Tarrytown, NY (March 6, 2015)—Natalie Merchant may be touring in support of her latest album, but this year also marks the 20th anniversary of her first solo effort, the five-times Platinum album, Tigerlily. Marking the anniversary is filmmaker Jon Bowermaster’s latest project, a documentary video of Merchant
For the project, Creative Audio Post, a New York-based, full-service audio post-production studio used TSL Products’ Soundfield ST-450 microphones to record surround crowd ambiance and reactions, as well the string section, during Merchant’s live concert at the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, NY.
Creative Audio Post’s founder Jacques Boulanger and his partner, Holly Grace, were in charge of setting the microphones for this purpose, and of recording of the entire mixing desk feed on two redundant, 40-track, portable recording rigs.
“Recording crowd ambiance and reactions is often a neglected part of a live concert soundtrack, yet it is such an integral part of recreating the live experience. We love our TSL Soundfield Microphones because they give us the flexibility to capture with precision the reaction of an individual member of the audience as well as individual players to create a full surround-sound experience, and transport the viewer to the venue, as if they were there,” says Boulanger.
Boulanger and his team used two Soundfield ST-450 microphones: one perched at the edge of the balcony—capturing a 360-degree recording of both the balcony audience as well as the entire orchestra audience—and a second one above the string section. Both microphones were tracked in their unique B-format, using 100-meter extension cables designed for location recording.
The ST-450 extending over the string ensemble provided imaging of each string player. The second ST-450, used for the crowd ambiance recording, will provide a way to “zoom into” any particular direction and pinpoint any singular audience member response throughout the venue with the use of the SurroundZone2 plug-in inserted across the B-format Quad channel. The plug-in enables the team to steer the forward axis of this notional array in a full 360-degree horizontal circle and to elevate it over a ±45-degree arc as a post process.
Creative Audio Post
www.creativeaudiopost.com
TSL Products
www.tslproducts.com
