The Berliner Philharmoniker in 3D Sound with Sennheiser and Neumann

On November 9th, the Berliner Philharmoniker gave a memorial concert to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall precisely 25 years ago. In remembrance of the victims of the Wall, the orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, performed Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater followed by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Berliner Philharmonie. Digital microphones from Sennheiser and Neumann were used to record this special event in the highest audio quality for subsequent processing in 3D sound.

At the corners of a rectangle microphone array were four Sennheiser MKH 800 TWIN on MZD 8000 digital modules. The four microphones were mounted at two different heights on the same depth plane. Each MKH 800 TWIN has two capsules with signals that can be accessed separately. In the concert hall arrangement, one capsule of each microphone pointed forwards while the other pointed backwards. In the subsequent 3D mix, the signals will be assigned to the front and rear loudspeakers. The MKH TWINs were accompanied by four Neumann KM 133 D without SBK 133 sound diffraction spheres. The Neumann microphones were pointed forward for the lower and upper channels of the subsequent 3D mix. During mixdown, Gregor Zielinsky will be able to choose freely between the capsules, which permits any mixing ration between the microphones.

Those interested can find the recording of the sold-out memorial concert online at digitalconcerthall.com, the website of the DCH – the images of the 360-degree camera and the audio files for 3D sound reproduction are not available online.
sennheiser.com