ProSoundWeb: In a fusion of art, architecture, and sound, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) recently staged a musical experience inside the unfinished David Geffen Galleries before any artwork was installed, with Yamaha mixing consoles playing a key role in the project.
Yamaha for many many years now has made some of the greatest audio equipment in the industry. They have such a range from speakers to their consoles to mic, and interfaces. It was really interesting to see that this was the brand they relied on for this amazing event. There truly was such a need for a console of this level and what other brand then yamaha to deliver. One thing said in the article which really resonated with me was that “As Director of Operations Kate Griswold explains, “Each job is unique, and that means that a one-size-fits-most approach to audio is often not the best solution for customers”. As somebody in the Audio Industry I can't explain enough how true this is. Whether it is from recreational listening to music production there truly is not a one size fits all option. For example, in High end Audio, if you really like listening to rock and roll, you might want a horn speaker, something very efficient and powerful vs if you listen to a lot more bass heavy music you might want a dynamic driver speaker which is known to have a better low end bass performance. This statement is even more true with live audio. As mentioned there were so many different aspects of this show, having a console dedicated for that purpose is crucial to make sure you have a correct and true sounding mix.
ReplyDeleteThis article is so cool! As I have said in the past, I absolutely love immersive entertainment experiences! I find the fact that the audio takes you on a journey through the exhibit, and transforms as you move from room to room so interesting! I find this idea very similar to an immersive bridge exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial that I heard about from Susan Tsu, where the video and audio in the exhibit would change based on how many people were in it. I would like to know more about how they leaned into the bad acoustics, as it was a bare building. I imagine that sound was bouncing everywhere, but could see how that is useful when trying to blend different rooms’ sound together. I would also like to know more about their networking strategies. The article stated that there were 130 channels of Dante recording, and I am very intrigued by how they were able to keep that all organized and out of sight from the visitors.
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of live music, so a showcase event like this is really cool to read about. I definitely would have loved to see what the experience was like of listening to these 5 separated groups of musicians play totally in sync and how it would all sound together. I found it really cool how they changed the vibe every night. I feel like that makes it better to give everyone a different experience. Not only that, but I also like to hear about the technology behind the experience. I found it really interesting how they found a way to work around the natural reverb rather than masking it. Not only that, but the fact that they carefully planned their network routing to keep everything clean and to not disturb the audience flow I find really impressive seeing it’s taking place all over a museum.
ReplyDeleteThis article and experience is so cool to me. I love the creativity of the use of sound and how it became a full interactive experience and especially love that the show was different for each person. After sound designing Macbeth last year, working with the speakers in my theater trying to come up with the best way to fully immerse the audience into the world, this definitely does that and it doesn't even need the support of other elements of design. The power of what sound designers can do is truly magical when done right because just closing your eyes and hearing the world around you can fully transform you into another place completely different from your own. I really love this quote from Yamaha “It shows what’s possible when you combine creative vision with the right technology.” because I feel like a lot of the time the sound designers feel like they are the most constrained within the text but this proves how much you can do with sound if you think outside the box.
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