TRUE PRECISION FOR THE BLUE DEVILS DRUM CORPS
MADISON, WISCONSIN - APRIL 2008: The Blue Devils Drum Corps is the most decorated outfit in the history of Drum Corps International (DCI) and have taken first place in DCI's World Championship twelve times - more than any other corps in the world.
Their performances explode with precision and
speed that suggest not a collection of humans, but rather a tightly-governed
organic machine. John Loose, AV Services Manager for Dolby Laboratories,
recognized that a Blue Devils performance captured in full HD video and
accompanied by 96kHz, 24-bit, 7.1-surround sound would make for an extremely
compelling demonstration of Dolby's technologies for use by its licensees.
He relied on two 8-channel, extended-frequency and fast-transient-response
TRUE Systems Precision 8 mic pres to capture the Blue Devils performance
with realism that is, because of the surround imaging, arguably even more
astounding than a live performance.
Since the Blue Devils were already planning to record an HD Video
documentary of their preparations and performance at the 2007 DCI World
Championships in Madison, Wisconsin, Loose and associate Adam Pinch arranged
to record the entirety of their performance in a private session using the
beautiful acoustics of the city's Overture Center for the Arts. Although the
duo had eight channels of Focusrite preamps, they knew that they wouldn't be
nearly enough and contacted Wisconsin-based Full Compass to rent additional
preamps to feed their Pro Tools rig.
"Because we didn't know how much space we'd have for the gear, we wanted
eight-channel strips to minimize our footprint," explained Loose. "We needed
something that was super clean with great pads to beat back the high SPLs we
were expecting. In addition, the fact that we were recording at 96kHz meant
that our front-end would do better with an extended frequency response.
Because the TRUE Systems Precision 8 is utterly transparent, has ample
headroom, and captures frequencies all the way out to 50kHz, it more than
fulfilled our requirements." They rented two Precision 8s to bring their
full track count to twenty-four.
The Blue Devils Drum Corps "A" consists of five bass drummers, six snare
drummers, and four tom, or "tenor," drummers. All of the drummers stand, and
the bass drummers use both sides of their drums, marching-band style. "One
of the tricky parts of this was that everyone is in close proximity, and the
bass drum performance in particular features a lot of stick movement," said
Loose. "Since we were also doing video, we wanted to minimize the visibility
of the mics." Together, these factors suggested shotgun mics for the bass
drums. They used several Sennheiser MKH 416 shotguns positioned on the floor
and angled up at the sweet spot of a few of the bass drums. Loose added,"The Precision 8 was great because we could flip the phase on one side and
come away with a remarkably solid bass drum sound."
Loose and Pinch used Shure Beta 98DS clip-on mics for the top and bottom of
a few of the snare drummers and ran the snare's quick transients through the
equally quick response of the Precision 8. The sheer number of tenor drums,
six to a player - 24 in all - created a close-miking problem. They opted to
record the high toms of one drummer, the mid toms of another, and the low
toms of a third using Sennheiser MD 421 dynamics inserted into the toms from
below ("Phil Collins style") and preamplified by the Focusrite. Finally,
Loose and Pinch used the Precision 8s for two AKG 414s and the rear channel
outputs from a Holophone surround microphone for ambience. "The Precision 8s
sounded amazing," Loose concluded. "Their fast transient response makes for
some very snappy drums. When you watch and listen to the performance on HD
DVD or Blue Ray in full 96kHz, 24-bit, 7.1 sound at a respectable volume, it
will make your heart race and your hairs stand up!"
TRUE Systems, Tucson, Arizona designs, engineers and manufactures
high-value, high-end professional audio products at reasonable prices for
the domestic and international marketplace. Tim Spencer is the principal
designer and engineering force behind the company. Tim has been with TRUE
Systems since it's inception in 1997. The U.S. built line includes the SOLO
series, the P2 Analog and Precision 8 multi-channel mic preamps.
TRUE Systems can be reached via e-mail at sales@true-systems.com or via
phone at (520) 721-2735.
TransAudio Group, founded by industry veteran Brad Lunde, has quickly become
the premier U.S. importer/distributor and/or U.S. sales and marketing
representative for high-end audio. Success hinges on TransAudio providing
dealers and end users with a higher standard of product expertise and
support far beyond the norm.
trans audio group
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