The most innovative and popular pitch correction titles today and how to apply them to your music

MONTCLAIR, NJ (May 20, 2013) – Since Auto-Tune was released in 1997, pitch correction has become a standard component to modern audio production, both as an effect and as a discrete processing tool. The technology has matured considerably since then, and pitch correction is now available in many different flavors. Pitch Correction Software Now! offers a practical guide full of tips and tricks designed to quickly get you up to speed with the most popular pitch-correction products available today.

From the popular and slick T-Pain Effect and Nectar – both by pitch correction powerhouse iZotope – to professional polyphonic pitch correction using Celemony’s Melodyne DNA, this focused tutorial makes it easy to choose the best pitch-correction products for your music creation needs and helps you incorporate them into your music production workflow.

Accomplished music industry writer Max Mobley uses his easy-to-understand writing style and industry expertise to deliver a book that provides clear and concise practical advice in setting up and using several different pitch-correction plug-ins, including Antares’ newest version of Auto-Tune, Auto-Tune Live.

From live stages to home studios, whether you want a vocal effect or precise, transparent monophonic or polyphonic pitch processing, Pitch Correction Software Now! puts music producers of all levels on the fast
track to mastering the many forms of modern pitch correction.

About the author
Max Mobley has been a music industry professional most of his life, working as a guitarist and live sound engineer, and writing and producing songs for film and television. As a product and support manager for E-MU Systems, Inc., he worked with many artists and producers, including Danny Elfman, Teddy Riley, and the Cure. As a product manager for Antares Audio Technologies – the developers of Auto-Tune – Mobley gained an insider’s expertise into pitch correction technology. Mobley penned the popular “Riot Gear” column for Crawdaddy! magazine and has written dozens of reviews, interviews, and profiles for Premier Guitar magazine, including interviews with Adrian Belew, Imogen Heap, Alex Lifeson, Alan Parsons, and Grammy-winning producer Giles Martin (the Beatles “Love” show). Writing full-time from his studio in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mobley is an avid Rush geek and has written extensively about the band. Find Max Mobley on Facebook or visit his website www.maxmobley.com

Pitch Correction Software Now!
$14.99 (US)
Inventory #HL 00102673
ISBN: 9781476814186
Width: 6.0″, Length: 9.0″, 92 pages ”
Colorful graphics throughout!

Hal Leonard Books is an imprint of Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group www.halleonardbooks.com and www.onstageandbackstage.wordpress.com

Mike Wells in his Dangerous Music Equipped LA Mastering Room

Edmeston, NY – May 23, 2013 – Mastering engineer Mike Wells recently completed a project for producer Billie Joe Armstrong, the new “Emily’s Army” album titled Lost at Seventeen (Adeline Records). The sophomore album release will debut June 11, 2013 and features the drumming of Armstrong’s son Joey; Wells also mastered the band’s first album. Engineer Chris Dugan recorded the album and worked with mixer Chris Lord-Alge and producer Armstrong to coordinate the mastering at Wells’ LA mastering studio which is all based around a Dangerous Music equipment. “Without question the centerpiece of my studio is the Dangerous ‘mastering console’ – which comprises the Dangerous Master transfer console, the Dangerous Monitor, and the Dangerous MQ for metering,” says Wells. “I bought this system right when it became available. Until that time, there wasn’t a commercial mastering console on the market, only hand-built custom-consoles. The cost of a custom console was just out of my financial reach, so when these three Dangerous Music tools were released it was fantastic. I rely on them every day.” Wells setup also features the Dangerous Liaison and BAX EQ. more

“We wanted a console backed by a manufacturer with a solid reputation and years of broadcast experience”

TULSA, OK – KOTV and KQCW, owned by Griffin Communications as CBS and CW affiliate stations respectively, recently opened a new 57,000-square-foot, broadcast facility that relies on a Solid State Logic C10 HD Compact Broadcast Console to cover audio for news, weather and specialty programming. The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based production facility houses both stations, but also has dedicated fiber lines between it and sister station KWTV in Oklahoma City to streamline production resources for statewide news coverage. The C10 HD was chosen for its advanced features, compact size and sound quality, in addition to SSL’s industry reputation for building high-quality products.

