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| Two time 2002 Grammy nominee Diane Reeves Kuvo performance gets two on NPR |
| 06.02.2002 Old Lyme, Connecticut |
Because of its inspired artistry and technical excellence, National Public Radio decided to rebroadcast jazz vocalist Diane Reeves' KUVO live studio performance on New Year's Eve 2002. Over 400 NPR stations aired the half-hour session in its entirety, nestled between the Chicago and Los Angeles New Year's countdowns. At the vanguard of new female jazz vocalists, Reeves has earned a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2000 and is currently nominated for Best Female Jazz Vocalist and Best Large Arrangement for her "The Calling" CD. Reeves takes her Neumann KMS 105 live vocal microphone to every live performance. The KUVO session was no exception.
KUVO is only one of nine full-time jazz stations in the country and second only to Boston's WBGO in the number of live studio performances it airs. KUVO's Mike Pappas originally engineered the session with help from John Mikity. Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo accompanied Reeves through an inspired set of standards and covers.
"The NPR folks are sticklers for quality," Pappas observed. "They only accept the very best recordings. We cut that session with the KMS 105 because that's what Diane is comfortable with. However, that turned out to be an excellent engineering decision as well, and it played a huge role in meeting the exacting demands of NPR. We couldn't have done it with any other 'live' vocal microphone."
In addition to live broadcast, KUVO produced a CD of the session for Neumann's promotional use. Pappas shared it with industry luminaries and audiophiles at CES 2002. "Everyone was stunned with the quality," he said. "They were even more impressed by the fact that the KMS 105 was handheld! It's an excellent microphone, and when you put it in front of a vocal talent like Diane Reeves, the result is truly magical."
Additional Neumann microphones supplemented the KMS 105. A pair of Neumann KM 184s mounted on a stereo bar captured Lubambo's guitar while a Neumann TLM 103 captured his amplifier. Two Neumann "Monolith" TLM 103s recorded the crowd and a classic Neumann U 87 sat in front of KUVO announcer Rodney Franks. A Grace Designs 801R eight channel remote controlled microphone preamplifier boosted all of the microphone signals on stage. Pappas recorded the session live to a two-track Genex recorder in the new Sony Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format. A Meitner DSD AD supplied the conversion via a Super Bit Mapped (SBM) 44.1kHz/24-bit protocol.
Neumann, USA
http://www.neumannusa.com
1 Enterprise Drive, Old Lyme, CT 06371
(860) 434-5220, Fax (860) 434-3148
Contact:
Karl Winkler, Director, Marketing Communications
kwinkler@sennheiserusa.com,
(860) 434-9190
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