Sweden's Caprice Concert Achieves Vocal Clarity with Countryman

	Caprice concert. Photo: Trettondagskonsert 2013 / Jan-Olav Wedin

Every year, Orphei Drängar, the world famous male choir formed in 1853, puts together a show called Caprice in their hometown of Uppsala, Sweden. Caprice is a must for music lovers of all kinds -- much more than simply a choral performance, the show features lighting, choreography, a wide variety of music, and even some major surprises for the audience. Each performance features guest artists who are never revealed to the audience in advance, and are always quite a treat. The show is held in such high regard that the five concerts, totaling 8,500 tickets, are sold out in only a few minutes.

This year, the secret artists were opera singer Elin Rombo, rock singer/musical artist Ola Salo, and comedian/entertainer Henrik Dorsin. Beyond inviting these prestigious guests, Orphei Drängar celebrated their 50th Caprice by adding two additional concerts, and moving the performances to the beautiful Stockholm Concert Hall. These concerts also included another special group: the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. To add to the excitement, the Swedish National TV, SVT, was also able to broadcast the event.

With this exceptional ensemble of performers spanning opera, choir, rock, and orchestral performance combined with the challenging broadcast aspects, the requirements for the audio were extremely demanding. Consequently, experienced audio engineer and front-of-house for the performance, Lars Wern, introduced the audio engineering team to a brand new microphone from California-based microphone manufacturer Countryman Associates -- the new H6 Headset. With its uniquely impressive combination of natural sound quality, ultra-low visibility, and ease of adjustment, according to the company, the H6 Headset quickly became the microphone of choice for the three guest artists at Caprice.

This marked the debut to Sweden of the H6 Headset, and the results were outstanding. Monitor engineer Mårten Ihre of DM Audio and the two sound technicians from SVT in Stockholm Jacob Håål and Kenneth Back found the H6 Headset very easy to work with. "The headband is much slimmer and easier to adjust than similar microphones we have used," remarked Håål. Fredrik Stålne and Jonas Sjöberg were responsible for the broadcast audio, and were impressed with the ultra-low profile of the H6, which was nearly invisible on camera.

Wern was very pleased with how the event turned out, "The sound was amazing and the incredibly small microphones also appealed to the TV people, as they were almost invisible. It was fantastic to get such a good result, even when the singers were standing in front of the large orchestra, performing Queen Songs with just the head-worn mikes, the sound was amazing."