“For our new production facility, we wanted a console that was very capable, but was also cost-effective and backed by a manufacturer with a solid reputation and years of broadcast experience. That led us to the C10,” says John Quesnel, director of production for KOTV and KQCW. “Several of our engineers have had good experiences freelancing with the larger C100 HDS and we even had the SSL C10 Broadcast Equipment Demonstration Vehicle visit our facility for an extensive hands-on session. We are an HD, AES-embedded house and the C10 gives us the kind of flexibility and capability that we need to support a large news set.”

The new production facility has one large 5,525-square-foot studio with associated production and audio control rooms. The expansive news set in the studio is broken down into subsets to accommodate different programming needs. For example, one of the largest subsets is for weather forecasting. Additionally, the studio features a large news anchor area, three smaller news presentations sets, an interview set and speciality sets for entertainment presentations or commercial production. The C10 is used to produce over seven hours of news and speciality programming per day.

“We use the one-touch setup recall on the C10 to streamline our workflow through the different news and non-newscast programs we produce,” continues Quesnel. “Because we are located in tornado alley, weather is a very important element for us, so that particular area of the set is very large and comprehensive. We have a standard microphone setup for the area that we can easily call up for breaking emergency weather coverage. Beyond news programming, we also have a full kitchen set for cooking segments and a stage set for presentations ranging from live music and fashion to the DIY hardware guy. The C10 has been an excellent choice to handle audio for this type of multitasking facility.”

The compact design of the C10 was also a factor as the console is essentially self-contained, without the need for a mainframe in a climate-controlled machine room. The C10 is supported by three Alpha-Link 8RMP remote mic-pre units and five Alpha-link Live-R I/O units and was ordered with the Dialogue Automix option. As the station relies on many people to run the console, having a user levels system that tailors the features available for control to the skill set of individual operators is a key component for the team.

“We have engineers operating the console that have varying degrees of experience, so the C10 offers us the opportunity to lock out certain features when a less experienced person is scheduled to run a preset program,” concludes Quesnel. “This console gives us big board power at a reasonable price.”

Solid State Logic is the world’s leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast and post production professionals. For more information about our award-winning products, please visit: www.solidstatelogic.com.

Prism Sound has released two new versions of its SADiE 6 software, which was recently nominated for a TEC Award in the Workstation Technology category.

SADiE 6 Professional and SADiE 6 Lite are designed to bring this ground-breaking audio production and recording software to a much wider audience by allowing users to access the software at a lower price point.

Graham Boswell, Sales Director of Prism Sound, says: “SADiE has always excelled in roles where the most sophisticated editing capabilities are required and where reliability and robustness are paramount. However, we have recognised that not every user needs a full complement of features and functionality, so we have tailored specific versions of SADiE 6 software to suite different budgets and applications. SADiE Professional and SADiE Lite are the latest additions to our product suite.”

SADiE 6 Lite presents the core capabilities of SADiE in an entry level package, while SADiE 6 Professional can handle unlimited tracks and incorporates one year’s free support including all major updates. Both SADiE Lite and SADiE Professional include SADiE’s unique and streamlined array of flexible and non-destructive editing tools such as the Playlist, Trim and Region editors. They also provide a slimmed down core set of iZotope VST plug-ins and the well-established palette of SADiE channel strip processing.

“SADiE Professional and SADiE Lite are designed to appeal to radio producers who want the core functionality of SADiE 6 so that they can edit on their own lap-tops,” Boswell adds.  “These versions are ideal for users who don’t need integration with networked radio automation or facilities to master or restore audio.”

SADiE Professional retails at £949 plus VAT, while SADiE Lite retails at £450 plus VAT. Both versions are available now as a download or on a dongle.

