Neve 1073OPX proves crucial for Massey Hall recordings

When Toronto’s Massey Hall decided that it was time for a refresh, a purpose-built recording studio for capturing performances all around the expanded venue became a possibility. Turning this dream into a reality has seen a rolling rack of Neve 1073OPX remote-controllable preamps proving its worth as the perfect tool to help capture performances in pristine audio quality.

The list of people who have played Massey Hall is a veritable who’s who of any genre. From Monserat Caballe and Luciano Pavarotti to George Gershwin and Arturo Toscanini via Bob Dylan, Cream, Justin Bieber, Van Halen, Kraftwerk and Harry Styles, the historic concert hall has played host to some of the world’s greatest performers. Adding to this legacy is a real pedigree in live recording with artists including Neil Young, Rush, Matthew Good and Whitehorse to name a few all recording live albums at the venue.

Opened in 1894, Massey Hall is Canada’s oldest concert venue. Any performance space of this age brings its fair share of challenges for modern productions, and it was the lack of a loading dock that was the real issue for Massey Hall. To overcome this obstacle, while also modernising the technical capabilities of the venue, Massey Hall embarked on a 10-year refurbishment and expansion project. A key element to this has been the creation of the Allied Music Centre, a seven-storey glass building connected to the historic venue to enhance its facilities for performers and visitors alike. In addition to the purpose-built loading dock, extra washrooms and hospitality facilities, the new building offers a number of extra performance spaces of various sizes, designed to help provide a pathway for artists to build their audience on the way to Massey Hall’s 3,000-capacity auditorium.

The expansion project also provided Massey Hall with an opportunity to bring more of its production offerings in house. The venue has regularly delivered live albums and films of the performances it has hosted but has often needed to bring in equipment from external suppliers to achieve that. The plan for the Allied Music Centre included a fifth-floor content capture studio which featured a video switching system and audio capture room using the new networked AV infrastructure.

The result is the Deane Cameron Recording Studio, named in memory of Massey Hall’s former CEO who had passed away suddenly during the project. The space combines a live floor and control room with writing rooms to create an artist development compound that can also be used for educational purposes within the local community. As a critical commercial and educational resource, the studio needed to be fitted out with high-quality equipment while also having the ability to connect directly with any performance space in the venue. This is where the 1073OPX rolling rack comes into its own.

“Sound was the driving factor behind our decision to invest in the 1073OPX,” explained Doug McKendrick, Vice President of Production and Technology for Massey Hall and Roy Thompson Hall. “It was trying to do this digital capture, but not make it sound that way as much as possible. You roll that Neve rack on stage and people go ‘whoa’, it's impressive. It looks amazing and people understand that they’re going to have a really good recording that they can do something with right off the bat.

“We're trying to set ourselves apart as much as we can in terms of quality of live recordings or any of the recordings that we do. The 1073s play a critical role in that and are our go to preamp in a lot of respects. You have that punchy, warm Neve sound that’s just clear and awesome, it’s unmistakable.”

The networking capabilities of the 1073 also played a critical role in the selection: “The Dante connectivity just made it possible,” continued McKendrick. “We're connecting up seven floors from Massey Hall. So, putting in analogue infrastructure to do that would have been difficult to maintain.

“I think we will see Dante start to become more prevalent in the professional studio ecosphere. We have a lot of analogue gear here and I think there is still a place for that, but connecting it via Dante into the I/O just made setting the studio up more affordable. When I get a piece of new equipment, if it has Dante, I don't even have to think about how I'm going to integrate it, I just plug it in and then it works.”

The portable nature of the OPX rack has also proved to be important as it has given the concert hall the ability to bring the high-quality Neve sound to every recording from the stage to the live room with control via the remote control app on a laptop in the control room. “We roll it right into that live room, there’s 64 Neve DIs there too, so you can plug right in,” said McKendrick. “We're not going through long patch bays and it's just as close to the source as you can get it.”

With the expansion project complete, the newly refreshed Massey Hall has cemented its place as the premier performance venue for Toronto.

Main image: Doug McKendrick with Massey Hall's rolling Neve 1073OPX rack