New World Symphony (NWS), one of the world’s leading orchestral institutions for training musicians in preparation for professional careers in classical music, has been known as the home of the best since it was established in 1987. Co-founded by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and Lin and Ted Arison as a training orchestra for young musicians and a bridge between school and professional orchestras, NWS moved into its current Frank Gehry-designed New World Center campus in Miami Beach in 2011. That was the same year the symphony acquired its first DiGiCo console, a D1 Live.
Since then, New World Center has remained a DiGiCo facility, most recently adding a Quantum225 Pulse console to mix orchestral and other performances that are projected onto the venue’s 7,000-square-foot WALLCAST® screen, located in the SoundScape Park outdoor listening area. Combined with a Meyer Sound Constellation sound system, patrons can spend the evening picnicking on the lawn as beautiful classical music fills the warm night air.
After many years of dependable service, New World Symphony’s original D1 Live desks gave way to three Quantum5 consoles, used for FOH, monitors, and a spare, as well as an SD9 console used in teaching rooms. “Because we were already very familiar with the DiGiCo platform, I decided on a Quantum225 console because I knew that it would give me all the creative freedom that I needed to be able to mix how I want to mix,” says NWS Director of Audio Services Roberto Toledo, who just won a Suncoast Emmy Award for live-stream audio mixing for the WALLCAST concerts. “When I do a live stream, basically what I’m doing in the console is nearly identical to how I mix in a studio, so the Q225 gives me a studio experience in a sense. I think of it as an outdoor studio, like an outdoor control room. For WALLCAST concerts, we mix through the console and then send outputs to the Meyer Constellation system in SoundScape Park. It gives the audience an amazing experience.”
Toledo says DiGiCo’s sonic transparency is a perfect match for classical music, and that certainly extends through to the new Quantum225 Pulse. But he’s also a huge fan of its Quantum processing power, particularly the Mustard compression. “I literally ran out of Mustard channels – I’m using all of them!” he quips. “I love Mustard. It gives us the option to use parallel compression, which I think for classical music in this setting is really the best. It gives me the ability to compress as necessary, but it’s such a subtle sound that it offers a lot of control over the compression effect. It lets me balance the way I’d like to, whereas if I was using traditional compression, I’d have to be a little more careful with it, because it’s easy to go overboard.”
“In classical music, a lot of people don’t like using compression at all,” he adds. “I’m not afraid to use it, but I want to make sure that the audience isn’t hearing this super-squished sound and that they are getting true dynamics, even as I’m getting the control that I need for my mix. It’s compressed, but it doesn’t sound compressed. And that’s what Mustard gives me.”
DiGiCo technology has been assuring New World Symphony and its listeners that what they’re hearing is as modern as it gets. “With DiGiCo, it really feels like I’m mixing in a studio, even outdoors, and that’s a great feeling,” says Toledo.
For more information on New World Symphony, visit www.nws.edu.