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About Prism Sound
Founded in 1987, Prism Sound manufacture high-quality professional digital audio equipment for the International broadcast, film, music production, manufacturing and telecommunications sectors. The range now includes SADiE digital audio workstations and location recorders. Prism Sound also manufactures audio test and measurement products such as the DSA-1 and the dScope Series III audio analyzer.

For more information please visit www.sadie.com or www.prismsound.com

Supersonic Wide-Range Omnidirectional Mic Goes to 100kHz

Pictured with two Sanken CO-100K microphones is music score mixer Bruce Botnick. Photo by Victoria Pearson.

Renowned recording engineer/producer Bruce Botnick recorded the orchestral score of Tom Cruise’s “Jack Reacher” with five Sanken CO-100K microphones. As the music score mixer, he worked with a 100-piece orchestra performing the music of composer Joe Kraemer at Sony’s Barbara Streisand scoring stage.

With a 20Hz ~ 100kHz range, the Sanken CO-100K omni-directional condenser microphone is the world’s first 100kHz microphone designed specifically for professional recording. Botnick utilized a Decca Tree arrangement with three CO-100Ks and two additional Sanken mics for the Surround.

“The clarity and the musicality of these Sanken mics is astounding,” commented Botnick. “You don’t need an equalizer to enhance the high end. No need to boost the 5K, or grab the 16K on a shelf and turn it up. It’s not that they are brighter, it’s just that they extend your frequency range and give more sonic reach and clarity.”

Botnick is well known for his work with The Doors as both their engineer and then producer of their final album with Jim Morrison. Botnick also worked on The Rolling Stones’ “Let It Bleed,” and produced Eddie Money’s first two albums. Botnick had a long-running association with film composer Jerry Goldsmith as his scoring mixer. Botnick first met Goldsmith on 1979′s Star Trek: The Motion Picture and they worked together on most of Goldsmith’s film projects – numbering over 100 – from the 1980s through to Goldsmith’s death in 2004.

“The music recorded for ‘Jack Reacher’ with these Sankens worked especially well with the dialogue,” Botnick continued. “The clarity and musicality of the 100k’s gave Joe Kraemer’s score great transparency, which allowed the music to emotionally enhance the film to its fullest.”

“Jack Reacher” depicts a city thrown into chaos following a shooting that leaves five dead. What at first seems like a simple case to solve becomes complicated when the accused requests that Jack Reacher be put on the case.

Sanken’s CO-100K features very fast transients with an extremely smooth response curve, resulting in great clarity and unprecedented transparency. With the ability to capture sounds in the ultra-high frequency range, the microphone also produces very rich results in the low and mid-range of the audible frequency range.

“Jack Reacher” is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Learn more about Sanken at distributor http://www.plus24.net or phone 323.845.1171

Studio and design consultancy White Mark Ltd has completed a major project for Extreme Music to design and install an entire audio complex at the company’s new headquarters in London.  The complex includes a large mastering studio, a mixing studio that can also be used for tracklaying and three self-contained audio editing suites.

Extreme Music, the production music arm of Sony ATV, was obliged to move premises to accommodate its rapid business growth.

The company’s Senior Vice President, Dan Pounder, says: “We have been growing at a rapid rate and needed more space to accommodate staff and to provide more audio facilities. Fortunately we were able to take over offices vacated by another Sony company and the move gave us the opportunity to re-design the space so that it exactly suited our workflow. The open plan design is now split between work stations for marketing and administrative staff and the audio suites. Thanks to the exceptionally high standards employed by both White Mark and BNP Paribas, which handled the design of the non-technical space, we now have a working environment that exceeds our expectations and has the wow factor we were looking for.”

