Photo of the MIM
CRAS AES set up a private all access tour of the Music Instrument Museum (MIM) for our students. When we arrived the MIM's representative gave us all Sennheiser wireless headsets that allowed you to hear different instruments and music from around the world, without ever pressing anything. The MIM has a little over 15 hours of audio and video for people to enjoy; enough that it would take two whole days to experience it all. The museum has arranged their exhibits by region of the world, attempting to group like-sounding music together. Students had an hour to explore the MIM before we were took our tour.
The backstage tour of the MIM was a fascinating look at a Museum dedicated to sound. First our tour guide (Margret) explained the layout of the museum and the various events that happen there. This weekend was Mediterranean music at the MIM, so they had various performances ongoing and booths set up to showcase this region of the world. Our tour guide then brought us to the sound booth and mixing booth for their live sound space. The entire museum is run on the Dante Protocol and is sponsored by Sennheiser. They have outstanding layout and killer capabilities for their live room. There are 56 1" monitors for the front of the stage alone and the subs are built into the wall. The room is set up to live stream different events and have MIDI compatible instruments play along with a performer. After that we were led to the other side of the museum and brought to the restoration room. Our tour guide
explained there were several steps to accepting an instrument into the museum, but the most important first step was to freeze the instruments when they arrive. This kills any insects that may have come along for the ride. We were then led to instrument vault where they keep all the instruments they are not currently displaying; they have over 2,500 instruments on premises. The next to last stop was the exhibit construction room. The MIM was in-between setting up exhibits so nothing was going on there. Finally we went to the experience room where we got
to try all sorts of different instruments available to the public.
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