Despite the varied cultural differences across the U.S., one constant theme you can find throughout the country is a love for music. Whether it’s used as a tool to celebrate, educate or invigorate audiences, live music has long brought people together and quality audio is always the key to success in these performances. Audio engineers around the globe have consistently turned to DPA Microphones to provide that level of sound reliability and clarity that impresses professionals and enraptures audiences. Such was the case for recent U.S. events including the Catalina JazzTrax Festival, Belmont University’s Oratorio Chorus and Orchestra, Danny Elfman at the Hollywood Bowl and the upcoming Los Angeles Ballet’s performance of the “Nutcracker” at the Dolby Theater.
The annual Catalina JazzTrax Festival set on Catalina Island has been made possible for the past 26 years by Production Manager and Audio Engineer Gregg Hudson of Hudson Audio. Hudson has also been aided by FOH Engineer Spenser Bishop of MixOne Sound since 2008, and this season was no different. With 22 bands performing across two weekends, the festival required a quality audio production―made possible by a wide selection of nearly 20 DPA Microphones, including 4099 CORE Extreme SPL Instrument, 2011 Twin Diaphragm Cardioid, 2028 Vocal and 4055 Kick Drum microphones.
“The room is like a giant fishbowl, one of the hardest I’ve ever mixed in, and the microphones made it all better,” Bishop shares. “Everything felt separate and controlled. Normally, I can’t put that much of the drums into our mix, but with DPAs on basically the entire drum set, I had a lot of control, which was awesome. The vocal mics were also super focused―for the singer to be within 10 feet of the drums and to not get a lot of noise was wild. The 2028 is the best wireless vocal capsule I’ve ever heard in my life. We haven’t had this many great microphones for isolation and control before; the room really needed that.”
