Dessa and MN Orchestra

In March of 2019 singer, rapper, and writer Dessa joined the Minnesota Orchestra onstage at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, MN. The result is a 17 track release from Doomtree records called “Sound The Bells.”

Audio Logic Systems designed and supported a complete mixing and recording infrastructure utilizing products by DiGiCo, Digigrid, Sound Devices, and Avid. The system required extensive testing and preparation due to the demands of the project and limited schedule.

Key event details

  • 56 channels of live recording at 96 Khz sample rate with full redundancy.
  • Real time monitoring of all channels for recording engineers, producers, and arrangers.
  • Digigrid MGB and Sound Devices Pix270i recording hardware.
  • DiGiCo SD10 and SD-Rack fiber optic loop.
  • One day of load in and rehearsal followed by two days of performance.

Front-of-House and Monitor mixing was accomplished using two DiGiCo SD10 consoles connected to a single DiGiCo SD-Rack on an Opticore loop. The fully redundant recording system was fed by the monitor console via MADI and was designed to handle 56 channels at 96k sample rate with full redundancy. The primary recording system was a Digigrid MGB interface connected to Avid Pro Tools. This system also provided real time monitoring. Redundancy was handled by two Sound Devices Pix 270i hard disk recorders. Monitor mixing and recording took place in close proximity and so equipment footprints had to be kept small.

We were counting on hardware and software stability while fully utilizing the capabilities of those systems.Before load in, the entire system was thoroughly set up and tested at ALS. This includes configurations specific to artist needs and also verification of all recording hardware.

Minnesota Orchestra Sound Engineer Jay Perlman spec’d DiGiCo because of his familiarity with the product. Audio Logic Systems was confident in designing the system deployed because of the power, flexibility, and reliability of all brands involved.

ALS Lead Technician Nick Pettigrew (second from left) backstage with Arranger and Mixing Engineer Andy Thompson,
Executive Producer Lazerbeak, and Recording Engineer Tom Garneau.

MPR News article

Skills

Posted on

July 17, 2020

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *