A Christmas show performed on three successive nights, more than 400 performers, a choir, drums, percussions, bass, electric guitar, piano, keyboard, a nine-piece brass section, ten acoustic guitars, oud (Middle Eastern lute), six first violins, five second violins, many dancers, and, of course: Santa Claus… This spectacular Christmas celebration with the Al Farah Choir took place at the Opera Theater of the Dar Al-assad for Culture and Arts in Damascus, Syria on December 2007. In charge of the sound was Khaled Wazaefi from Hazem Mastering. For the project, he choose AKG microphones only: 9 off C 414 (omnidirectional) + 1 C 426 (omnidirectional) for the choir
2 off C 414 (figure eight) for violins
3 off C 426 for the brass section
3 off C 5900 for lead vocals
3 off C 451 + 1 D 112 for percussions and drums
1 off C 5900 for the acoustic guitar section
1 off C 5900 for the piano
1 off WMS 400 for difficult miking applications "We choose these AKG mics because I love the way they sound," explained Khaled Hamzeh of Hamzeh Co. "They are great for this kind of concert, and they are reliable, too. They deliver an extremely clear sound, and we hardly ever needed to use the EQ on the console. By the way, we called the WMS 400 our "darling" because it mastered many tricky miking jobs during the show with ease. We used it, for instance, to mic up a vocalist singing among the clouds above the stage at the beginning of the show, then the oud, and, last but not least, Santa Claus." The Al Farah Choir is actually a church choir whose members represent all age groups from 6 to 45. The principal idea was to give all the performers including the children a chance to perform in an extraordinary production before a typical audience at the Opera Theater. Therefore, everybody did their best and it took many rehearsals with these young people until the performance and the sound were perfect. It was necessary to set some of the mics on stage to omnidirectional mode, and these delivered excellent results, too. Thanks to the cooperation and dedication of everyone involved, the show was an overwhelming success—every night. Chor Al Farah: http://alfarahchoir.com/
Dar-Al-assad Operntheater, Damaskus: http://www.opera-syria.org/
Hazem Mastering: http://www.hazem-mastering.com/
HamzehCo: http://www.hamzehco.com/ Pictures by Mais Shourbaji and Ibrahim Malla |
