The Gasteig cultural centre, home to the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, recently upgraded its aging mixing console to
a complete mixing solution by HARMAN Professional Solutions, including a Studer
Vista X mixing console, Studer I/O systems, Lexicon Processors and AMX control
systems. The Gasteig hosts more than 2,500 productions each year, and in order to
meet such a demanding production schedule, the facility needed a cutting-edge
mixing solution that would streamline workflows and enable guest audio engineers
to achieve great sounding mixes with ease. The new HARMAN mixing solution offers
excellent speed, flexibility and ease of use, and enables Gasteig to deliver excellent
sound quality for a wide range of concerts and productions.

“We have a very short timeframe between productions,’ said Peter Brummer, chief
audio engineer at the Gasteig. “There could be classical recording on Thursday, and
then a jazz recording on Friday. Or we could have four performances in a single
evening. I’m a really big fan of the Studer Vista X, and the Vistonics technology
provides the best user interface on the market. I can turn a knob and see it
happening, without having to deep dive into a computer. It reacts like an analogue
board.’

The complete HARMAN mixing solution at the Gasteig was provided by Audio Pro,
HARMAN’s official distributor in Germany. In addition to the Vista X console, the
system includes 2 Studer Infinity Core 800 processing engines for redundancy, a
Studer D21m remote stagebox with 48 microphone preamps and a Studer D23M I/O
system with AES/EBU, Dante, MADI and more. The Vista X is also compatible with
the Gasteig’s old Studer D19 digital preamp system with 48 microphone I/O.

2 Lexicon PCM 96 Surround processors are interfaced with the Vista X via the D23M
system to provide the studio with a wide range of high quality surround effects.
Parameters are controlled directly from the Vista X via the Vistonics user interface
using HiQNet IP protocol, and settings can be recalled instantly using the console’s
snapshot feature. Finally, an AMX control system with Modero Touch Panels enable
Gasteig engineers to simplify day-to-day operations in the studio, seamlessly
control lighting and power and quickly switch between different DAWs.

For more than 20 years, the Gasteig has recorded each and every performance by
the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The recordings are stored in an archive for
posterity or released commercially to the public. They also record performances by
famous jazz orchestras, big bands, chamber music and more. For orchestral
recordings, they typically record with 96 kHz, 24-bit sound quality using
approximately 30 microphones. Orchestral performances are currently mixed in 5.1
surround sound, but Brummer has been experimenting with creating mixes 9.1,
which convey three-dimensional height, depth and width.