polar pattern of the MKH 800 twins proved to be very useful and the pickup from the MKH 60 was truly amazing: it was positioned at least six feet from the soloists, but sounded more like six inches.
"We recorded the 39-piece choir and the 40-piece orchestra throughout their 25 minute performance, with 24 channels of input spread across both. Everything went smoothly. The desk performed acoustically well for the recording with very little EQ used and the pre-amps sounded great using the stage box via Cat 5 cable.
"The combination of Sennheiser and Neumann mics together with the DiGiCo desk made for a great quality end product. The first CD was duplicated within 15 minutes of the end of the performance, which was very impressive and overall it was a successful project."
(Jim Evans)
