Association Française pour le Rayonnement du Théâtre du Château de Drottningholm

To record what the audience can hear
at Drottningholm

The project is to record, and to include in the electronic part of the piece, what the public of Drottningholm can hear when attending a performance. What one has called on the opposite diagram, "the subjective listening", corresponding mainly to the resonance of the two instruments in the theatre.

Indeed, the reason why the sounds of storm and wind recreated by these two machines are so realistic is due to their place in the theatre. Located beside the stage they use the theatre's wood architecture as a sound box that amplifies, reduces, prolongs, enriches their natural resonance.

For this reason, it is necessary to get not only "crude" recordings of the two instruments but also of their resonance in the theatre, as heard from the auditorium. Recordings must:

1. be recordings on numerical support exclusively;
2. record the two instruments separately, and with no other instruments playing at the same time (like "technical recordings);
3. use a close sound, then a distanced sound (resonance of the place) but they do not need to be very long (some ten minutes).

If such recordings already exist, the Académie Desprez will ask Drottningholms Slottsteater about the possibility of using them. If no available recordings exist, it will be necessary to go to the venue; in this case, the Académie Desprez will negotiate the possibility to record in situ. The composer assisted by a sound engineer will realise this recording.

The necessary recording equipment is as follows:

• 4 pairs of microphones (2 omnis, 2 dynamics, 4 cardios);
• an 8 tracks numerical recorder;
• a DAT recording (as safety measure);
• for the mixing, a numerical console with at least 16 entries and 10 exits;
• sufficient supply of recording tape

It will also be necessary to insure the participation of theatre technicians during recording sessions, in order to operate the instruments. They will have to execute a series of predefined instrumental "gestures" (for example: slow crescendo / brutal stop), of variable duration.

It is necessary to get approximately thirty minutes of useable material.

An estimate of two day's recording should be sufficient.

Team

Calendar

Support requested from the Académie Desprez