Sound engineer Tom Meyer turned to DPA when Norwegian folk artist, Pål Moddi Knutsen asked him to mic up an old Philips cassette player that played a key role in two of his songs.
“When Moddi turned up with the cassette player I was a bit surprised,” explains Meyer, who runs TM Tour Productions in Bardu, North Norway. “My solution was to use a DPA d:screet™ 4060 Omnidirectional Microphone so that we could get the best possible sound and still keep the stage tidy and free from unwanted mic stands. Moddi never uses monitors, so we had more than enough headroom for the PA. We used a DPA Universal Surface Mount to position the microphone on top of the cassette player so that we could capture sound from the internal speaker. It worked really well and allowed us to incorporate the cassette player into his live performance.”
Tom Meyer, who has worked with Moddi for the last 10 years, is a fan of DPA and has more than 20 of the company’s microphones in his collection. These range from d:vote™ Instrument Microphones and d:facto™ Vocal Microphones to d:dicate™ 2011C Twin Diaphragm Cardioid Microphones, which Meyer says he uses everywhere, especially on snare drums, because they sound so good and are so versatile.
“Right now my favourite DPA product is the d:facto™ Vocal Microphone: it’s the best vocal mic I’ve ever tried, especially for rock singers. I’ve also been using it on Moddi’s live dates and it sounds fantastic with his voice.”
Moddi recently completed a 13-date tour of Europe and followed that with a five date Norwegian tour, where he performed with a band and a string ensemble from the Arhkangelsk Chamber Orchestra.
The live concerts were all centred around Unsongs, Moddi’s fourth studio album, which consists of 12 tracks that have all been previously banned, censored or silenced.
“Through making this album I have found that people are tired of pop music with no content,” Moddi recently told interviewer Dorian Lynskey. “Making this album has been a doorway to the world, in a time when walls are being rebuilt and new doors are closed every day. The songs have made me appreciate the world a little more. Although the topic is serious, it fills me with hope. To me, at least, this album has proven that music is usually stronger than silence.”
Moddi performed in Kansas, USA in February 2017 before returning to Norway for a concert with Trondheim Solistene at the Operahouse in Oslo. At the end of March, he goes back on tour in Europe accompanied by Tom Meyer and a selection of DPA microphones.
