According to recent news from DPA Microphones, “For the worldwide anniversary tour celebrating AIR’s iconic debut album, Moon Safari, the French musical duo set out to deliver a live experience that felt as rich, precise and atmospheric as the record itself. Monitor Engineers Julien Vouillon and Florentin Convert had two goals: to recreate a sound as close as possible to the album and provide a fully immersive listening experience. To achieve this, the pair relied heavily on the clarity, precision and natural imaging of DPA Microphones. The result was a mix of solid technical innovation and audio quality that AIR’s music deserves.”
“Since the rise of in-ears, a concert has to sound like the record—both at front of house and in the monitors,” Vouillon says. “AIR’s music demands that level of detail and space. The system is centered around binaural processing via spatial audio processing software (SPAT Revolution), feeding the musicians a spatially accurate, responsive ‘room’ inside their in-ears. But the immersive mix only worked with captured ambience that was stunningly clean and true. That’s where DPA came in.”
“What surprised us was how the DPA mics gave us the same drum sound every night, no matter the venue. You really hear the instruments as they are, not some interpretation of them, which is what makes the immersive mix feel like a studio recording happening live,” said Convert.
“Our goal was to get the musicians to listen to their own album, live. With the DPA 5100 and SPAT Revolution, we recovered what is always missing from classic in-ears: the natural 3D of the room, the air and the space,” added Vouillon.
According to a statement, Convert “immediately recognized the microphone as the ideal match for their approach.”
“It’s discreet, easy to use and reproduces the natural 3D of the room,” he explains. “With SPAT Revolution, it adds the air and space that are always missing in classic in-ears.”
“To complement the main surround capture, the team relied on several models from DPA’s pencil microphone lineup, including the 2012 Compact Cardioid, 2015 Wide Cardioid and 2017 Shotgun Microphones for the ambience feed,” they say.
According to Vouillon, “A crucial point was minimizing the delay between front-of-house and the ambience. If the system was too offset, the musicians would feel it immediately. The solution was adding a pair of DPA 2015s in ORTF stereo format facing the stage, helping musicians feel grounded in the physical space.”
Of AIR’s live album release, Vouillon said that, “The vinyl was created directly from the live stereo monitor mix combined with the DPA 5100 room capture, mixed live during the performances and not reworked in the studio afterward. The only post-production step was mastering by Alex Gopher. It’s a good demonstration of how accurately the immersive monitoring system translated the live experience.”
Vouillon adds, “The real refinement came when we added pink noise into the sidechain. It keeps the compression active until just the right moment, making the audience reactions feel natural and alive.” Vouillon, who long relied on other ambient microphone solutions, says the transition to DPA felt like a breakthrough. “After Florentin introduced me to the DPA mics, I was blown away. The mics have perfect transients and depth, and zero artifacts. I’ve replaced all my old habits with the DPA range.”
For more information, visit dpamicrophones.com.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicconnection.com ’
