Live sound engineer, sound designer and producer Dirk Schulz is encouraging all the singers he works with to switch to DPA d:facto™ Vocal Microphones because he is so impressed by their rich, natural sound.
“Right now I am in love with the d:facto™ Vocal Microphone for lead vocals,” he says. “What I really like is the smooth but precise studio quality sound the d:facto™ delivers on a big PA system. I find it much easier to place the vocals into the mix and it also makes my vocal effect chain sound much more detailed. I can even imagine using the d:facto™ in a studio recording situation where a vocalist might feel more comfortable singing into a handheld microphone. I am sure that it would deliver equally great results.”
Based in Heidelberg in South West Germany, Dirk Schulz is currently handling Front of House for Swedish band Mando Diao, who are undertaking a series of European showcase gigs to promote their new album Good Times.
“Mando Diao’s lead singer Björn Dixgård switched to the d:facto™ Vocal Microphone last summer after we conducted a blind A/B test with another microphone to see which he preferred. He loved the microphone and was amazed by how natural and rich his voice sounded through his In Ear monitors.”
Dirk Schulz is also working with singer Michael Patrick Kelly and has moved him over to a d:facto™ Vocal Microphone, too. In both cases the microphones were supplied by DPA’s German distributor Mega Audio.
“It works equally well for Michael, even though he has a very different voice with much higher range,” Schulz says. “In my opinion this microphone is a game changer because it delivers a very smooth response at all frequencies, including off-axis. This means there is virtually no distortion – and any spill that the microphone does pick up is not overbearing, so it fits in well with the overall mix. Quite frankly, it is unlike anything I have ever heard before when it comes to a live vocal microphone.”
Alongside the d:facto™ Vocal Microphone, Schulz is also a big fan of d:vote™ 4099 Instrument Microphone, which he often uses to amplify musical instruments on stage.
“I have used these microphones many times in the past and have always found them to be the most convincing sonic solution for classical string instruments in a live sound environment,” he says. “The d:vote™ 4099 Instrument Microphones sound very natural and precise to my ears. When Mando Diao was recording an MTV Unplugged session, we used d:vote™ 4099’s on strings and acoustic guitar because we needed a microphone that wouldn’t pick up too much spill from the drums. The fact that these microphones can be positioned very close to the sound source makes them ideal on stage – and of course I trust them to deliver DPA’s exceptional sound quality.”
Both d:vote™ 4099 Instrument Microphones and a d:facto™ Vocal Microphone were recently used by Schulz to ensure perfect audio at Berlin’s Tempordrom where actor and director Matthias Schweighöfer was delivering his first ever concert as a solo musician. Best known for his roles in films such as Raus aus der Haut, Das Wilde Leben and the critically acclaimed Valkyrie, which also starred Tom Cruise and Kenneth Branagh, Schweighöfer was performing in Berlin to promote his first album Lachen Weinen Tanzen.
“The string section of about 20 musicians from the Babelsberger Film Orchestra were all amplified using DPA d:vote™ 4099 Instrument Microphones,” Schulz says. “It was a really successful concert and thanks to DPA the strings sounded the way they should.”
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ABOUT DPA MICROPHONES:
DPA Microphones is the leading Danish Professional Audio manufacturer of high-quality condenser microphone solutions for professional applications. DPA’s ultimate goal is to always provide its customers with the absolute finest possible microphone solutions for all its markets, which include live sound, installation, recording, theatre and broadcast. When it comes to the design process, DPA takes no shortcuts. Nor does the company compromise on its manufacturing process, which is done at the DPA factory in Denmark. As a result, DPA’s products are globally praised for their exceptional clarity and transparency, unparalleled specifications, supreme reliability and, above all, pure, uncolored and undistorted sound.
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