Back in August, I helped record a concert in the park!
This was our first foray into the world of larger scale, remote field recording at the Art Institute, and we went all out.
The morning started out with a 4:30AM bike ride to the Art Institute, through the pitch black Chicago morning. My colleague Cooper Crain rented a truck, and he, Brian Sulpizio, and I loaded in as the sun began to rise.
We arrived at the beautiful location, one I must sadly admit I had not been to before, and set up shop.
The video was directed by Kirill Mazor, with the assistance of CouchFire Films.
This was my first gig in the pandemic. The goggles ended up not getting much use, but they were there, just in case.
We used mostly Shure, Art Institute gear, but I brought my pair of MKH8040’s in my Rycote ORTF kit and placed them about 20 ft. or so in front of the group. They sounded great, and captured both some nice distance, as well as the sound of the trees in the breeze during breaks. And to the credit of the Rycotes, there was zero wind noise.
And it was, in true Chicago fashion, a windy one. I had to, at one point in the performance, hold on to our tent, to keep it from kiting off.
The band was amazing. We close mic’ed everything, and windshielded up .
Cooper Crain did all the hard work on monitors.
Using the multitrack files, I mixed the show, two complete sets, at Trailhead Sound, where it was featured on WTTW’s Night Out In the Parks series.
You can see the episode here.