# What's the Largest Orchestra Posssible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 9, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501 "2013-11-09T12:05:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501/21 "2013-11-10T19:11:29Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > The time delay issue seems easily solvable … For varying definitions of “easily”… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501/22 "2013-11-12T07:22:59Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > For varying definitions of “easily”… 😉 What I described is how a zillion performances and recordings are done all the time - a bunch of performers with personal monitoring equipment/headphones and mics for the performance. Every live show does this, every band you watch on television. It’s all well explored territory, for decades. The complexity is seeing how far you can scale that to hundreds or thousands (or tens of thousands etc) of performers. It’s all the same problem with more people and equipment needed. It doesn’t make such a performance _easy_ in any sense, but it does away, entirely, with the issue of speed of sound delay between performers trying to cue off one another. The musicians can be on all parts of the globe if needed, as long as speed of _light_ delay (and network propagation) doesn’t hinder audio traveling from one person to another. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501/23 "2013-11-12T08:48:23Z")
Some famous composer wrote a symphony for a massive orchestral ensemble. I think it was like over 1,000 IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501/24 "2013-11-12T08:49:47Z")
Mahler 8. “Symphony of a Thousand” as it was dubbed ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501/25 "2013-11-13T13:44:10Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > What I described is how a zillion performances and recordings are done all the time - a bunch of performers with personal monitoring equipment/headphones and mics for the performance. Every live show does this, every band you watch on television. It’s all well explored territory, for decades. The complexity is seeing how far you can scale that to hundreds or thousands (or tens of thousands etc) of performers. It’s all the same problem with more people and equipment needed. > > It doesn’t make such a performance _easy_ in any sense, but it does away, entirely, with the issue of speed of sound delay between performers trying to cue off one another. The musicians can be on all parts of the globe if needed, as long as speed of _light_ delay (and network propagation) doesn’t hinder audio traveling from one person to another. Yeah, but if the audience is going to listen via speakers, they might as well just listen to a recording. I’d much rather build in the time delay so that people could hear it live. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501/26 "2013-11-13T17:48:16Z")
_[Ode to Joy](http://youtu.be/X6s6YKlTpfw)_, 10,000 of them, supposedly. Mostly Japanese people, as far as I can tell. Of course, not OP, but definitely an appropriate drift. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501/27 "2013-11-13T19:58:30Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > What I described is how a zillion performances and recordings are done all the time - a bunch of performers with personal monitoring equipment/headphones and mics for the performance. Every live show does this, every band you watch on television. It’s all well explored territory, for decades. The complexity is seeing how far you can scale that to hundreds or thousands (or tens of thousands etc) of performers. It’s all the same problem with more people and equipment needed. > > It doesn’t make such a performance _easy_ in any sense, but it does away, entirely, with the issue of speed of sound delay between performers trying to cue off one another. The musicians can be on all parts of the globe if needed, as long as speed of _light_ delay (and network propagation) doesn’t hinder audio traveling from one person to another. I believe that once you get more than a few hundred miles away, transmission speed would become a factor. So it would be best to have your orchestra all in the same state or you will start running into the same problems as a “live” orchestra. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-orchestra-posssible/673501.md?page=1)