Home to the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gasteig Cultural Centre replaced its aging mixing console with a Studer Vista X mixing console, Studer I/O systems, Lexicon Processors and AMX control.
With more than 2,500 annual productions on its calendar, the facility needed to streamline its workflows and better accommodate guest audio engineers. ‘We have a very short timeframe between productions,’ says Chief Sudio Engineer, Peter Brümmer. ‘There could be classical recording on Thursday, and then jazz on Friday. Or we could have four performances in a single evening.’
The new system was provided by Audio Pro, and includes two Studer Infinity Core 800 processing engines (for redundancy), a Studer D21m remote stagebox with 48 microphone preamps and a Studer D23M I/O system with AES/EBU, Dante and Madi. The Vista X is also compatible with the Gasteig’s old Studer D19 digital preamp system with 48 microphone I/O.
‘I’m a really big fan of the Studer Vista X, and the Vistonics technology provides the best user interface on the market,’ Brümmer comments. ‘I can turn a knob and see it happening, without having to deep dive into a computer. It reacts like an analogue board.’
Two Lexicon PCM 96 Surround processors are interfaced with the Vista X via the D23M system to provide the studio with surround effects. Parameters are controlled directly from the Vista X via the Vistonics user interface using HiQNet IP protocol, and settings can be recalled instantly using the console’s snapshot feature. ‘Each hall in our facility is connected to the Vista X console via Dante, which gives us the flexibility to record performances throughout the building,’ Brümmer explains. ‘The Vista X allows us to use our old preamps, which is really important to us. We now have 96 channels of high quality I/O, which gives us the flexibility to record any performance.’
It was also important for Brümmer to select an audio console that guest engineers could operate with as little as ten minutes of preparation before each show. Three of Europe’s leading console manufacturers brought in a console for a one-week trial period, which allowed Brümmer to determine which console would enable him to mix the fastest. ‘I loaded up a live multitrack recording from a pop band to determine how fast I could dial up a nice mix,’ Brümmer reports. ‘The Vista X was the fastest by far. The flexibility and mixing speed were impressive, and it was a very easy console to mix on. Now when we have a freelance sound engineer, we can show him the board in ten minutes and have him ready to mix.’
For more than 20 years, the Gasteig has recorded each and every performance by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The recordings are stored in an archive for posterity or released commercially to the public. They also record performances by famous jazz orchestras, big bands, chamber music and more. For orchestral recordings, they typically record at 96kHz, 24-bit resolution using approximately 30 microphones. Orchestral performances are currently mixed in 5.1 surround sound, but Brümmer has been experimenting with creating mixes 9.1, which convey three-dimensional height, depth and width.
‘With the Vista X, I can create 9.1 mixes by setting up two surround-master buses, one for the lower layer in 5.1 and one for the upper layer in 4.0,’ Brümmer says. ‘Each incoming channel from Pro Tools is routed to two mixer channels – the main channel one is routed to the 5.1 bus, while the second one gets signal from the pre-fader direct out from channel one and is routed to the 4.0 bus. With 800 channels and the AutoTouch Plus Dynamic Automation System, the Vista X makes the whole process fast and easy. The best part is, I can accomplish all of this without ever having to use a mouse or a computer screen.’