The audio complex flows along one side of the building and consists of a large mastering room with natural daylight that is equipped with a Pro Tools system, PMC monitors and a range of audiophile processing equipment from Analaogue Tube, Avalon, Manley, Weiss and T.C. Electronics.  There is also a secondary multipurpose room equipped with Universal Audio, Sonnox and T.C. Electronics processing with PMC monitors capable of mixing, tracklaying and mastering duties. The two rooms can work in tandem for larger tracklaying projects, with the mastering room doubling up as a live space. The complex also houses three self-contained edit suites of varying sizes, all of which are linked to a common DDP audio server in a separate machine room so that work can easily be transferred between any of the five audio rooms.

Extreme Music’s Chief Mastering Engineer Nick Cooke says: “We chose White Mark for this project because we had worked with them in the past and knew they could deliver the results we wanted. As our new premises are located in a mixed tenancy building, we had to ensure that all of the studios and edit suites were really well isolated to avoid causing noise nuisance to our neighbours. White Mark was able to completely isolate all of the rooms and ensure that the completed facilities sounded great and were acoustically accurate.”

White Mark’s previous involvement with Extreme Music involved upgrading the mastering studio in its old premises to improve the sound of the room and create more space. That project, which was completed in just four weeks in order to minimise downtime, involved the use of White Mark’s Fast Studio construction method that allows producers, composers and studio owners to build high performance facilities in far less time and at far less cost than would normally be anticipated. This unique system uses properly constructed and individually specified acoustic modules that are assembled off-site, making them very quick and easy to install. Fast Studio panels are ideal for rooms using free-standing monitors and in which there is no need for full isolation.

White Mark’s managing director David Bell says: “Although Extreme Music’s new facility required a more traditional approach to studio building to achieve adequate isolation, we were able to incorporate the company’s existing Fast Studio panels into our design for the acoustic treatment of the edit rooms.”

Established in 1997, Extreme Music is renowned for the quality of its production music and is committed to delivering an unrivalled roster of talent. Among its stable of Award-winning producers and composers are Timbaland, Hans Zimmer, Quincy Jones, Snoop Lion, Vince Clarke, Xzibit and Steve Jablonsky.

“All of our mastering is handled in-house and because we are committed to excellence, we need audio facilities that reflect this philosophy,” Nick Cooke adds. “White Mark has achieved remarkable results with our studios and we are delighted with them. Being able to feed work between all five rooms has significantly improved our workflow and increased flexibility. The additional space has also made it possible for composers to come in and be truly involved in the mixing and mastering process.”

Dan Pounder adds that the move has not only given Extreme Music the extra space it needed, but also helped integrate the audio side of the business. “The layout works really well,” he says. “Everyone enjoys working here and the look and feel of the new premises also creates a very good impression for visitors because they can literally see our workflow in action.”

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About White Mark:

Established in 1997 by David Bell, John Dunnill, Derek Buckingham and Alan Cundell, White Mark Ltd specialises in production facilities for music recording and the film and television industries. Over the last fifteen years it has designed and supervised the construction of over 500 production suites worldwide. The company’s impressive client list encompasses some of the world’s most famous music recording facilities including Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in the UK, Germano Studios in New York, Hit Factory/Criteria Recording Studios in Miami, Strongroom in London and private studios for producers and musicians such as William Orbit and Damon Albarn. In the area of audio post production, White Mark has completed over 140 audio studios and many broadcast and video editing facilities for more than 60 companies in Soho alone. The list of clients includes Grand Central, Hackenbacker, Envy, De Lane Lea, Scramble, Lipsync, Molinare, DeLuxe, 750mph, NBC/Universal, Wave, Unit and Boom. Advertising agency clients include worldwide facilities for Hogarth International and AMV/BBDO on four continents.www.whitemark.com

X Factor Finalist In Session at Bernie Grundman Mastering

Pictured in session at Bernie Grundman Mastering are (L-R) co-writer/co-producer Will Champlin, recording engineer Adam Berg, ViNO ALaN, and mastering engineer Paul Grundman. Photo by David Goggin.

