Equipment

Cast members of A Prairie Home Companion perform on EV RE27 mics. From left: Garrison Keillor, Robin Williams, Prudence Johnson and Linda Williams. Photo credit: Melinda Sue Gordon.

Eight Electro-Voice RE27 N/D microphones appear in Robert Altman’s film A Prairie Home Companion, which is based on Garrison Keillor’s perennially popular Minnesota Public Radio show broadcast from the historic Fitzgerald Theatre in St Paul, Minn. The movie features a star-studded cast that includes Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson and Lindsay Lohan.

“The use of the RE27 really represents the attention to detail that Robert Altman, Garrison Keillor and production designer Dina Goldman paid to the equipment used,” says production mixer Drew Kunin. “I made them a shortlist of mics for the cast’s wide range of voices. The RE27 was at the top of the list because it’s a beautiful sounding mic for the human voice. They all agreed on the RE27 because, in addition to offering the level of sound quality we needed to do our job well, it has the same visual charm and charisma as a classic retro-style mic. Its matte chrome finish, unique shape and shock-mount appealed to them a lot.

Other Hardware:

• Computer: Mac OS Mojave version 10.14.3
• Mixer: Apogee Maestro 2 version 10.2.6
• (2) Presonus-Eris E5-High Definition 2-way 5.25” Near Field Studio Monitors
• Sennheiser HD280 Pro Circumaural Closed Monitoring Headphones
• (2) HP Photosmart Premium printers (Print-Fax-Scan-Copy)

Software:

• Pro Tools LE
• Apple Logic Studio 9
• Apple Garage Band