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Floating Earth’s New Sound-To-Go Service
Audio production company Floating Earth, who operate the only mobile studio in the UK to incorporate a Solid State Logic C200 digital production console, hit the news headlines this month after showcasing a technique that could revolutionise live concert recording.
In a landmark event, Floating Earth used its new Sound-To-Go service to record a Mozart concert given by Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists at London’s Cadogan Hall. The event drew the attention of the media and was featured on BBC’s News At Ten and Newsnight Review.
What made this recording particularly novel was the speed at which it was turned around. By the end of the evening, CDs of the concert were available in fully packaged and printed cases, allowing concertgoers to take home a true representation of the concert they had just heard.
Steve Long, Floating Earth’s managing director, says the service has been made possible because of the state-of-the-art recording technology installed in Floating Earth’s mobile truck. This includes the 128 input C200 console, 5.1 capability and optic fibre connections to stage. In addition the truck has Pyramix recording and mastering systems as well as banks of CD burners that burn at up to 52 times real time. With this technology it is possible to turn out hundreds of discs within minutes of the end of the concert.
“We have been supplying the truck for similar uses at rock and pop concerts in the past and also for business conferences where the delegates could take away CDs of the seminars,” Long says. “Following its enormous success there, we decided to employ similar techniques in our specialist area of classical music. For this event – the first we have undertaken at a classical concert - the recording was treated like any other live recording with our engineers creating a live mix to stereo using the SSL C200 console installed in the Floating Earth truck. The desk performed flawlessly, which meant that the only thing we had to worry about was getting enough discs burned for the huge demand from the audience.”
The popularity of the service was confirmed, with over 400 CDs sold and distributed there and then and pre-orders for several hundred more. The CD's, issued on Sir John Eliot Gardiner's own label SDG Records, are also being sold via SDG’s website. The works recorded were Mozart Symphony 39 and Symphony 41 (Jupiter). This concert was the last in a tour that has taken the orchestra across America and Europe, including concerts in Brussels on Mozart's 250th birthday in January.
“In terms of a live recording that reflected what actually happened, this was as real as it could get,” Long adds. “Many so-called live CDs contain numerous "studio" inserts to "correct" the live performance. The difference with this project was that it reflected the event, warts and all, and there was no editing made for any musical points.
The only cuts we made were to remove the long gaps between the two items on the programme. On balance, the added excitement and challenge of making an instant product like this kept everybody really on their toes and contributed to a truly memorable evening.”
7th March 2006
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