{
"title": "'True to Life' Recording, Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center",
"modified_at": "2026-09-29 10:03:28",
"published_at": "2026-09-29 10:03:00",
"url": "https://news.hummingbirdmedia.com/true-to-life-recording-live-from-jazz-at-lincoln-center",
"short_url": "http://prez.ly/QeQd",
"culture": "en",
"language": "EN",
"subtitle": "Amplified Art & Sound builds leading jazz performance center's archive on SCHOEPS Colette Microphones",
"slug": "true-to-life-recording-live-from-jazz-at-lincoln-center",
"body": "
Please find both English and German versions of this press release attached. \u200bIm Anhang finden Sie eine englische und eine deutsche Version dieser Pressemitteilung
NEW YORK, NY, September 29, 2026 -- Amplified Art and Sound LLC – the elite audio recording and mixing team for Jazz at Lincoln Center – has been at the center of the institution’s archival recording, studio recording, broadcast, and streaming operations since 2021. The team’s commitment to excellence in both audio quality and performance capture has resulted in a body of work that will define the sound and feel of jazz recordings for generations to come. Key to the team’s day-to-day work has been its selection of tools to ensure honest representation of the quality and energy of the performers, a task that always includes SCHOEPS Colette Series Microphones.
Commitment to clarity \u200bAmplified Art and Sound Owner and Chief Engineer Todd Whitelock is a longtime collaborator of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s (JALC) visionary founder and managing and artistic director Wynton Marsalis as well as a 13x Grammy-winning engineer with a background at PowerStation, Sony Classical Productions, and Sony Music Studios. From the beginning, Whitelock and his team’s approach to JALC’s recording process has been centered on two key virtues that apply equally to the sound and emotional quality of the recordings captured: truth, and clarity. “The greatest performers in the world play on our stages and as such we take our responsibility to livestream and capture those performances very seriously,” he explains. “When our team first started with JALC, the goal was to bring a more ambient approach to recording that I’d done with Sony Classical so that we could purposefully capture these performances in a way that elevated them sonically while still being true to the players and their sounds they get on stage. Close mic’ing alone doesn’t adequately capture the power of the orchestra in full swing.” Wynton had always envisioned that sound for the livestreams and records released by JALC’s label Blue Engine Records.
“Schoeps were the very first thing I asked for to hang as our main array – we use 7 Colette Series with MK 2 capsules hanging from the stage catwalks for all of our live performance recording sessions both in Rose Theater and The Appel Room.”
Whitelock’s experience with SCHOEPS was influenced by his time at Sony Classical, where Tonemeisters \u200b favored them for their true-to-life pickup and minimal stage profile – an essential element required for orchestral recording. They have since become workhorse microphones for him both in the studio and live at JALC. “The mark of a great microphone is their sonic honesty, in my opinion,” he states. “The ability to capture the true characteristics of an instrument is always a challenge, and you want the microphone to do that without imparting too much unnecessary coloration on the results. I equate that to a photographer choosing the right lens for a closeup verses a landscape.”
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“SCHOEPS mics are deadly accurate in that sense – they nail the sound of any instrument you put them on with the correct tonal color and detail. This is why we use them as our main stage array – it’s a very purposeful choice that ensures we get uniformly high quality results with the clarity we need for mixes, which often now requires even more sonic information for immersive mixing. This has been especially true for our streaming and broadcast work.”
Rising to the occasion \u200bOn sessions where more SCHOEPS firepower is required, Whitelock will often hire the microphones en-masse from mobile recording provider Sound Mirror in Boston. When Wynton Marsalis was set to record a live performance of his opus All Rise for PBS for the 150th Anniversary of the Chautauqua Institution, the call went out. “When we are recording for a live broadcast, especially on the scale required for All Rise, the visual element really does come into play in a big way,” Whitelock explains. “You really don’t want to see microphones on stage, but with an ensemble that big – a full orchestra and then a choir of 100 – you simply cannot compromise on the sound. This is where SCHOEPS always shines because you can place them exactly where you need without them drawing attention away from the performers and get the sound that you need.”
“Sound Mirror has been a great partner in these instances and I told them to bring their entire stock of SCHOEPS for the taping.”
Whitelock and his team placed upwards of eighty SCHOEPS MK 4 microphones around the stage strategically for maximum effect. The small profile of the microphones ensured they stayed out of the picture, while still capturing the power and energy of the choral performance that Whitelock was looking for. “It was a massive choir in a loft above the stage and I knew we needed SCHOEPS for them – the MK 4 capsule is especially great for capturing choral elements and I honestly prefer them to large diaphragm condensers for choirs he says. “They’re always asking us if we really need that many microphones, but when they hear the results it’s clear that the effort is worth it. We’re very proud of the audio production on that performance and Wynton felt we did justice to the maestro’s work.”
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“That’s really the key to a strong jazz recording,” he continues. “You want to capture that moment and hear every element of what the player or performer is blowing on their chosen instrument as part of the ensemble. I always use SCHOEPS as part of our process because I can rely on them to give us that, they were the first mics purchased for JALC since Amplified Art & Sound has been involved.”
For more information about Jazz at Lincoln Center, please visit: http://www.jazz.org/
SCHOEPS Microphones \u200bFounded in 1948, Schoeps Microphones are pioneers in the world of pro-audio with a reputation as one of the world's finest manufacturers of microphones. The family-owned business, based in Durlach, Karlsruhe, Germany, designs and manufactures all of its products in-house with a team of 50 employees. The company is driven by a passion for innovation, technical excellence, and strong relationships with the creative and technical professionals who have made Schoeps a part of their daily workflows.
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