Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile ship historic efficiency at 66th Grammy Awards, utilizing a Sennheiser Digital 6000 system and Neumann KK 205 microphone capsules
USA – Historical past is usually made on the annual GRAMMY Awards ceremony and this yr was no exception, with legendary 80-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell acting on the reside broadcast for the primary time in her decades-long profession. The historic efficiency, additionally that includes Brandi Carlile, Jacob Collier, Blake Mills, Allison Russell, Lucius and SistaStrings, was captured with quite a lot of Sennheiser microphones, together with Carlile and Mitchell’s personal customized gold SKM 6000 handheld transmitters with Neumann KK 205 condenser capsules.
Additionally on the awards present, which was broadcast reside from the Crypto.com Enviornment in Los Angeles on 4 February, rapper Travis Scott carried out a medley of songs from his newest, GRAMMY-nominated album utilizing an SKM 6000 with a Sennheiser MD 9235 cardioid dynamic capsule, a mix that his monitor engineer, Justin Hoffmann, calls “a game-changer.”
Mitchell has received ten GRAMMY Awards since taking dwelling her first in 1970, for her second album, Clouds. The album contains “Each Sides, Now,” one among Mitchell’s best-known songs, which she carried out on this yr’s broadcast. Previous to the printed she received her newest GRAMMY, for Greatest Folks Album, for Joni Mitchell at Newport, a reside recording from the 2022 Newport Folks Pageant, an occasion she first performed in 1967. Mitchell accepted the award with Carlile, who, because the album’s producer, additionally received a GRAMMY: her eleventh. Throughout these earlier award ceremonies Carlile moreover received a GRAMMY within the Greatest Americana Efficiency class for Brandy Clark’s “Pricey Insecurity,” on which she is featured.
Working with the GRAMMY audio staff, Sean Quackenbush, Carlile’s entrance of home engineer for the previous eight years, put Sennheiser microphones on many of the musicians for Mitchell’s efficiency, which featured everybody seated in a semi-circle, with Collier on the grand piano. Carlile, who owns a pair of gold-plated SKM 6000s with KK 205 capsules and Digital 6000 receivers, gifted Mitchell an an identical set final yr for her eightieth birthday, reviews Quackenbush, who introduced all 4 mics and receivers to the Crypto.com Enviornment for the present following rehearsals at Mitchell’s home the day earlier than.
For background vocals, he continues, he selected Sennheiser MMD 935 dynamic capsules for Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius and Chauntee and Monique Ross of SistaStrings. “We put a pair of e 906s on Blake Mills’ amp for stereo; he’s only a genius artist. And we put a Neumann KM 184 condenser mic on Allison Russell’s clarinet, which sounded unbelievable, and a KM 184 on the cello, which sounded stunning.”
Aside from Mills and his electrical fretless guitar, all of the musicians performed acoustic devices; Quackenbush additionally notes that he needed to ensure that the FOH mixer was in a position to get sufficient achieve earlier than suggestions with everybody monitoring via flooring wedges. “However from the second Joni opened her mouth it was simply sensible. There’s a lot energy in her voice, it’s wonderful. That microphone captures and tasks as when you’re standing proper subsequent to her singing in her lounge. There’s no coloration. It’s the purest sound which you could presumably get.”
Quackenbush additionally received a GRAMMY Award – his first – for his function as recording engineer on Joni Mitchell at Newport. The album captured Mitchell’s shock first public efficiency since struggling a mind aneurysm in 2015, which briefly took away her skill to stroll or discuss. “It’s Joni’s second and Joni’s award, and I’m simply lucky sufficient to be part of it,” he says. “Once I confirmed up on the GRAMMYs 20-something years in the past with Robert Randolph and the Household Band, who would have thought that years later I might win a GRAMMY?”
“I’ve been utilizing a Sennheiser microphone, both the SKM 5000 with the MD 5235 dynamic capsule or the SKM 6000 with the MD 9235 capsule, the final 9 or ten years,” Clair World monitor engineer Justin Hoffmann reviews. He labored with Travis Scott at this yr’s GRAMMY Award telecast as his artist carried out three songs: “My Eyes,” “I Know ?” and “Fe!n” from his newest chart-topping album, Utopia, which was nominated for a Greatest Rap Album award this yr. Scott has been GRAMMY-nominated ten occasions and has received a Latin Grammy Award, Billboard Music Award, MTV Video Music Award and a number of BET Hip Hop Awards.
“It’s the one microphone I put in folks’s palms,” Hoffmann says. “It doesn’t matter what the style, what the amount degree, we’re all the time attempting to perform the most effective sound. That microphone is what makes my job simpler, the artist’s job simpler and the entrance of home engineer’s job simpler. And it makes for a greater time for the viewers.”
Hoffmann likens a Travis Scott present to Korn, who have been the largest, baddest metallic band on the street when he was rising up. “If you happen to go to see a Travis present, you’ve by no means heard something prefer it. Travis has turn into this technology’s greatest rap-metal star. And that microphone is on the forefront of it.”
Switching to the MD 9235 capsule was a gamechanger due to its very tight polar sample, Hoffmann explains. “That selection initially began from the entrance of home engineer demanding that microphone on a regular basis, as a result of plenty of our artists are out in entrance of the PA,” he says. Plus, artists have a tendency to carry the microphone a sure means as of late. “All of them wish to cup the microphone. That doesn’t trouble me a bit, as a result of with that microphone it doesn’t change the tone in any respect. So, in case your artist grabs a microphone that means and also you’re not utilizing that microphone, you’re beginning at an obstacle.”
Neither Scott nor Hoffmann have an endorsement deal, he provides, but Jessica Dabbs, Sennheiser relationship administration, has all the time taken wonderful care of them. “I’ve had a mic flown from Australia to South Africa; that they had it for me in Pompeii, the place we shot the film. She’ll get that microphone to me anyplace on the globe, no questions requested, no cost. It’s that degree of customer support, and the understanding that she has of how essential that microphone is, that’s the starting of the entire course of.”
picture: Yvonne Murray
