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Us VS Them?

 

With all of the forward motion in the entertainment industry over the past few years, I just can’t believe that we still live in a culture of  “Us vs. Them.” I’m talking about actors, musicians, “the talent,” vs. technicians. Even in my list, I’ve used a term I’m used to hearing: The Talent.  Here’s the thing, I am also the talent. The spot ops are also “the talent.” The stage manager is also “the talent.” The deck crew, the A2, the board ops, the wardrobe techs, etc. are all “the talent.”

We’ve stopped thinking about what language that has been used for generations actually means. I cringe every time I hear “actors on a ten” during tech rehearsals. What about technicians and designers?  Should we just power through? Obviously, this announcement actually means that this is the time everyone should take a break, but the language just needs to change. What about the rehearsal report that refers to the actor as “Mr. Smith” but refers to the technician as “the board op?” It only perpetuates an already unspoken and uncomfortable divide between those that work on the stage and those that work just off the stage.

This is not a one-way street; the sentiment goes both ways.  We always hear about “actor-proofing” gear for the stage. What does that even mean?  Does an actor suddenly lose all ability to think logically about the thing they are holding, or sitting on, or walking over once they hit the stage?  I mean, we’re not actor-proofing an actor’s day-to-day life, are we? If what we mean is we are going to make sure a cable is run properly and taped down so that it can be crossed over many times without being a trip hazard, we should probably just say that instead.

The theatre conservatory that I taught for the better part of a decade has a policy that all acting students must serve as a technician on at least one show during their training.  I love this policy, and honestly, a few of my best A2s were actors. Why just hear about the other side when you can actually experience it? The benefits are massive. The actor learns a bit about a technical trade, will be able to incorporate that new knowledge into their craft, and hopefully has a newfound respect for the life and work of the technician.

The tech crew also benefits from working with the actor-tech. One of the coolest and most functional homemade mic belts I’ve ever used was made by an actor-tech who used his prior experience of uncomfortable mic placement to develop a beneficial design. Also, an actor’s knack for memorization has come in super handy when I’ve had to rattle off a list of instructions that needed to be performed in a timely fashion.  And let’s face it, actors almost always know every character and every word to every song way earlier in the process than a technician. It is so much easier to be able to say, “Fix that mic on Sibella” without having to add, “She’s the girl that’s always dressed in pink.”

Acting conservatory classes often feature a lot of exercises that include self-reflection, group trust, and team-building.  Over the years, I’ve heard tech students talk about how awesome it was that they didn’t have to take classes like those, and that has always boggled my mind!  Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of free therapy? I know (possibly more than anyone) how uncomfortable and difficult it is to open up about feelings and stuff, but think of the personal growth!  If we were all taking team-building classes together, actors and techs, US and THEM, just think of all of the positivity that would come from it. If nothing else, it would let us get to know one another. Maybe get coffee together, maybe collaborate, maybe learn from each other. My challenge to you all is simple: Cut this phrase in half. There is no Us vs. Them; There is only US. It takes all of us to make a show.

I wanted to say something here about symbiosis, and my first Google search turned up this definition:

“Symbiotic relationships are a special type of interaction between species.  Sometimes beneficial, sometimes harmful, these relationships are essential to many organisms and ecosystems, and they provide a balance that can only be achieved by working together.”

I really can’t do better than that.  So just keep reading that definition, and thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

 

Audio Tips For The Top High School Musicals Of 2019

NPR Ed has just published a database of the most popular high school plays and musicals in the U.S. for 2019.  Upon reading this list, I realized that I have designed all but two of these musicals, so I thought I’d share a few experiences I encountered with each.  I’m only touching on the musicals, but here’s the link to the original article if you’d like to follow along at home, and also read about the most popular high school plays in 2019.

Alright, here we go!  (I feel like David Letterman…digital high-five if you get the reference.

#10 Shrek, The Musical & The Wizard of Oz

No, this is not a weird mashup (but that would be hilarious, someone write this right now).  These two musicals have tied for 10th place. I’ll start with Shrek.  

I loved this musical, it was so much fun, and it’s a great option for high school casts.  The biggest hurdle I faced with this show was makeup. As you probably know, Shrek is green, Fiona turns green, and donkey is grey.  There’s also a giant dragon puppet. Shrek almost never leaves the stage. He also has a pretty complicated costume and heavy face makeup, so my first piece of advice is to double-mic Shrek.

Our Shrek wore a little beanie that was never removed, so I integrated microphone elements into that beanie. I asked the costumes department to sew a few small, elastic loops into the inside of the beanie, and threaded two microphone elements (which were Hellermaned together) through the inside of the beanie that popped out the front, landing in a nice little forehead position.  Shrek’s makeup was airbrushed on him each day, and our costume department was nice enough to give me a little bit of that green so that I could paint the elements in the same color.

This paint job had to be touched up about 2 times a week. Also, if your Shrek is wearing a fat suit, I recommend placing his transmitter on the outside of that rig. Depending on the transmitter and the fabric of the suit, they can have some difficulty cutting through all of those layers.  Fiona is a little easier, but has one very important scene to consider—her transformation scene. The transformation, including green makeup and prosthetics, needs to happen super quickly.

