The Hans Zimmer Live tour currently touring in North America before heading to Europe later in 2024.
“The width of Hans’ music is so broad, it’s amazing to mix,” said Colin Pink, FOH engineer for Hans Zimmer Live and the World of Hans Zimmer. “As an engineer, it comes with a lot of challenges in the mix and the PA as you’re covering small intimate chamber orchestras to massive punk rock feel.”
To produce some of Zimmer’s most unique sounds, the capacitors are removed from all the keyboards during production so they can reach frequencies as low as 10 Hz. While humans can sometimes hear tones below 20 Hz, at 10 Hz people still feel the sound and low-pressure levels on their eardrums. Completing their research, the team found Danley’s DTS10 subwoofer, a high-definition subwoofer built for cinemas with an unheard-of output down to these frequencies.
“They chose the DTS10 because it’s one of the few subwoofers on the market that goes down that low,” said Tom Danley, Director of research and development at Danley Sound Labs. “It’s considerably more powerful than a vented box if you could even tune one that low and you really can’t.”
“We’re utilising 12 DTS10’s across the front of the stage,” said Pink. “It actually looks beautiful as they just disappear. They are visually elegant boxes and giving us that low frequency extension that we need. What I love is that they are doing their job but there are no artifacts. The subs are just clean, powerful and elegant.”
“This is a special need,” said Jason Spencer, System Design Engineer at Danley Sound Labs. “This doesn’t happen with most live performances. It’s been fun to learn how much Hans loves bass which is right in line with Tom Danley’s philosophy: the more bass the better and if you can’t hear but you feel it that’s even better.”
“I did hear some of the early rehearsal,” said Danley. “The DTS10 subs feel in the bottom end very nicely and are doing exactly what they are supposed to.”
