Telarc, Cleveland, OH

Telarc 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."

On The Road with Telarc!
RPG is proud of the improvements its products have contributed to modern recording studio design. What we often neglect to mention is the success RPG has brought to engineers in the field. Often remote recordings are made with make-shift control rooms and less-than-ideal acoustical conditions in the performance space. We are especially proud of our collaboration with Jack Renner and Mike Bishop of Telarc and Tom Jung of dmp, with whom we have closely collaborated over many years. Mike Bishop had previously reported on his experiences with RPG on the Come, Gentle Night, Telarc CD-80556 (Telarc DSD Session in Baltimore, Maryland) recording of the Ensemble Galilei. This month Mike Bishop describes how he utilized RPG to help with the acoustics on a new CD by Jim Hall due for September release.

RPG on the Road
Grand Slam, Live at the Regattabar (Telarc CD-83485)
Jim Hall, guitar
Joe Lovano, tenor, soprano, alto sax, clarinet
George Mraz, bass
Lewis Nash, drums
Produced by John Snyder
Recording Engineer: Michael Bishop
Live Sound Mixer & Engineer: John Servies
Technical Assitants: James Yates, Mike Ely

"Grand Slam is the name of the group legendary jazz guitarist, Jim Hall and sax great, Joe Lovano put together with bassist George Mraz and drummer Lewis Nash. Telarc recorded the project 'live' at the Regattabar, the well-known jazz club at The Charles Hotel of Cambridge, Massachusetts on January 20 - 22, 2000. Initially being released on CD, the sessions were recorded direct to 2-track stereo Direct Stream Digital (DSD) and 6-track DSD surround for release later this year on Super Audio CD.

The performance area of the Regattabar has some particularily difficult acoustic problems caused by very low ceilings, carpeted walls, and very little available floor space. Prior to going to the Regattabar, I had heard from the musicians that we would have a hard time recording there because they have had trouble hearing themselves there in performances in the past. I had the Telarc truck packed with every RPG Diffusor we possessed for possible use on-stage. I have had great success making good performance / recording areas on difficult stages with the RPG materials in the past, so I had a pretty good idea of what I could do at the Regattabar. Using combinations of the RPG 2x4 and 4x4 Diffusors, I lined the back and side walls of the tiny performance area at the Regattabar. I used three sets of RPG panels to form a space for Lewis Nash's drums, and further extended 'wings' of Diffusors to the side of the stage-area, all to even-out the frequency response of the area and help focus the sound toward the microphones. I was using a Neumann KU100 Binaural Head for the overall stage pick-up, so I really needed the sound on-stage to have a natural-sounding balance and openness that did not exist there without treatment. I did not want to rely only on close-mic'ing techniques to overcome the stage acoustic problems and therefor have to impose artificial ambience from a reverb device. I also wanted to improve the performance conditions for the musicians - this was a live recording and I wanted the stage 'vibe' to be as good and tight as possible.

Lewis Nash (drums) was the first to notice the improvement. He was able to play far lighter than he previously could in that space. He felt he was now getting a really good balance between cymbals and drums without the excessive 'boom' he had experienced there before. He also remarked that the cymbals sounded much more 'open' to him now. Lewis was very happy with how his drums were represented in the recording during playbacks. Since the sound recorded was primarily picked-up by the Neumann head, I can only attribute the good results to the improvements made possible with the RPG Diffusors.

Joe Lovano (sax) also noticed a dramatic improvement on-stage. In the past he had a lot of what he called 'upper-low-end honk' on-stage that he didn't feel was natural. That effect was completely gone now. Joe also remarked that he could actually hear the other musicians now, which he couldn't do well in the past. There are no stage monitors employed on the tiny stage.

I had to use a typical, very small hotel room at The Charles for my control room. In that room, we had a 24-channel console, surround and stereo monitoring, 2-track DSD system, 2-track PCM system, 6-track DSD system, and 6-track PCM system, and video monitor to the stage. The control room had quite a closed-in sound to it - not exactly conducive to accurate monitoring.

With no real space to spare, we managed to squeeze-in a few RPG Abflectors™ and a couple of BAD™ Panels, which helped even-out the response of the dead room. After the first night of recording, Regattabar live sound mixer, John Servies, invited me over to his apartment where we had the opportunity to audition the first night's work through his Dunlavy monitor system. Listening through a great high-resolution system such as John's confirmed that the balances we got the night before were working just fine with some very minor changes on-stage. Our makeshift control room/hotel room was working just great.

The improvements made possible with the use of the Diffusors on-stage at Regattabar made for a very natural, open live performance experience captured to DSD. I feel that, without those valuable tools, we would have been able to use only close-microphone techniques, which just wouldn't allow the great performances to 'breathe' and be as enjoyable to listen to as they are on this CD. Hauling a truck-load of RPG Diffusors, Abffusors®, Abflectors™, and BAD™ Panels with us on almost every session is quite difficult - but certainly worth the effort in the dramatic improvements we have made in some very difficult acoustic spaces. The results can be heard on many of the Telarc CDs and SACDs. Just look on our Technical Information page for indication of where we use the RPG materials in-session."