Neumann Microphones Lay the Groundwork for Bryan Adams' Bare Bones Concert in Pompeii

	Front-of-house engineer Stefan Holtz has shaped the live sound of Die Toten Hosen and Westernhagen for over two decades. He's been behind the board for Die Arzte for the past five years.

Bryan Adams performed solo with his acoustic guitar in the ancient amphitheater of Pompeii, where Pink Floyd once made history. No band, no effects, no in-ear monitoring. Just his voice, his guitar, a piano, and stone walls that have carried sound for more than two millennia.

At front of house, engineer Stefan Holtz mixed on a locally rented digital console: boutique analog gear or complex processing racks were nowhere in sight. "People want to feel as if Bryan were standing right in front of them without a microphone," says Holtz, who has been with Adams since 2023, working both the Bare Bones shows and the full band tours. "The moment they hear an engineer's hand in it, the magic's gone. The technology has to disappear."

But how to craft a transparent live sound that still conveys Adams' performance with emotion and impact?

Bare Bones isn't a conventional tour; it's a handful of curated one-offs. In 2025, there were just five or six engagements, among them Rome, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Scotland, and finally Pompeii. These concerts reveal something intimate: how Bryan Adams creates his songs, just his voice and guitar, sometimes the piano. "This is how he writes," Stefan explains. "He wants to share that raw and intimate creative moment with the audience."

For these selective dates, the team leaned deliberately on local production. "We bring almost nothing besides the microphones and two guitars," Holtz says. Grand piano, console, and PA are provided on site. That may sound risky but "bet the source right, and you can make any desk work," he says. At the source, at the beginning of the signal path, there's been one constant for decades: Neumann microphones.

Adams' sonic connection with Neumann.Berlin goes back decades. In the studio, the Canadian relied on an M 49 until 1993, then moved to a U 87. Onstage, he started with a KMS 140, later switching to a custom-modified KMS 104.

Early 2025 marked the next evolution: the KMS 104 Plus. "We tried it, and Bryan, monitors, and front-of-house all agreed immediately: this is a real step forward," Holtz says. "The windscreen's more effective, we get fewer pops, and its voicing fits Bryan's voice perfectly." He adds, "Bryan is one with this mic. He knows the cardioid pattern by heart, instinctively knows how far to pull back, when to turn his head. It's truly become his instrument."

For the Bare Bones concerts, Adams chose classic wedges over in-ears. "It's not always easy in these acoustically precious venues that equally respond to the wedges," Holtz says. "Yet despite its simple cardioid pattern [in contrast to the hypercardioid KMS 105 sibling], the KMS 104 Plus handles feedback like a champ: "Bryan's got serious volume, that's our advantage. I wouldn't want to try this with a delicate voice."

For the concert grand, Stefan deployed four MCM 114 systems: one ORTF pair near the hammers for articulation and sparkle, plus two additional MCM 114 at the sound holes for warmth and body. The MCM system's mounting options and road-readiness were key for Stefan: "You're genuinely fast with MCM. But what really gets me is the modular construction with four separate parts I can swap out independently. If a capsule gets wet, just replace the capsule. If a cable fails, swap the cable. There' no need for a whole new mic."

Adams' acoustic guitar is captured with a KM 185; its hypercardioid pattern rejects the wedges and, together with the built-in pickup, strikes a balance between immediacy and natural detail.

For recording the Pompeii show, Holtz chose pairs of KMR 81 shotgun microphones and KM 185s on both sides of the stage. "They're a notch more neutral than other options," he explains. "Applause sounds like applause, not like frying onions."

A KU 100 dummy head in front of the stage captured the binaural experience. On larger shows with in-ears, Adams' team also feeds this signal into the monitor mix, but it serves another purpose too: for Adams, it's an invaluable reference that allows him later to hear the concert from a listener's seat.

Whenever possible, Holtz extends his trust in Neumann technology to his monitors. Ahead of three 2024 shows at London's Royal Albert Hall, he worked with a full KH loudspeaker system from Neumann. Though it can't match a concert PA's sheer sound pressure levels, it translates convincingly: "With the big KH 420s and KH 870 subwoofer combo, you get remarkably close to the live experience while maintaining incredible resolution."

This consistent commitment to Neumann technology for critical components of the signal chain gives Stefan unshakeable confidence: "It removes so much stress because I can trust my sources, no matter which console turns up or how the PA is configured -- all the variables I can't always control."