Venues
VENUE DETAILS & GEAR LISTS
SECTION BY SECTION FOR BEST FINAL MIX CONTROL
We have partnered with the renowned Milestone Studios in Cape Town, South Africa. Using their large studio, we record the orchestra, section by section. This provides the best control of mix for each orchestra section.
The studios were built over a period of three years, with the structural shell being completed in mid-2006, and the acoustic shell 18 months later. A dedicated air-conditioning plant room ensures minimum noise transmission to the recording areas. The studios are all built on the “room-within-a-room” principle: by a combination of floating concrete floor slabs, walls isolated from the structure by rubber sway braces, and acoustic ceilings suspended from spring hangers, the rooms are de-coupled from the structure of the building. This creates superior sound isolation.
The control room was constructed around the “FrontWall” design, patented by Ivan Kadey and his former partner at Waterland, Vincent van Haaff. The aluminum structure was shipped from Los Angeles, together with the custom Waterland speaker system and other electronic components, and assembled on-site. 48 microphone lines from the main music recording room, and another 48 from the four isolation booths, are fed into the Raindirk Symphony LN2 console, which was completely re-capped on installation.
STUDIO SAMPLES
Concert Hall
TUTTI ORCHESTRA WITH LARGE ACOUSTICS
We provide 3 options for recording a tutti orchestra; The Endler Hall, The Fismer Hall, and remote concert hall/venue recordings.
The Endler Hall is an auditorium-style venue with a large, solid beechwood stage, elaborate acoustically treated walls, and a very high stage ceiling. The Endler has a wooden surface area of 573.2m2 and a ceiling height of approximately 15 meters. Due to the oddly shaped walls and auditorium-style seating, the reverb in this hall equals approximately 1.8 seconds — lower than expected from the sheer capacity of the room. The Endler is best suited to capture symphonic ensembles, choirs, and any other instruments that would benefit from a beautiful natural reverb. Resident instruments include two Bösendorfer 280 grand pianos on stage as well as a magnificent Marcussen tracker-action pipe organ with 44 stops, three manuals, and pedals.
The Fismer Hall is a spacious venue with excellent acoustics. Designed with a trivial auditorium lift towards the rear, this recording space has a wooden surface area of 234.9m2. The Fismer Hall is connected to the main control room via a large double window, facing the stage from the rear right side. The solid wooden floor, odd-shaped walls, and proper acoustic dampening in the ceiling add to the smooth, controlled reverb time of roughly 1.3 seconds. The Control Room boasts odd-spaced walls with broadband absorption panels and quadratic residue diffusers to ensure a superior listening environment. Resident instruments include two Steinway D grand pianos.
Remote venue recording is also an option with our mobile recording gear. Listen to the samples below for remote venue recording quality.
