Sennheiser 2012 Annual Report Download - page 10

1918
RUBRIK
220 Hz 220 Hz
SURROUND SOUND
His fingers slide along the
controller one last time
and then you hear “The
Voice of God.” As the audio en-
gineer swipes the equalizer on
his iPad, David Bowie begins to
sing. And how! Live perfor-
mances are projected on gauze
screens from floor to ceiling
while 10 hidden speakers en-
velop the visitor in sound, cre-
ating a concert atmosphere:
The Jean Genie lives on his back,
The Jean Genie loves chimney
stacks, He’s outrageous, he
screams and he bawls, Jean
Genie, let yourself go!
Gregor Zielinsky gives
a contented smile. In just a few
days, the ground-breaking and
acclaimed “David Bowie is”
exhibition is scheduled to open
at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London.
There’s a feeling of heightened excitement in the air as
technicians thread the last cables and the audio engineer
makes his final sound check. Zielinsky is a sound perfec-
tionist and wizard at music repro-
duction. Using the Sennheiser 3D
Audio surround sound system, he
has conjured up the “Voice of God”
on the ceiling of this, the world’s
greatest museum of art and design.
“David Bowie is” has become the
best-selling exhibition in the muse-
um’s history.
That said, when audiophiles
speak of “God,” they are not refer-
ring to the superstar who was
launched into the stratosphere of
pop music as “Ziggy Stardust” – de-
spite the fact that this exhibition is
bursting with his memorabilia.
Rather, they are referring to
the sound installation’s hid-
den height channels, which are
strategically placed to evoke
an almost religious shudder
from its visitors. “In the past,
many hi-fi gurus didn’t think
you needed more than six sur-
round channels to create a sur-
round sound effect,” com-
ments Zielinsky. He motions
toward the exhibition hall’s
high walls where he has hid-
den a handful of Neumann
speakers that deliver one height channel for each of the
five base channels: “That’s the secret behind our ability to
create a third dimension of sound.” Cinema applications
use a similar additional height channel, which audio engi-
neers at Hollywood studios christened “The Voice of God”
– the voice from above. “The name may sound a bit dra-
matic,” says Zielinsky, “but what better way to describe an
acoustical signal that emanates from above?”
“Sound and Vision” is the title of a successful
Bowie single first released in 1977. Appropriately, sound
and vision interact throughout the exhibition. Its design-
ers, Fifty Nine Productions, in collaboration with Real
Studios, have transformed the galleries into theatrical
spaces where visitors are immersed in music and images
from across David Bowie’s phenomenal career.
On the one hand, there are the visual curiosities
taken from the artist’s private collection, which he made
available to curators without ever having communicated
with them personally. More than 50 mannequins dressed
g1. Who is Bowie? The exhibition
offers many possible answers.
h2. What does Bowie sound like?
Sennheiser audio engineer
Gregor Zielinsky has given the
artist’s sound a new dimension.
GROUND CONTROL TO
MAJOR TOM …
220times per
second –
that’s how
often the
oscillator swung in 1969 when David
Bowie turned on his Stylophone.
Shortly after the mini analog syn-
thesizer was switched on, it played
back an A3 (220 Hz). He could then
use the tiny metal keyboard’s sty-
lus to draw out tones ranging from
A2 (11 Hz) to E4 (329.6 Hz). Similar
to the original sample-playback
keyboard, the Mellotron, the Stylo-
phone belongs to Bowie’s curious
collection of instruments.
“IN THE PAST, MANY HI-FI GURUS DIDN’T THINK YOU NEEDED MORE THAN SIX SURROUND CHANNELS TO CREATE
A SURROUND SOUND EFFECT. I USE 10.”