Los Angeles, CA (January 16, 2018)–On the recommendation of FOH engineer Vincent Casamatta and monitor engineer Scott Wasilk, Halsey is using a DPA d:facto vocal microphone at every stop on her current world tour.
“We chose the d:facto because we were looking for a microphone that sounded natural and needed less treatment,” says Casamatta. “Beyond high pass filtering, and some artist specific cuts, we try to preserve the tone of the equipment. We didn’t want a mic that always needed to be de-essed or always needed compression in the low mids.”
The singer likes to spend much of her show well in front of the PA interacting with the crowd, so rejection and bleed were important issues for the engineers. “The d:facto has a tight pattern and the bleed making its way into the microphone is more natural and usable than other options we have tried,” said Wasilk.
Casamatta added, “Prior to using the d:facto, we were left to choose between a microphone with good rejection that was very dull, or a microphone with studio quality high end but with a wide pattern. Halsey spends so much time in front of the PA that we need both a great high end and great rejection. The d:facto has clean high frequency response and tight pattern control in a way we haven’t experienced before. It has addressed usable high-frequency response at the front of house, which is pretty amazing.”
Other DPA d:facto mics used on the tour include four d:vote 4099 instrument microphones on drums. “We utilize the 4099s on the floor toms and hi-hats,” says Casamatta. “They sound great and take EQ well. Also, we like the design of the 4099s because they are discreet and easy to place just about anywhere on the kit.”
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