Bassline Symphony for Bradford 2025
Control, monitors, mics and DJ backline for the inaugural Bassline Symphony, a UK garage and bassline crossover with full orchestra at St George's Hall.
Orchestra meets bassline, at St George's Hall.
Bassline Symphony is an Opera North and Bradford 2025 commission that scores Bassline for a full orchestra. We supplied control, monitors, microphones, IEMs and DJ backline for the inaugural performance at St George’s Hall, Bradford. Front-of-house audio was mixed by our Event Production Director, Jonny Wharton.
Orchestra meets the modern dance floor
A bassline crossover, scored for full orchestra
The commission
The inaugural Bassline Symphony, for Bradford City of Culture
Bassline Symphony is an Opera North and Bradford 2025 commission that scores Bassline for a full orchestra, with vocalists, MCs and DJs at the centre of it. The 2025 run at St George’s Hall, Bradford was the show’s inaugural outing, sitting under the wider Bradford City of Culture year as one of its headline live-music events.
We were brought in for the control end of the show, picking up where the venue’s house PA stopped: a full mic, monitor, IEM and DJ backline package, with a 108 channel split FOH & Mons console system to handle the orchestra and the modern-music elements as one mix.
The fit
Garage Classical Experience, on a Bradford stage
The booking came on the strength of our work with Garage Classical, the touring orchestra-meets-electronic-music project that mixes garage against live strings, brass and percussion. Our Event Production Director, Jonny Wharton, has run FOH for Garage Classical for years, and brought the same playbook across to manage the Bassline Symphony orchestra against the MC and DJ elements on the night.
Two consoles, thirty DPAs, a Pioneer DJ booth
A 108 split control package, built for an orchestral mix
Control
Allen & Heath dLive S7000s on FOH and SSL L350 Plus on Mons
Control sat across a Allen & Heath dLive S7000 surface for FOH paired with a dLive DM64 MixRack (Dante-enabled), with four DX168 stage boxes feeding a 108-channel split line system. Monitors was controlled by an SSL L350 Plus. The A&H surface ran front-of-house with Jonny on it, the SSL had
Martijn Van Renterghem at the helm.
Microphone package
Thirty DPA 4099s across the strings, brass and percussion
The orchestra ran on a DPA-led mic package: thirty 4099 instrument mics across the string and brass sections, with 2012, 2015 and 4055 capsules placed where they needed a different polar pattern or a heavier-duty source. Schertler Dyn P48s carried the lower string section.
Drums and percussion ran on a mix of Shure SM57 and SM81 and Sennheiser e904, e914 and MD421 dynamics. Sennheiser EW500-935 G3 handheld channels covered the vocalists and host out front.
Monitors and backline
Sixteen IEMs on stage, Pioneer CDJs on a Litedeck riser
Sixteen channels of Sennheiser SR/EK IEM G4, paired with Fischer Amps in-ear sticks, kept the orchestra and band in their own mixes from a Sennheiser AC 41 combined antenna feed. Martin Audio LE200 coax wedges, on Powersoft T604s, covered the floor positions and vocal cue.
The DJ position ran a four-CDJ booth: four Pioneer DJ CDJ-3000 players around a DJM-900NXS2, on a dedicated Litedeck riser at the edge of the orchestra.
From front-of-house and on stage
