d&b Soundscape helps Klassik am Odeonsplatz shine.
Open-air classical concerts have enjoyed considerable popularity for many years. The special mixture of a laid-back atmosphere and the big names from the world of classical music has its own particular appeal. If the weather plays ball, the summer evening in the open air is simply perfect. One of the largest and most renowned events is the “Klassik am Odeonsplatz” series in Munich (organizer: Pro Events Veranstaltungs GmbH). Since 2000, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra have been performing here with a changing lineup of conductors and soloists in front of up to 8,000 spectators in the imposing Feldherrnhalle in Munich’s city center. Neumann & Müller, led by project manager Rudolf Pirc, have provided the technical services – covering sound, lighting, rigging, etc. – from the outset, and this year they once again delivered object-based sound design using the immersive d&b Soundscape system.
Many open-air classical concerts face a similar challenge: Anyone who is used to listening to the best orchestras and soloists in acoustically perfect concert halls without any amplification can be disappointed when the finely differentiated sound of an orchestra is heard through a sound system that only reproduces the natural ambient sound in stereo.
The next leap – mono, stereo, Soundscape
Neumann & Müller has opted to use the complete d&b Soundscape system for the “Klassik am Odeonsplatz” event for the second time. It consists of the DS100 Signal Engine, En-Scene as a software module for object-based positioning and En-Space for adapting the acoustic environment. “In my view, object-based mixing is the next big step in sound reinforcement technology,” says a confident Michael Kennedy.
The allocation of tasks among the long-standing FOH colleagues is based on a great deal of experience and is clearly defined: “Michael prepares the desk for me and takes care of the sound engineering aspects so that I can concentrate fully on the sound balance of the orchestra,” says Jörg Moser, sound engineer at Bavarian Radio.
Jörg Moser attends the orchestra rehearsals over a period of several days in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residence and at the Isarphilharmonie, with these serving as a reference for the sound engineer.
In good hands – monitoring with En-Space
Besides the sound for the audience on Odeonsplatz, the orchestra musicians and conductor also sit in an En-Space environment. In contrast to classic wedge monitoring, Neumann & Müller distributed 31 loudspeakers around the musicians, using Soundscape and in particular En-Space to create a virtual acoustic shell, thereby functioning as the reflecting surfaces of the (non-existent) walls. “We try to recreate a specific space so that the musicians hear and feel as if they were playing in their familiar environment, which is of course a concert hall,” explains Lucas Zwicker, who is responsible for monitoring. Without this support, the natural reflections of the Feldherrenhalle would arrive too late and impair the interplay between the orchestra musicians. “The results are very good. Above all else, however, they are very good very quickly.” For Jörg Moser, too, this leads to key advantages for everyone involved: “If the musicians feel in good hands from an acoustic perspective and can hear each other well, I don’t have to correct the balance of the voices anywhere near as much at the desk. This mainly applies to the woodwind instruments, which are hugely dynamic.”
Due to the intricate microphone setup and the distribution of the individual channels in the virtual space, the artists onstage also have more opportunities to react to the monitor and/or FOH mix.
The conductors in particular – absolute specialists when it comes to the spatial arrangement of sound sources – always show a keen interest in object-based mixing: “This year, Sir Simon Rattle came to us at the FOH the day before during the technical rehearsal and had the Soundscape concept explained to him,” reports Michael Kennedy.
The lions determine the nearfield
One particular feature of “Klassik am Odeonsplatz” is the nearfield mix for the front rows of the audience. This is where the “realm” of Toni Spirkl begins. He is the man responsible for the nearfill and midfill sound reinforcement as well as the positioning of the orchestra musicians in En-Scene – and is highly familiar with the structural challenges of the Feldherrenhalle: “Ideally, all nearfill loudspeakers on a stage are facing forward, but the architecture of the Feldherrenhalle does not permit this.” Due to the central open staircase, which is flanked on both sides by two lion statues on plinths, Toni Spirkl pointed the middle nearfill loudspeakers to the side and created two separate function groups for the nearfills so that the loudspeaker groups could be combined in Soundscape and conveniently controlled. “Each function group covers the orchestra in its entirety – one for the left and one for the right side of the audience. It works wonderfully, even without classic center loudspeakers.”
Optimizing the sound quality
For Dominic Grimm from d&b audiotechnik, who has been supporting the production for many years, the quality of Soundscape and the object-based mix is evident both in the technical audio details and in the overarching production process: “Every year, we fine-tune the overall system to achieve even better results.” One example of this is the individual management of the soloists – whether singers or instrumentalists – in En-Space: In addition to the option of sending complete sums to the reverberation, we also feed it with individual objects – to obtain even more precise grading for the singers, for example.” The setup time of the system has also been reduced enormously by the integration of En-Space. “The entire team has been working together for a number of years and possesses a wealth of experience for this event. With En-Space and its seamless integration with the DS100 hardware and the entire d&b workflow, the preproduction and setup phases here are much easier and faster.”
Soundscape increasingly reduces the technically perceptible component for the concert audience and enhances the immersive experience of the onstage music and performance. Providing a perfect example of this was the visitor who suddenly stood at the FOH during the interval of the second day of the concert and talked to sound engineer Jörg Moser about the sound, which was so pure and authentic, it seemed to be coming directly from the stage – it is hard to imagine a better compliment for an object-based sound system.
