Press release
06.09.2011 - Sennheiser UK
Sennheiser Goes Loco At 2011 iTunes Festival
The 2011 iTunes Festival saw 70 live artists performing over the 31 nights of July at the Roundhouse, the iconic former locomotive shed in Camden, London. An integral part of the festival is that most of the acts have their sets recorded and released - at least in part - on iTunes. This year a pair of Sennheiser MKH 416 microphones was in place to help capture the atmosphere that is so essential for live recordings.
Engineer Dan Frampton - whose list of credits reads like a Who’s Who of the modern music business - was tasked with mixing all the festival’s performances for the commercial releases, with rental company Adlib Audio providing PA requirements. Dan also mixes Irish trio The Script’s recordings. As a result, he is very familiar with the many advantages of Sennheiser equipment and so was happy to deploy a pair of MKH 416 short gun mics in the Festival’s lighting truss.
“Mini (Paul Moore), The Script’s monitor engineer, has been using a pair of 416s flown from the truss for the band’s in-ear monitors,” says Dan. “On the occasions when the shows have been recorded, I have these mics sent to a ProTools rig and they sound fantastic! We point them at the screamers down the front and I find that their isolation from the PA is particularly good. So when it came to rigging for the iTunes festival this year, I requested that we put a pair of them on the truss in the same way.”
Dan also had further microphones stage left, right and at the Front of House position, but the MKH 416s were undoubtedly the stars of the show for him.
“The 416s on the truss were particularly useful as I didn't have to thin them out as much, due to less spill from the PA,” he says. “It also meant that I could leave them higher in the mix throughout the performance, to really highlight the vibe from the crowd.”
He continues, “The results were great. We mixed 64 acts during the 31 days of the festival and all benefited from the extra atmosphere provided by the MKH 416s. Sennheiser’s customer support team were also very helpful.”
Naturally, The Script had their usual complement of Sennheiser equipment on stage for their 12th July performance, including a full set of wired mics for the drum kit and backline, vocal mics and ew 300 G3 in-ears.
“From my point of view, it was important to have a direct link with Sennheiser at this show, just in case we encountered any problems,” says Richy Nicholson, the band’s FOH engineer.
“We've had very few issues with our gear so far this year but, with this show being such a high profile ‘one off’, we needed to make sure we could come up with any problem fixes quickly. Between Sennheiser UK’s Phil Cummings and Marc Peers of Adlib Audio, we had great support and therefore a problem free gig!”
A high res image is available for download here.
For more information about Sennheiser please visit www.sennheiser.co.uk or call:
Sarah James, Sennheiser Pro PR
T: 01372 471472
E-mail: sarahj@gasolinemedia.com