Pop star and X Factor finalist ViNO ALaN has mastered his new single “My Summer” at Bernie Grundman Mastering. The artist was joined by his co-writer/co-producer Will Champlin, recording engineer Adam Berg, and mastering engineer Paul Grundman.

A musical prodigy at the age of seven in his hometown of St. Louis, ViNO ALaN was proficient as a child on drums, piano, saxophone, harmonica and numerous other instruments. After arriving in Los Angeles in 2004, he met Bob Marlette, a producer and fellow musician who helped guide his career and encouraged him to audition for The X Factor reality show, where he found a new audience and attracted world wide legions of Twitter and social media followers.

Mentored by renowned producer LA Reid, ViNO ALaN remains on the musical forefront with his distinctive voice and innovative songwriting, clearly heard in his new single, “My Summer,” from the debut album, “Painting Sunshine.”

“My Summer” is currently available for preview and download at:
http://www.vinoalan.com

Worldwide release on iTunes and popular digital outlets is May, 21, 2013.

For more information about Bernie Grundman Mastering,
visit: http://www.bgmastering.com

SAFETY HARBOR, FLORIDA – MAY 2013: Marko Hunt is closing in on four decades behind the mixing console, and he has spent the last thirty-two of them with The Oak Ridge Boys – first at monitors and then later at FOH. Before securing that enduring gig, Hunt cut his teeth touring with the Little River Band in its heyday. He also spent several years touring with Johnny Cash. Suffice it to say, Hunt is no newbie! And after all those countless gigs in the innumerable venues of the nation and the world, he can hear things with awe-inspiring precision and objectivity, although he’s too modest and soft-spoken to admit it. Perhaps because of that ability, Hunt is also keenly aware of the multiple advantages of regularly “calibrating” his ears with the analysis software that has been his constant companion for the last decade: SpectraFoo by Metric Halo.

“As good as my ears may or may not be (that’s an opinion!) it’s still a good idea to use a measurement tool to maintain accuracy,” Hunt said. “Anybody who does what I do knows that there are so many things in a room that can throw you off. I can hear a frequency and call it. By now, I’m good at that. But I can still get fooled; it’s not uncommon to mistake a frequency for one that’s an octave higher or lower. Moreover, I’m used to calling frequencies in the standard 1/3 octave bands. But with SpectraFoo, I can objectively see what’s going on with much greater resolution, switching to 1/6 or even 1/12 octave, which allows me to pinpoint a frequency on my parametric EQ. Very often, that center point may sit between the 1/3 octave bands.”

In addition to the tricks and phantoms that acoustical spaces and PA systems love to conjure, there are often physiological reasons why the objectivity afforded by SpectraFoo and Hunt’s Earthworks M30 omni-directional measurement microphone can be a life saver. “Because of the timing of things, there are some days when I go over the mountains flat on my back in a bunk,” he said. “God never meant for you and your ears to go over the mountains on your back! Or I may fly, and the pressure change may leave my ears completely whacked. But my computer doesn’t care. My mic doesn’t care. And SpectraFoo doesn’t care. I can still tune a room – close to perfectly – even if my ears are still recovering.”

When working with The Oak Ridge Boys, a well-tuned room is essential. With four vocalists, four soloists, and percussion, there is a lot going on and a lot of open mics. Indeed, the high pass for bass vocalist Richard Sterban (think “oom-pa-pa-oom-pa-pa-mau-mau” from “Elvira”) is often as low as 80Hz, and he’s a fairly quiet singer. If Hunt doesn’t take care of the 200 to 300Hz especially, his mix will invariably turn to mud. “Although I travel with my own console, every night I’m faced with a different room and a different PA,” he said. “SpectraFoo helps me to maintain consistency from night to night.” Of course, Hunt also relies on his ears – you can often find him walking around a venue before a show listening to Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and other “clean recordings” that he’s very familiar with.

