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Ministry of Sound – Classical classics

Twenty-three years on from the debut edition of the compilation, RG Jones are proud to be supplying the sound for The Annual Classical seeing the Ministry of Sound touring the UK with a 50-piece orchestra, which began with a world premiere at London’s Royal Festival Hall on January 26^th and has already taken the UK by storm.

Reproducing major classical music events for promoters like Raymond Gubbay is familiar territory for RG Jones as the company has been the first name on the sheet for numerous live classical events for many years, based on unparalleled experience built on longevity and people.

Blending the perfect mix of an orchestra sound with the world’s most iconic dance brand is a bold concept. This is more than a concert, it’s an out-of-this-world experience. Stirring the senses, triggering memories – the unique ambience that is created by the magical wonders of a live symphony orchestra. FOH engineer, Phil Wright was at the helm with highly experienced system tech Mark Edwards on system.

“The key thing for this event was to keep sound levels to a minimum on stage,” explains Phil “To this end we employed 17 Allen & Heath ME-1 personal mixers for the key players and the conductor, and an additional 18 Martin Audio DD6’s for compact low level distributed monitoring.”

Using a DPA solution, we also had to mic much tighter than for a conventional classical show because of the need to reach 100-105dB(A) at the FOH position. The company has invested a significant amount in DPA mics and hold an extensive stock to meet the high demand in classical applications.

The challenge of keeping the stage quiet and clean while delivering festival levels at FOH meant the choice of the MLA family had been axiomatic. “It is the only system I would consider for this kind of event,” the sound engineer exclaimed. “The Hard Avoid® feature on stage and the incredible cardioid subs meant that we could really meet audience expectations while maintaining reasonable levels on stage.

As for the system, Phil and RG Jones knew the award-winning Martin Audio MLA Compact was the perfect solution.

Phil continues “In addition to the extremely accurately defined coverage, the system needed to be very flat and linear, so that I achieved maximum gain before feedback and transparency since the show is much more dynamic than a purely electronic event because you’re dealing with real instruments on stage.”

The show required a click track which he played in from his dual-redundant ShowCueSystem rig; this provided Click & Bar numbers on video to stage and also SMPTE to lighting for sync purposes.

In summary, Phil Wright credits RG Jones’ skilled stage crew for the delivery of an excellent show.

RG Jones Director Andrew Williamson adds “we are extremely proud to be involved with this sell-out show. RG Jones has a long history and involvement in pop and dance music stretching back to the days of the studio. We are lucky enough to be providing solutions to some of the most extraordinary performances across the UK and Europe and we are delighted that the clients and fans alike have been very happy with the results”.

Photo credits: Sam Millien and Phil Wright