British composer Sami Yusuf and the Fons Sophiae Collective brought Rooted in Concert to Ankara and Istanbul in September 2026, with Auditoria providing live audio design, mixing and a recording and post-production workflow developed specifically for the performances.
Working with client Astiana and Sami Yusuf’s music production team, Auditoria’s involvement extended beyond the sold-out concerts. A key part of the project was preparing recordings from the live performances for studio mixing, with a deliberately focussed two-day period available after the final concert to begin mixing selected songs ready for release.
The concerts featured a wide range of traditional instruments, each requiring careful attention to microphone selection and placement. These techniques have continued to develop through Auditoria’s work with Sami Yusuf, with the aim of preserving the character of the instruments when amplified for a concert audience.
For Rooted in Concert, the team also needed to capture those performances for subsequent studio work without changing the established live audio arrangements.
“There’s so much detail in Sami’s music, particularly in the traditional instruments and how they interact with the voices,” explained Ethan Curry, Audio Project Manager at Auditoria. “We’ve developed our approach to amplifying these instruments over several productions, and this time we also had to consider how we could capture the performances for studio mixing without changing what was working for the live shows.”
More than 100 inputs were recorded through two redundant Pro Tools Ultimate systems. A separate DiGiCo Quantum112 provided a live stereo mix from FOH stems and audience microphones, as well as connectivity to the recording systems.
During the Istanbul performances, Auditoria began transferring elements of FOH Mix Engineer Richard Sharratt’s DiGiCo and Fourier processing into comparable Pro Tools plug-ins. The session layout followed his live console, with SSL fader and plug-in controllers providing a familiar, hands-on mixing environment.
“Richard had already developed the live mix throughout the concerts, so it made sense to carry as much of that work into post-production as possible,” Curry added. “We prepared the Pro Tools sessions around his FOH setup, giving us a familiar starting point for the two days of mixing with Vishnu. It also meant the sessions could be handed over to allow further work by the music production team after our initial two-day mixing session.”
The temporary post-production studio was set up in a conference room at the team’s hotel. Neumann KH310 monitoring loudspeakers and a KH750 subwoofer were installed and tuned on the morning of the final concert, allowing the remaining recording equipment to be transferred from the venue after the performance.
The following morning, Sharratt, Sami Yusuf’s Musical Director and Studio Mix Engineer Vishnu Raaj, and Curry began work on the recorded material.
The first session focused on refining the transferred FOH mix for the studio environment. The remaining time was spent developing detailed mixes and automation for selected songs, with the Pro Tools sessions prepared for Vishnu and the wider music production team to continue editing afterwards.
For the live performances, Auditoria used DiGiCo Quantum338 consoles with Fourier Audio processing at FOH and monitors. The Ankara concerts used the venue’s Meyer Sound PANTHER system, with adjustments to the existing arrangement to achieve the required audience coverage. In Istanbul, a d&b audiotechnik KSL system was brought in for the performances.
The project brought together Auditoria’s live audio team and Sami Yusuf’s studio production team, with the recording and mixing workflow developed around the needs of both.
