Telarc DSD Session in Baltimore, Maryland
Telarc (www.telarc.com) started the classical high-end recording industry on a digital journey. They have grown from a startup to one of the world's most revered labels, now including jazz, blues and crossover titles. For over a decade, RPG® has had a rewarding relationship with Telarc International. Telarc President, Jack Renner, and Dr. Peter D'Antonio began collaborating with acoustical treatement at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore in the late 80s. The first Green Room use of RPG® products was in April of 1989 for the Schumann Symphonies No. 2 and 3. A small stage application occurred in June of 1989 for the Elgar Enigma Variations. RPG® products were use in the control room and on stage for Schumann Symphonies No. 1 and 4; Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 and Romeo and Juliet in November 1989. Telarc graciously began acknowledging RPG® participation in the Tchaikovsky / Rachmaninoff recording in January 1990 and credited RPG® as Telarc's exclusive acoustical system for control room and stage use for the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique in November 1990. The first full stage RPG® VAMPS™ acoustical shell was used for the Stravinsky March 1991 recording of the Firebird and Petrushka. RPG® is indebted to Telarc for their encouragement and help in developing our VAMPS™ acoustical shell system. Jack Renner authored a description of his impressions in Telarc Notes on Telarc's Web site. All of this amounts to a great deal of admiration for Jack Renner and the rest of the Telarc Staff. Over the years Telarc has trucked RPG® products to all corners of the world, in an attempt to create accurate temporary critical listening venues. We have had several occasions to work with Mike Bishop, for whom we have a great deal of respect. Mike Bishop has earned a well deserved reputation for his pioneering surround recordings. We asked Mike to share some of his experiences in using RPG® products in a recent DSD recording session in Baltimore, Maryland:

"This session took place at the Gordon Center for the Performing Arts, Largo, Maryland on July 15 through 19, 1999. The project was for Telarc CD-80556 and the artist is Ensemble Galilei. The Recording Producer is Erica Brenner with Recording Engineer Michael Bishop and Technical Assistants Robert Freidrich and Mark Robertson-Tessi.

The project was recorded entirely with the Neumann KU-100 binaural head providing the stereo pickup on-stage. The stereo feed from the KU-100 and Millennia Media HV3 preamp combination went directly to the custom-made Meitner Direct Stream Digital (DSD) A-to-D converter and on to the prototype Sony DSD recording system.


For our 5.1 recording of the project the KU-100 provided the front left/right channels, a Sennheiser MKH20 omni microphone fed the center-front channel, and a modified double M/S pair of Sennheiser MKH30 & MKH50 microphones provided the surround channels. The 6-channel recording went directly to the prototype Sony 6-channel DSD recording system, again with custom Meitner DSD ADCs and DACs. A Prism AD-2 & DA-2 88.2kHz recording system with multiple Tascam DA98s provided a PCM backup to the DSD recording.


The RPG® Variscreens™ with BAD™ Panel sides facing the engineer were extremely valuable to us in setting up a remote control room at the Gordon Center. Our control room was situated in the spacious (and acoustically live) lobby of Gordon Center. We had to get control over the very long and uneven reverb time of our control room so that I could be confident of what I was recording to the DSD system.


The Variscreens™ enabled us to greatly reduce the lobby's reverb time and smooth the room's response at the critical listening area of our control room. I know that we would have had to rely on headphone monitoring without their use. We were able to make very effective use of a full-scale Waveform, Inc. 6-channel custom monitor system on the session and feel confident about the decisions made on the spot regarding microphone positions and the direct-to-reverberant sound source mix we were acheiving on-stage.


I employed a number of RPG® QRD® Diffusors on-stage with the musicians to provide better focus for the musicians to hear themselves and to provide better focus to our microphones. I had a particular problem getting a tight image of the harp at stage-left and the other musicians were having difficulty hearing the harp on-stage. With some experimentation of placement and height of the RPG® QRD® Diffusors slightly behind the harpist, I was able to both satisfy the needs of the musicians and obtain a clearer recorded image of the harp. I had a similar problem with the oboe and recorder, and again the RPG® QRD® Diffusors solved the problem."

HHB Surround Sound Seminar
The one-day UK Surround Sound Seminar jointly held by HHB and Dolby Labs was well attended. Neil Grant, senior partner at Harris, Grant Associates, described and illustrated the advantages of Digital Acoustics in surround sound environments. The usefulness of RPG®'s optimization and modeling software were discussed in relation to their application in multi-channel loudspeaker installations. Grant described his experiences in collaborating with RPG® as part of their CHAOS™ system to provide architects and clients exactly what they want architecturally, acoustically and aesthetically.

Diffuse Seminars

RPG® is now offering regular educational seminars for acousticians, sound contractors, home theater system integrators, architects, and other specifying consultants to apprise the industry of our research, new products, application assistance, and an introduction to RPG®'s new Room Optimizer™, Shape Optimizer, and CATT Acoustics software. The press is also welcome.

The response to these educational seminars has been overwhelming. The October seminar is completely filled. The November seminar will be held November 18-19, 1999. If you are interested in attending, please e-mail to info@rpginc.com, contact your local rep, or call RPG at 301-249-0044. There will be a holiday break in December and we will resume in Y2K.