Live: Sting, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Abstract (summary)
Benzuly
talks with two of the sound engineers working on Sting's current tour with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
They describe the extra effort necessary to produce pleasing dynamics when an orchestra is called upon to play
rock music.
Full Text
Headnote
RE-WORKED
CLASSICS ARE IMAGINED FOR THE STAGE
Any
consummate artist wants to up their game. Take their musical vision in a new
direction. Work with new artists. Try any number of different creative avenues.
Sting is that type of artist In 2006, he teamed up with Bosnian
guitarist/lutenist Edin Karamazov, releasing a fine collection in Songs From
the Labyrinth. This year, Sting is hitting stages across the world with
London's celebrated Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, reimagining his classic tunes for the symphony,
employing arrangers Rob Mathes, David Hartley, Nicola Tescari and Vince Mendoza
to help with the transformation.
To make
sure that the magic happening onstage translates effectively to each sold-out
crowd, Sting turned to front-ofhouse engineer/Clair Global senior director of
engineering Howard Page, with whom the artist has worked before, or, as Page
says, "I usually do all the engineering and design of all our Clair
systems and tours and then leave it to the lads, but when Sting says jump, I
jump!" The two worked together during the latter part of last year, mixing various one-off shows, and
"Sting insisted 1 be involved in this current tour."
The Clair
Global-provided gear list includes a Studer Vista 5 SR at FOH, which Page finds
to sound as "analog warm and pure" as any digital console he's heard.
"The almost unlimited flexibility and power in such a small footprint is a
real bonus when we go into small mix
areas in concert halls," Page says. "A truly amazing advance in live sound technology! The only
effects I use - or, in fact, any outboard equipment - is a TC 6000 that is
digitally interfaced to the Studer. The inbuilt compressors, limiters and gates
are so perfect there's no justification to create any more in/out AD/DA
conversions, which always ruins the absolute purity of the final result."
The
Studer console has also met the challenge of the number of inputs required by
not only mixing for Sting,
but the orchestra. Page
says he's maxing out at about 78 inputs, mainly due to the fact that he has
individual dip-on mies for each and every one of the strings. Page employs what
he calls the best mie he has ever heard on violins: a DPA 4099V. "For this
style of show, where we are going indoors and out, they are truly a
life-saver," he enthuses. "Open overhead mies on the strings would
just not work for this extremely dynamic show as all-show long, in every venue,
I would be constantly up against a feedback threshold point.
"The
key to mixing the orchestra is how you set up the
layout of the inputs and the VCA submaster controls on the console to break
down the sections of the orchestra
into musically logical parts," Page continues. "That then enables you
to literally follow the arrangements within each song and sit those sections
musically exactly right for each texture portion within the arrangements.
Dynamics shirts can be changed on songs by creating separate masters for the
group musicians, as well as the overall orchestra."
Dynamics
are key in this show, and Page is continually cognizant of the overall level
and dynamics for each song by mixing
live (i.e., no snapshots). "Sting is performing some of the most
contrasting dynamic songs he has ever sung live for this tour," he explains. "He is playing
songs that he has written for albums but would never really work on the live pure-rock shows. With the orchestra, he is free to go into
dynamic and emotional areas as never before. I mix the show to try to deliver each and every nuance
of each and every song as Sting is creating it. This means we go whisper-quiet
for some beautiful ballads and then 'up there' when the orchestra plays a bit of rock 'n' roll. I try
to hit the magic point where the mix
and the overall levels throughout the show are exactly what the authence had in
their head when they purchased their tickets."
And that
paying authence member is also the Number One priority of monitor engineer Ian
Newton. To keep both the crowd and the performers onstage happy, Newton
continually strives to keep the stage volume low, which is no easy feat with a
combination of in-ears and wedges. "Especially with an orchestra, we're trying to keep
it down as much as we can," Newton explains. "Some of the musicians
are on in-ears - Sting's band. We've got some self-powered [Yamaha] Hot Spots -
a selfpowered monitor on a stick - dotted throughout the orchestra just to give them a
little bit of something if they need anything. And then we've got some wedges
out onstage, but they're working at quite a low level. Everybody's being quite
sensible about it, really. Nobody's trying to be really loud; everybody's
playing at quite a comfortable level. When it starts getting noisy, we just
bring the level down. We're at quite a dynamic range - the stage volume depends
on where you're standing in the orchestra
and what type of song Sting is singing."
Having
previously worked with Sting and The Police reunion tour, as well as Sting's
showcasing a performer with an orchestra
(namely, Barbra Streisand's latest), Newton is no stranger to this type of
monitor mixing. From his
PMlD (using only the onboard reverb on vocals, acoustic guitar and a couple of
the woodwinds), he is giving out select mixes: "Conductor Steven Mercurio has a 'monitor on a
stick' at his music stand, which is mainly percussion and Sting's vocal. He also
has a wedge underneath his music stand with a mere taste of bass guitar. As
he's standing in the middle of woodwinds and brass, he hears those instruments
acoustically. Sting just takes a bit of orchestra - mainly strings. Apart from my cues, I don't change
anything unless they ask for them. Since we've started the tour, things have
changed a bit, evolved a bit, but no drastic changes. Once we're done with
soundcheck, I don't change anything apart from my cues."
The tour
is carrying a Clair i3 line array system. With its lower Q due to the wider
dispersion, it's perfectly geared toward this type of outing. Driving the
system are proprietary custom-designed crossovers that match the components
within the cabs as they relate to the full array. "This gives us a very
real advantage over store-bought systems in that phase alignment, shading and
response results are constant and predictable Out of the box,'" Page
explains.
"Sting
is one of the most wonderful guys you could ever mix sound for," Page says. "He has been a
huge star for so long that he has nothing to prove to anyone and doesn't
surround himself with people who limit access to him personally. If I want a
discussion about any aspect of the audio of this show, I can go straight to him
and we discuss technical matters - all to the betterment of the sound of his
show; a real pleasure."
AuthorAffiliation
Sarah
Benzuly is Mix's managing
editor.
Word
count: 1174
Indexing (details)
Narrow
subject
Broad
subject
Naxos
composer
Sting
People
Company
Title
Live: Sting, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Author
Publication
title
Volume
Issue
Pages
37-40
Publication
year
2010
Publication
date
Aug 2010
Year
2010
Publisher
Penton
Media, Inc
Place of
publication
Berkeley,
Calif.
Country
of publication
United
States
Journal
subject
ISSN
0164-9957
Source
type
Magazines
Language
of publication
English
Document
type
Feature
Document
feature
Photographs
ProQuest
document ID
857287717
Document
URL
http://search.proquest.com/docview/857287717?accountid=144516
Last
updated
2012-08-23
Database
International
Index to Music Periodicals Full Text
No comments:
Post a Comment