DPA’s award-winning microphones played a key part in helping Thai rock band Carabao deliver a stunning live set when they performed at the Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, as part of a recent US and European tour.
Hugely famous in Thailand and other Asian countries, Carabao reached cult status long ago and are now one of the most successful rock groups in the world. Lead singer and founder Yuenyong Opakul, aka Aed Carabao, is also the founder of energy drink company Carabao Daeng, which is well known throughout Europe thanks to its involvement in various forms of football sponsorship – most notably sponsorship of the English Football League Cup.
Carabao incorporates eight musicians, including Aed Carabao who has been using a DPA d:facto™ Vocal Microphone for some time. For the Los Angeles performance, Alan Sachsel – a long time friend of the band who helps with their US gigs and projects with US artists such as Carlos Santana – arranged for Carabao to be miked entirely with DPA so that they could asses the microphones prior to investing in various models for their own permanent collection. Sachsel, who also works as a sound engineer at the San Jose Convention Centre, is fully versed in the benefits of DPA’s microphone technology because he regularly uses d:fine™ Headset Microphones as part of his job.
Sachsel contacted Eric Stahlhammer, Area Sales Manager for DPA Microphones, who arranged for the band to demo a selection of microphones at its LA gig. These included d:vote™ Instrument Microphones, which were used on trumpet, flute, saxophone, snare bottom and saw (a traditional Thai instrument); d:dicate™ 2011A and 2011C microphones, which were used for kick drum and snare top respectively; d:facto Vocal Microphones for the singers and a d:dicate 4011C as an overhead.
“The sound was amazing,” Sachsel says. “You could really hear a difference. The drummer, Uan, who also plays other instruments, said he’d never heard his kick and snare sound so good – and he loved the simple clips that attached the d:vote mics to his flute and saxophone.”
Sachsel adds that, with four lead guitarists on stage, spill from other instruments can become an issue, especially with vocal microphones.
“This was where d:facto really scored,” he says. “The band’s FOH engineer, Theera Chinhango had no problem with feedback or with the microphone picking up extraneous noise from other instruments. The microphones simply captured the sound of the vocals and delivered them with absolute clarity. Everyone was impressed by the quality of the vocals because they were crystal clear and you could hear every nuance of each singer’s voice.”
After completing their Los Angeles concert, Carabao played a concert in New York before heading to Europe for gigs in Norway, Sweden and Germany.
“The Los Angeles gig gave the band a good opportunity to see what DPA can do for their live sound.” Alan Sachsel adds. “Now they are back in Thailand, they are planning to invest in five or six DPA microphones, mainly for trumpet, saxophone, kick and snare – the instruments that they felt really came alive with the DPAs we used in LA.”
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Celebrating 25 years in the industry, DPA Microphones is the leading Danish Professional Audio manufacturer of high-quality condenser microphone solutions for professional applications. Over the last two-and-a-half decades, DPA’s goal has been to always provide its customers with the absolute finest possible microphone solutions for all its markets, which include live sound, installation, recording, theatre and broadcast. When it comes to the design process, DPA takes no shortcuts. Nor does the company compromise on its manufacturing process, which is done at the DPA factory in Denmark. As a result, DPA’s products are globally praised for exceptional clarity and transparency, unparalleled specifications, supreme reliability and, above all, pure, uncolored and undistorted sound. DPA looks forward to the next 25 years and beyond.
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