Carmen 2008
Equipment List
![Digidesign - 003 [rack]](http://www.blairliikala.com/images/stories/equipment/003.jpg "Digidesign - 003 [rack]")
Audio Samples
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thoughts
Hopefully from the photos you can assume this was a large production, and rendition of Carmen (which is a famous opera~for those of you not so operally inclined~about a woman who has a lover that kills her in the end, written in French by a Frenchman, set in Spain, with English subtitles, that takes 4 acts to get through). For a smaller market, I thought the show was done very well housing beautiful sets, great talent and [what I love most of all] a professional pit.
Making a professional recording on a smaller budget with what I will call untrained recording musicians has challenges. By untrained I’m referring to musicians, directors or other people who are not used to seeing microphones, knowing/fullfilling the needs of an engineer or consider repercussions on the recording when making decisions (usually the night before a show). Being this was nowhere near my first encounter with an untrained musician and having solid opera recording experience under my belt I had a good idea of what I wanted to do.... the difficulty was getting there.
For starters, no hanging mics, no visible equipment, and little time for experimenting. Nothing out of the ordinary for classical productions. I visited the hall a week prior to get more information about the audio setup after receiving poor information from the facility directors, outdated information online (no official rider) and no rehearsal schedule during tech week. I was given a tour that proved to be much different to what I arrived to on opening night. I found The Pikes Peak Center to be wired correctly, but used backwards by having isolated splits in a sound-proof room used for live sound and direct splits terminating to a center handicap row being powered by a somewhat broken phantom power supply (that translates into the preconcert speech volume too loud one night and barely audible the second). To make matters worse, my full-time job was generously reorganized to allow the hour in a half drive from Denver to the Springs leaving a half hour to plug-in microphones and setup the computer. On the day of the concert my prearranged loading dock parking was chained off leaving the next closest spot was 3 blocks away. You get the idea…
Given the situation, I can proudly say the last night’s recording finally came together well enough I wouldn’t bury it under fire and brimstone. The standard LCR PCC (well, actually 2 PCCs and one Shure...but that’s because the 2nd was better suited for being tapped to the wall for a backstage feed than having a nice mix) configuration always has decent results per low profile tradeoff and having a pair of omnis in the pit with supporting highlights does the trick for me. I also took splits from hanging Schoeps that happened to be just far enough apart to have phasing and at the perfect position to hear splatty brass (where as the omnis didn’t… ). I would have loved to reposition the mics, but I wasn’t able to hear it during the concert....because I wasn’t allowed next to my equipment.... So a little EQ and special sauce and things started sound like I knew what I was doing. Should make for a nice stereo and surround mix.
Of course, to do any sort of cool surround, movie work I need the movie.... and though one was “going to be provided” I’m still waiting for Colorado Video to send one.
There was one thing about the Pikes Peak Center I thought was fascinating… they have a true, real to life, original plate reverb behind a bed in a basement...and still plugged in.
--Blair--