Apart from helping Hunt to objectify his experience, SpectraFoo can also make it easier to communicate with others about sound, which can otherwise be a very subjective topic of conversation – or of disagreement. “I remember one time when I was setting up, and the left side of the PA sounded funny,” he said. “I talked with the venue technicians, who insisted that they had just had someone out to tune things up and that the problem must therefore reside with our gear. So I showed them with SpectraFoo: first the right side where everything looked good, then the left side, where things were obviously messed up. Then they said, ‘it has to be your console!’ So I hooked up the console output to SpectraFoo and it was obvious that both channels were fine. They couldn’t fix it that day, but they did call me later to say thanks and that, yes, a few of the components had been wired out of phase.”

Although he doesn’t use them all, Hunt appreciates the huge diversity of tools available in SpectraFoo, and he uses a fair number of them – both on the road and in the studio. “The main tools that I use for tuning a room and for the actual performance are the Spectragraph (volume versus frequency) and the Spectragram (volume versus frequency versus time),” said Hunt. “I’ll usually compare the output from the console with the output from my Earthworks mic using the Transfer Function (source versus mic). If I hear a frequency poke up, I can turn to the time-based Spectragram, and that lets me know where it is and whether it’s in the console or only in the room.” He uses many of the additional tools, such as the oscilloscope, the Lissajous phase scope, THD Distortion Analyzer and the Phase Torch to confirm the operation of his equipment and to help out in the studio. “I also can route my monitor buss to the source input and compare any channel on the console to what’s coming out of the P.A. or using separate busses compare any two channels on the console, i.e. kick and bass guitar. Once you’re set up it’s as simple as switching window sets.”

ABOUT METRIC HALO Now based in the sunny city of Safety Harbor, Florida, Metric Halo provides the world with high-resolution metering, analysis, recording and processing solutions with award-winning software and future-proof hardware.

www.mhlabs.com

MILAN, ITALY – MAY 2013: A new studio in Italy features a 16-channel API 1608 as the main attraction for a one-of-a-kind studio experience. INDIEHUB, located in Milan, is a “co-working” facility with a primary focus on creating music. Here, engineers, producers and musicians can rent space using either their own equipment (such as a laptop, audio interface, etc.) or supplied equipment and the recently installed 1608.

It all started with the idea that people in the music industry should have access to quality equipment in order to create quality music. Giving them the opportunity to meet each other and encouraging the comparison in a professional workflow is the goal of the INDIEHUB.

Owner Andrea Dolcino was introduced to a similar idea in a different type of facility, and thus the idea for INDIEHUB was born. “Before starting INDIEHUB, I’d been working for ten years as an audio engineer, specializing in post-production for advertising jingles. Three years ago, a customer took me to a co-working facility for a job,” says Dolcino. “So I decided to start the first co-working facility dedicated to music production.”

When it came time to choose a console, INDIEHUB worked with Paolo Orizio of Funky Junk in Italy. The API was the clear choice. “For our budget, the 1608 was the only console with a strong personality and a comfortable and modern routing,” says Dolcino. “It’s modern and vintage at the same time. The routing is perfect for HD recording and the 1608 preamplifiers are really attractive, especially for their response to the bass frequencies. For that money, it’s the best choice.”

The INDIEHUB facility invites clients to rent space for as little or as long as they like and can also host concerts and showcases, making this a unique experience – not only because of the facility, but also because this is the first 1608 console in Milan. “We are excited to spread our wings in Italy,” said Mark Seman, API sales. “This is a great endeavor for both API and INDIEHUB.”

ABOUT API (AUTOMATED PROCESSES, INC.)
Established more than 40 years ago, Automated Processes, Inc. is the leader in analog recording gear with the Vision, Legacy Series and 1608 recording consoles, as well as its classic line of modular signal processing equipment.

www.apiaudio.com

The sound team at the Parco Della Musica Auditorium in Rome recently turned to DPA Microphones’ Reference Standard 4017 Shotgun Microphones to record the audio for a specially commissioned double DVD of two operas that were being performed as part of the Santa Cecilia Opera Studio, a master programme devoted to Bel Canto.

