Getting Low with Hans Zimmer Live

New York, NY (November 11, 2024)—Currently on the road in North America, the Hans Zimmer Live tour finds the Oscar-winning film and television composer performing newly arranged concert suites include music from Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, The Lion King, The Last Samurai and Dune, among other works. Bringing the majesty of the music to fans nightly is FOH engineer Colin Pink.

“The width of Hans’ music is so broad, it’s amazing to mix,” said Pink. “As an engineer, it comes with a lot of challenges in the mix and the P.A. as you’re covering [everything from] small intimate chamber orchestras to massive punk rock feel.”

The low end of the mix on the tour is particularly unique, however, as the capacitors are removed from all the keyboards during the 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.

The Dynamic Sound of Dune: Part Two

The existing P.A. for the tour could not provide such frequencies to satisfy Zimmer’s vision for the production, however, so the audio team brought along a dozen Danley DTS10 subwoofers to make it happen. Perhaps appropriately, too, as the subwoofer is built for cinemas and can provide output down to such basement-dwelling frequencies.

Pink explained, “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.”