Asked to record a choir of 500 monks in a Chinese temple 4km above sea level, Danish producer/engineer Hans Nielsen knew he was taking his recording career to new heights. He also know that the recording kit – and the mics in particular – would need to be able to cope with the challenging conditions.

The location recording was lined up for an album entitled The Coming Ones from Chinese folk singer and song writer Sa Ding Ding. With a mix of Han and Mongol ancestry, she sings in a number of languages including Mandarin, Sanskrit and Tibetan, as well as an imaginary self-created language that evokes the emotions of her songs. She also plays traditional instruments such as the guzheng and matougin (a horse-head fiddle).

‘Sa Ding Ding wanted to include the Monk’s choir in her album, so we travelled to the temple, which was high up in the mountains near Tibet,’ Nielsen says. ‘The monks were singing a mass and we captured their performance using nine DPA 4006A omnidirectional microphones and one DPA 4011A cardioid. Then, later that night, we used the same mics to record a choir of 100 monks so that their singing could be incorporated into two of Sa Ding Ding’s album tracks.’

Two days later, and this time at an altitude of 2km, Nielsen recorded a 50-strong Christian choir for the album, again using DPA microphones. ‘I’ve been a big fan of DPA Microphones for a long time and have used them regularly for more than 25 years,’ he says. ‘When I realised this project involved recording at high altitude, I knew I had to take my DPAs with me because they were the only mics I could rely on to capture the high-quality sound I wanted in such extreme conditions.’

Nielsen chose the DPA 4006A and 4011A models because he was confident they could deliver the sound he was looking for: ‘I did have other microphones with me, but only the DPAs were able to cope with the extremely thin air. Everything else I tried was just too noisy and couldn’t cope with the atmospheric conditions. I was incredibly happy with the results we achieved using the DPA microphones – and so was Sa Ding Ding.’

Nielsen completed the album in Beijing, recording some traditional Chinese instruments as well as Sa Ding Ding’s lead vocals. The final mix took place in London and the album now been released in Asia on Universal Records.

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