Sat front row at the symphony...


Yesterday, I got to sit in the front row to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony do Beethoven's Piano Concerto no 1 and the Shostakovich Symphony no 10.  I know we all talk about audio gear here, but I have to tell you, sitting in the best seat in the house (Heinz Hall) was an amazing audio experience.  I'm not sure the best audio gear in the world can quite match it.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I was mesmerized by the acoustics of the hall and the dynamics of one of the world's best orchestras.

128x128mikeydee

Showing 1 response by zgas-music

@bigtwin Wait til you get your Sound Labs!  You’ll be amazed at how real it sounds. 
 

All the great halls sound good. But they also have front-of-house sound guys who are reinforcing the orchestra. All those small condenser mics hanging over the orchestra? Those are getting used. It’s subtle. These guys are good, and their equipment is top notch.  Their job is for you not to notice. 
 

I’m fortunate to sub with a top 10 orchestra from time to time. Last time I did, I brought up Sonic Tools on my iPad. Sitting just under the conductor by the first violins and <ten feet from the percussion section, the highest SPL on stage was 80dB. It was an orchestral fanfare, not Mahler. But classical music SLOs is much lower than jazz/pop/rock. I try to take that into account when listening at home.