With high quality audio a prerequisite – and with strict instructions from the director that no microphones were to be seen anywhere in the video footage – sound engineer Giacomo De Caterini was initially struggling to work out how he could comply with the director’s brief.

“The director wanted to avoid any microphones that could be visible because he was determined to maintain strict focus on the performers,” De Caterini explains. “Due to bad experiences in the past, especially on video productions where close-up shots revealed poorly concealed microphones dangling from the singers’ wigs, he was very keen not to have any microphones on the singers’ heads. This ruled out the use of miniature microphones such as the DPA 4061s, which we had initially been considering.”

To add to De Caterini’s difficulties, some of the backgrounds were being video projected, which meant that microphones hanging from the ceiling were also out of the question.

“I was quite worried as the only option left was to use shotgun microphones positioned on the edge of the proscenium,” De Caterini says. “I realized this would only be OK if we had a sufficient quantity and if they were strategically placed to capture the audio properly.”

Luckily, Salvatore Zocco, product manager at DPA’s Italian distributor M. Casale Bauer, was able to come up with a solution. He gave Giacomo De Caterini some DPA Reference Standard 4017 Shotgun Microphones and suggested he tried them out as an option.

“Although I expected the high quality sound and trustworthiness that invariably comes with DPA microphones, what I did not expect was the ability of these microphones to deliver a sound unlike any other shotgun I have ever tried,” De Caterini explains. “They were much more akin to a pair of traditional cardioids, and with the amazing ability to behave more like ‘wide cannons’ than strict shotguns. In other words, instead of the typically coloured audio that becomes almost unusable as soon as the pickup is slightly off-axis, these microphones delivered great audio that required minimal tweaks and remained readable and clean even when picking up vocalists who were right as the back of the stage. Thanks to their new, dedicated preamps, they also delivered lower noise than any other shotgun microphone I have tried. Ultimately, what set them apart was something you certainly don’t expect from shotguns: sheer musicality.”

The two operas being recorded for this DVD project were Ravel’s “L’Heure Espagnole” and Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi”. Both were performed in the Petrassi Hall, which has roughly 700 seats and is the smallest of the three halls that form the Parco Della Musica Auditorium complex. The double DVD production was co-produced by the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Infocamere, the IT company for the Italian Chamber of Commerce, and distributed as a special gift to major Chambers of Commerce clients.

After completing the recordings for the DVDs, Giacomo De Caterini was so impressed with the performance of the DPA 4017 Shotgun Microphones that he refused to return them to M. Casale Bauer.

“They were definitely a keeper,” he says, “and they have now joined the Auditorium’s stock of DPAs. I’ve used a lot of DPA in the past – and B&K before them. I love all the classics like the 4006, 4015, 4011 etc., and I also use the DPA miniature microphones for live work, especially the brilliant d:vote™ 4099 Instrument Microphones and the compact cardioid 4021 microphones, which I consider to be the most treasured tools of my trade.”

Recently, De Caterini had the opportunity to use a pair of DPA 4041s (running at 130V with the dedicated preamp) and was completely blown away by their performance.

“They combine the best features of DPA’s classic omnis with the low/mid ability that has previously been the trademark of DPA’s competitors. Using them for the first time provided me with a rare moment of illumination – not to mention an almost irrepressible urge to reach for my wallet!”

Since completing the opera DVD project, Giacomo De Caterini has been working on a number of other high profile recordings including engineering and post-producing a CD of Verdi’s music for EMI Classics, which features the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia with Sir Antonio Pappano.

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Editors’ information:
DPA Microphones is the leading Danish Professional Audio manufacturer of high quality condenser microphones and microphone solutions for professional applications in studio, broadcast, theatre, video/film and sound reinforcement environments. All DPA microphones and components are manufactured at the company’s purpose-built factory in Denmark.
For more information on DPA Microphones, please visit www.dpamicrophones.com