Page, senior director of engineering at Clair Brothers, was approached to handle FOH for the tour due to his extensive orchestral experience. Familiar with DPA microphones from Sting's cathedral concerts last winter, Page was delighted with the 4099s purchased by Clair Brothers for the tour. The entire string section - nine first violins, seven second violins, seven violas, five celli and three basses - is miked with 4099s, with several more on radio packs for clarinet and trumpet soloists.
Page has veered away from the traditional area miking method of amplifying an orchestra, where mics were shared between two chairs or desks. "The problem with that is the moment you add even a semi-rock group to a symphony orchestra, the inherent dynamics between the two are so out of balance; the natural volume that a violin puts out compared to what a guitar or a drum puts out is so wildly different," he says.
"The DPAs give me absolute separation: when I turn on a DPA 4099 on one violin I get one violin and barely anything else, which gives me incredible signal to noise. I also get more headroom on an overall string session than I've ever had on an orchestra before; traditionally you're up against a feedback threshold, and your show is compromised by how loud you can go. But the DPAs are so immediate that by clever use of overall reverb, I can move sections forward to get more presence for certain songs, or more natural reverb across them all."
(Jim Evans)
