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November 2013 l 17
studionews BELGIUM Serendipitous captures River Scheldt
To celebrate 150 years of the abolishment of the River Scheldt toll, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic performed a live rendition of the oratorium De Schelde – the masterpiece was recorded live by Serendipitous, reports Marc Maes
IT WAS 150 years ago that the toll (levied by the Dutch) on shipping in the Scheldt was finally abolished, enabling Antwerp to develop into a major international port. In addition to numerous festive events, the Port of Antwerp Authority organised a live performance of classical composer Peter Benoit’s De Schelde.
The concert was staged at
the Waagnatie port hangar, with The Royal Flemish Philharmonic performing, featuring six solo singers and the Flemish Radio Choir and the (Dutch) Groot Omroepkoor. Motormusic classical division
Serendipitous was assigned to record the concert for CD and vinyl release. A crew of three, with chief engineer Steven Maes, had the recording mobile just outside the venue, on the River Scheldt quay.
“For this recording we used
32 microphones altogether,” explains Maes. “We used four Neumann U 87 for the lead singers and a AB stereo microphone system with two Neumann M150. All of the 32 microphones were channelled via Grace Design M802 remotely controlled preamps and then steered via MADI in the Pro Tools HDX recording system. We used a Nuendo digital recorder as back up – standard procedure with live recordings. The acoustics in the port warehouse were not ideal and we used a Bricasti M7 external reverb to smooth the balance between the lead singers, the orchestra and choir – to achieve more depth in the recording.” Maes says Serendipitous, launched some 10 years ago within Motormusic, has grown
The Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra performing “De Schelde” on the quays of the River Scheldt
organically into the classical music niche. “With Motormusic having a name and fame in pop and rock music, we have been importing quite some of that technology in the classical world – these influences are omnipresent and decisive in the sound colour.” Gradually, Serendipitous
managed to win over the conservatism of the classical music industry – bearing in mind the philosophy of a “natural good sound”, it introduced multitracking while
Flemish Philharmonic, with over 20 jobs today – in addition Serendipitous also takes on the practical management of The Royal Flemish Philharmonic Recordings label: recording, mixing and mastering, and distribution is handled by Serendipitous, alongside its own Evil Penguin label. With over 110 recording days in 2012, Serendipitous is making its way, both in Belgium and abroad, where the studio works for labels such as Challenge Classic Pentatone (The Netherlands) and the Plazetto Bru Zane foundation (France). In other news, Motormusic
welcomed audio post-production company AgeNT and image production company Filmmore into its fold.
Serendipitous team:
L-R: Steven Maes, recording engineer, Tom Proost, system engineer, Floren Van Stichelen, assistant
others were still recording on two tracks. The recording of the live CD
and vinyl albums marks the extensive collaboration between Serendipitous and the The Royal
“Mechelen is rapidly becoming a real media hub, thanks in part to the Flemish government, which – through Screen Flanders – gives a financial incentive to audiovisual productions spending part of their budget in the Flemish Region,” says Hans Bellens, owner of MotorMusic.
www.motormusic.be www.serendipitous.eu
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