Audiosmith Digital Solutions Selects Lawo for Classical Music Productions

Lawo has announced the recent purchase of a 48 fader mc²56 console by Audiosmith Digital Solutions for their productions at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Manhattan. It was also the complete audio design for the venue that was carried out by Audiosmith Digital Solutions, a New York-based company providing recording and mixing expertise, technology, and project management services to the music, film, commercial, social media, theater and television production industries.

By utilizing the latest in audio over IP infrastructures, Audiosmith Digital Solutions offers the ability to record full orchestras, choirs, chamber music, jazz, cast albums, and acoustic music across all genres as well as concerts and media events locally, domestically and internationally.

Orchestra of St. Luke’s built The DiMenna Center in 2011 as New York City’s only acoustically-optimized rehearsal and recording space dedicated to classical music. It has quickly become an unparalleled resource serving the entire musical community — from soloists to symphony orchestras — through affordable, state-of-the-art facilities. The DiMenna Center’s showcase room, Mary Flagler Cary Hall, is an acoustically-optimized recording soundstage with 3,400 square feet and a Steinway D 9-ft piano, retractable film screen, 5.1 surround sound, skylight window and high ceilings designed to provide a world-class recording space for large scale orchestras in the heart of New York City.

“Lawo’s mc²56 console was the perfect choice for The DiMenna Center. The audio quality of the console and mic pre-amps was exactly what we were looking for, with pristine sound and dynamic range that far exceeded the competition,” says Audiosmith’s Lawrence Manchester, Chief Recording Technologist for The DiMenna Center and a Grammy Award-winning music producer/engineer/mixer of albums, film, television, and theater.

Manchester’s work has taken him around the world and his credits include U2, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Lawrence recently led a training seminar about differences between orchestral recording and broadcast mixing, featuring demonstrations facilitated with the Lawo mc²56 console for both applications.

He continues, “The workflow and ease-of-use of this console makes it a pleasure to work with, whether I’m doing a film soundtrack recording session, or a live on-air broadcast mix. In addition, Lawo’s use of the most modern IP and fiber-based infrastructure exactly fits with our philosophy of using next-generation technology to create flexible and future-proof design for the widest possible scope of recording projects.”

The Lawo mc²56 audio production console played a central role in the sound recording for the orchestral film score for Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest Hollywood blockbuster Hail, Caesar! starring George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, and Ralph Fiennes, and also was utilized by the New York Youth Symphony for their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Brooklyn. In addition to the 48 fader console surface, the console’s HD Core includes DSP support for up to two hundred eighty channels of audio, an 8,192 x 8,192 routing matrix, support for mono, stereo, 5.1 and extended surround mixing, and RAVENNA/AES67 compliant interface to two Lawo DALLIS Stageboxes with sixty four of Lawo’s best-in-class mic-preamps for extended range and outstanding signal-to-noise response. The company is known for providing audio systems for many of Europe’s most famous orchestral and operatic venues and now adds The DiMenna Center for Classical Music as one of the premier venues for state of the art audio recording in North America.

States Michael Mueller, VP of sales for Lawo Inc., “We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to be a part of this amazing facility and have the privilege of working with some of the finest talent for audio recording and facility design anywhere in the world. The console and facilities have already been utilized for additional scoring sessions and we look forward to a strong on-going partnership with Audiosmith Digital Solutions, The DiMenna Center, and everyone involved with this great venue.”