Do you want REAL surround sound?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Sir T t T.....

Ah hates you.... (done in best Yosemity Sam growl)!

You get to play wit all the purty toys.
You get to buy all the purty toys.
You get to have all the purty toys.....

AND I DON'T!!!!!

Grrrr..... Bastiche!!!!! Pass it around!!! Stop hoggin it!!!! Let us get some of the sonic goodies!!!!

Da "suddenly quite jealous and envious and alike" Worfster

LOLOLOL!!

[Ajani]

I am just getting back from touring Todd AO post production facility and the Mann's Chinese theater #6 for a demo of a new theatrical surround system that you will be hearing about more in the future. The sound system is developed by Iosono, and is unique in that it is designed to work with 3D film(or video) to give the sound as much depth as the picture has. It can place sound in extremely specific places in the theater(and I mean any place), and can place a whisper right at your ear, or virtually 300ft away 360 degrees around the head, over the head, halfway down a side wall, slightly off screen, and anywhere in space. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the future of film audio right here, and what will keep people coming to theaters for years to come.

After this demonstration I have decided(along with my business partners) to have this system installed in one of my own mixing rooms, in two mixing rooms at Disney Orlando, and one at Disney Burbank. I must admit, I have never heard anything quite like this system as demonstrated here, even though we have an installation at Disney World(the haunted house), but we have never mixed specifically for that installation. After this demo, we are going to!

http://iosono-sound.com/

I discovered that even in an audio only application, this technology was stunning in its ability to place instruments so perfectly if you closed your eyes, you could identify every instrument exactly in its place on a stage.

That tech looks very promising... I can't wait for it to be available in local cinemas.... combine that with even better 3D movies and I think we'll be in for something very close to the virtual reality experience many of us really want....

[E-Stat]

When you use that many inputs, you are probably recording for more than one format, or the project you are recording is pretty big.

That's why I made the observation about using dozens.

a concert sound system has its specific purpose, and re-creating audiophile quality isn't one of them.

This is what I've been saying for years. It could be done, but at high cost. When I visited the Sound Lab production facility, Dr. West showed me a picture of a proof-of-concept experiment he conducted at a huge auditorium in Utah. The Pro Stat line is intended for professional use and is designed to be used in large arrays. He put together an array using twenty four 922s in a 2x6 arrangement. Each resulting channel was eighteen feet tall and about twenty four feet wide. Even then, it did not reach the uppermost seats because the array of an electrostatic line source needs to be as high as the coverage desired. Dr. West said that the array really should have been about three times as tall. The speakers alone would run around $1M. Add another half million for amplification. If you look in my gallery, you will find a picture of Ray Kimber using the same 922s (nine foot height - 22 degree radiation angle) in a smaller arrangement. Double the height and double the width of what you see to match the auditorium system. Now, that's a sound reinforcement system that could provide very high quality audio output (assuming you don't use crappy pro amps).

I am the exact opposite of you, I love to see Madonna live for all the reasons you mention.

You are most certainly not alone! The Atlanta concert sold out very quickly. Madonna takes pride in producing an elaborate stage show and my friend and her SO thoroughly enjoyed it. I leave "Dancing with the Stars" to my mother-in-law.

rw

[Woochifer]

FWIW, this is a shot of the mic rig that was used during the SF Symphony's recording of Mahler's Eighth (The Symphony of a Thousand), which BTW is up for three Grammys including Best Engineered Classical Recording. (Here's my review of that SACD/CD release) By my count, they used a total of about 50 mics during that session. Most of them are well hidden (some of them at the stage level near the music stands). But, the mic count alone doesn't really tell the whole story.



More shots from inside Davies Symphony Hall

I'll need to look it up, but the San Jose Mercury News did a write up on the SF Symphony's recording sessions a few years ago, and what they described was a process in which a group of primary tracks are recorded using a minimal miking approach. Basically, their goal was to lay the recording down as if they were only using a few mics.

The extra mics and tracks are recorded more for backup and would get inserted during post production only if the engineers detected deficiencies (or if Michael Tilson Thomas wanted to rebalance certain sections). So, even though you see a lot of mics on, above, and around the stage, the sound captured by most of those mics probably won't make it onto the final 5.1 and two-channel mixes. But, by using that huge canopy of mics, it gives the engineers options to make corrections and adjustments if needed.

IIRC, you have the six or eight primary tracks that were recorded using a DSD console, while the remaining channels were recorded with PCM consoles. Any overlays and dubs were done in PCM.

Whatever approach they've used, the SFS Mahler series' 5.1 tracks in general do a great job at conveying the listening experience from inside Davies Hall (which as T note, does not have great acoustics). The two-channel tracks sound excellent in their own right, but are not representative of how the hall actually sounds.

The video below shows some shots of the recording session and the prep and rehearsal work.