Lehrman clearly understands the capabilities embodied in the single capsule, four-sided SoundField capsule and knew using this mic could only add to the uniqueness of this recording. "This project was like nothing I've ever done before, and I don't think anyone else has tried to do anything quite like it either!" says Lehrman. "The SoundField Mark V four-channel microphone came into the mix towards the end of the project, and it performed superbly." Lehrman, who had helped revive Antheil's 1924 masterwork several years ago, and has since seen two dozen performances of it around the world, was asked to do this project by the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC. He enlisted the aid of Eric Singer, of the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. "We built a robotic orchestra to play this piece," Lehrman said. "Every piano note, xylophone strike, bass drum hit, and siren wail came from a MIDI sequence and was triggered by an electrical voltage." They set up the instruments on the mezzanine of the east wing of the National Gallery, at the entrance to an exhibit on Dadaist art. For a period of two months this "ensemble" would perform the piece automatically, twice a day. After the "Ballet Mécanique" had been running for about a week, Lehrman went into the National Gallery after hours to record the piece in its entirety. "That's when we got a hold of the SoundField microphone. The results are superb. The SoundField records in four channels and outputs a derived stereo as well. That's what I've listened to so far, and the stereo image is gorgeous. It conveys the space beautifully, and that's no small feat... it's huge! "The orchestra was set up in an area that's approximately 75 feet wide. It's an enormous open space, cavernous, with a tremendous amount of ring-the RT60 is something like five seconds. I wanted to see if we could capture the immenseness of that environment. "We used a bunch of different microphones for a total of about ten tracks in all. Everything was recorded in Digital Performer running on a Mac. The SoundField did an astonishing job of capturing the enormously long reverb time and all the transients of the space. The way it reconstructed what it feels like to be in this incredibly large room listening to this orchestra is fantastic - even in stereo. "The microphone itself has a monster cable with about a dozen conductors that feed into it. It spits out four B-format channels, which are the SoundField surround format, plus the derived stereo image. The user has some control over the image. And you can put some rolloff on it - but we took the audio in straight. "The stereo image is mostly for monitoring. The interesting stuff will happen when we begin working with the four-channel information. You need a decoder to do this. The most popular one is a software application called "Surround Zone" for Pro Tools and Nuendo. I'll be working with a mastering engineer here in Boston who has it and knows it well. "Eventually we'd like to make a DVD in surround sound, and of course we'll use the SoundField tracks to create the soundtrack when we do. The Washington installation was just put up in March, so we're still getting our tracks together in preparation of the upcoming mix. The SoundField microphone came to us at the last moment, as I said, but I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to put it to work. The sound it captures is stunning." |
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