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Aspen Festival chief audio engineer Scott Burgess recording grand piano with a matched pair of Sanken CUX-100K mics. (Photo credit: Bonnie Utter)

Aspen Music Festival Employs New Sanken CUX-100K Microphones

Scott Burgess, chief audio engineer for the festival, notes that “The CUX-100K pair has found good use as soloist spot mics.”

New Sanken CUX-100K microphones were deployed at this year’s Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) for numerous live and live-streamed events, including symphonies, concertos, and opera.

“The CUX-100K pair has found good use as soloist spot mics,” says Scott Burgess, chief audio engineer for the festival. “We first deployed them on the soloists for Beethoven Symphony No. 9, which was a live stream, and they worked brilliantly. The soloists were behind the orchestra rather than their usual spot out front. We had the mics in near cardioid mode for that, on a low stand, and were amazed at how well that pattern worked. They were basically positioned right behind the woodwinds, and not far from the horns, and the soloists came through crystal clear.”

A matched pair of CUX-100K mics in the Aspen Music Festival concert hall. (Photo credit: Scott Burgess)

The TEC Award-nomiated CUX-100K is the newest mic in the Sanken Chromatic line and offers switchable modes with three settings: Cardioid (Far), Cardioid (Near) and Omni. The AMFS festival presented as many as a half-dozen performances a day, with the 2,200-seat Benedict Music Tent hosting orchestra and other large ensembles and the 500-seat Harris Concert Hall the site for chamber music and solo recitals. A total of more than 200 events were on the calendar in the course of eight weeks.

“I can definitely see why the great engineer Michael Bishop loved these mics,” says Burgess, speaking of the late classical Grammy-winning engineer and founder of 5/4 Productions. “Working at 96K as we are, the extended top end on the CUX-100K puts a nice shine on all of the festival audio. And the reach and range of the Sankens were just the ticket to solve some odd staging issues we encountered. On the harpsichord, the CUX-100K sounded especially scintillating.”

Go here for more specifics on the CUX-100K.

Sanken Chromatic

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