China (May 6, 2019)—On Tsang Man Tung’s new album, The Seed of Sound, the Chinese artist and wellness guru plays 30 singing bowls—the ancient instruments that have long been used in Buddhist religious ceremonies to accompany periods of meditation and chanting.
In order to capture the bowls’ resonances for the album, producer/engineer Chan Pui Ching miked them with a number of DPA’s d:vote 4099 instrument microphones. The result was 39 live performances recorded in the span of three days.
“To capture the sound and full frequency range of the bowls, it was crucial to choose the right microphone early on in the process, at concept stage,” Mr. Chan says. “We decided to go with d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones because they could deliver the results we wanted. We mounted them in the correct location and they perfectly captured a balanced mix of the high and low frequencies.”
Tsang noted, “This is not the first time I have recorded with singing bowls, but it is the most challenging one because, unlike other albums, almost all of the music on it was recorded live and without adding any effects at the post production stage. More than 30 bowls were used, each of which sounds very different to our ears. Each bowl has a complicated radiating pattern because the radiation comes from the different sizes of the bowls and the material it is made of.”
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