MORRISON, CO — Phish’s recent performances at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre gave Michael Grace, principal of Grace Design, an opportunity to try out his prototype surround-sound “Spacebar,” a multi-channel version of the company’s stereo Spacebar. To adorn this prototype, Grace added three Sennheiser MKH 8040 cardioid condensers to his personal stereo pair and amplified them through a Grace M802 multichannel preamp with A/D conversion.
“Red Rocks has its own acoustic flavor,” said Grace. “It’s an ideal venue for capturing a unique surround sound image. And, of course, Phish is pretty much the ideal band to capture live.”
Grace’s interest in precise stereo and surround sound image capture has led to the stereo Spacebar now offered by Grace Design. It uses precision components with integrated calibration that allow users to precisely set the distance and angle between any two mics.
The surround-sound Spacebar is a natural extension of the concept. It gives the user control over the angles and spatial positioning of five microphones. Calibration of those angles and distances makes the setup precise and repeatable. Grace suggested the idea of capturing Phish in surround at Red Rocks to Kevin Shapiro, the band’s archivist. Shapiro was excited at the prospect and cleared the way for Grace to spend all four nights at an ideal location 10 feet in front of the FOH position.
With the plan in place, Grace needed five cardioid microphones. “I’m a big fan of the Sennheiser MKH 800,” he said. “For years, that’s been my ‘desert island’ mic of choice. I was excited to hear that Sennheiser was coming out with the MKH 8000 series.” He used the MKH 8050, a hyper-cardioid version, for a smaller concert hall as part of a permanent recording system and loved the results. He used a pair of MKH 8040s to record the summer music festival at Colorado College. He said, “I was so blown away! I hardly needed the highlight mics at all. After that, I went out and bought my own pair. They have all the great characteristics of the Sennheiser MKH 800, but in a small, affordable package.”
Sennheiser loaned him three MKH 8040s to complete his set. For the first two nights the front triplet was spaced 95 centimeters with the left and right mics at +/- 70 degrees. The center mic was 24 centimeters forward from the left-right pair. The rear mics were facing rearward, 55 centimeters back from the center mic, and spaced 32 centimeters with a 60-degree angle between them. An alternate configuration was used for the second two nights. Had he relied on conventional mic clips and stands, his microphone arrangement would have been less precise and much more cumbersome to set up. With the Spacebar, the whole setup was easy.
Grace synchronized his Grace M802 preamp and A/D converter to Phish’s Pro Tools system, which is used to archive all of the direct channels and which may be used for highlighting. Grace said he was more than satisfied with the results, which reveal detailed imaging and sonic purity that, on a good playback system, can transport the listener back to the very spot at Red Rocks where the Spacebar and its five Sennheiser MKH 8040s stood.
For more information, please visit www.sennheiserusa.com.