Since I could foresee green makeup flying all over that microphone element, I made the decision to have a second element prepped and ready for this quick change. This element was also painted in the Shrek green makeup. Human Fiona wore her element in a forehead position that ran under her wig (but not under the wig cap, which I would normally do), and during the quick change, the Human Fiona wig and element would come off, disconnect from the transmitter, her face was quickly painted green, and then the green element would replace the previous one and run under Ogre Fiona’s wig.  My A2 would handle all of the element work, including holding the capsule in place while the wig was being attached, and dressers took care of the rest of the change around the A2.

Our Donkey wore a head-to-toe bodysuit, so running his element under the hood of the bodysuit to the top of the forehead was my preferred method. Finally, the dragon. The dragon is a puppet that is manipulated by several operators. We had a separate actor voicing the dragon for her very fabulous song, Forever. Our vocalist was visible onstage, so I decided to match her R&B goodness with a gold-grilled handheld wireless mic.

#9 Into The Woods

I have never designed this show, but I really want to, so if you’re reading this blog and you are a producer, call me.

# 8 Seussical 

I designed this show over a decade ago, and it was for a high school company.  In fact, I’m willing to bet that 85% of the companies producing this show nowadays are middle and high school companies.  My biggest challenges on this show were the gear and personnel.

There are 12 principals, and an endless possibility for the ensemble.  I think my total cast size was between 50-60, plus we had an 18 piece orchestra. The school chose to provide their own gear as opposed to renting from my theater, so I had to work with what they had.

For the orchestra, I was given 5 pencil condenser microphones, 1 SM57, 1 SM58, and a handful of DI boxes. Luckily, I had enough DI boxes for guitars, keyboards, and bass. I ended up mic’ing sections instead of individual instruments, as would normally be my choice.  So, I put a condenser microphone on the reed section, brass section, string section, percussion section, and used one as overhead for the drumset. I used the 57 on the snare and the 58 on the kick. Some careful EQ really helped with this skimpy choice of mics.

For actor mics, I was given 12 wireless transmitters, 9 lavs, and 3 choir mics.  Yep, you read that right. Remember, this is a cast of about 55. I put all 12 transmitters on the principals, and 7 lavs permanently on those principals that had the most stage time. Now, I really, REALLY hate microphone swapping and avoid it whenever possible, but for this show, it just had to be done. Luckily we were only swapping 2 lavs between actors.  I put together a mic swap sheet and walked my high school student A2 through the process step by step.

Since I had 12 transmitters, the packs could all stay on their dedicated actor, and the A2 would just have to attach the lav as needed. For the ensemble, I had to bargain with the director a bit. The ensemble blocking was all over the place, and the director was hoping I would just hang those 3 choir mics evenly distributed over the stage, and they would produce the same sound as the principals in lavs.  I told her that one choice mic hanging 6 ft over the head of one tiny 13 year old was not going to give her the sound she was looking for, but 3 choir mics positioned in one area over a group of 40 13 years olds would get her closer. She was not willing to forfeit all of her blocking and make the ensemble completely stationary, so we chose 3 locations where large groups of the ensemble would land for musical numbers, and I hung a choir mic over each location. On the rare occasion that an ensemble member had a pop-out solo, we made sure they were standing next to a principal so that we could get a little more gain from that open mic.

I also had a high school student mixing at front of house, so I preprogrammed the show for him, made it as user-friendly as possible, and walked him through the scenes one by one. Designing this show was the first time that I realized student production does not necessarily equal easy. Given all of the constraints and restrictions, I’m happy with the way the show turned out, and I DEFINITELY learned a lot from that production.

#7 Little Shop of Horrors

Again, I have never designed this show, but it’s one of my FAVES, so if you need a sound designer for this, you know who to call!

#6 Newsies

I did this show a few years ago, and I absolutely loved it.  The cast was phenomenal, the music was great, my biggest and only enemy during this production was sweat.  If you don’t know the show, it basically features a group of stupidly talented dancing newsboys. If the show is done right, and I’d like to think ours was, they are dancing their little hearts out for the majority of the show.  That means lots and lots of sweat.

My regular transmitter protection protocol is to put the transmitter in a non-lubricated condom rolled all the way up with a cotton ball sitting between the connector and antenna. Most of the transmitters were in a neoprene mic belt, which is super protective against a sweaty body.  Because only a few of our mic belts had flaps on them for extra transmitter security, the excessive amount of dancing would sometimes cause my cotton balls to jump out of the mic belt, and onto the ground. I decided to add a rubber band around the length of the transmitter to hold the cotton ball in. In a few cases, I found that transmitters were still getting sweated out, despite the neoprene mic belt and latex protection.  For these few microphones, I added a layer of glad wrap around the transmitter. The sticky seal on this wrap really helps to keep the transmitter dry and happy. Remember to let the seal extend above the microphone connector and antenna. I then put the glad-wrapped transmitter in the un-lubricated condom and added the cotton ball.

I also had a few situations in which the microphone element that was rigged over the ear of the actors picked up an extreme amount of sweat regularly.  One of my favorite solutions for this issue is to add a tiny, rubber washer to the element that sits just above the capsule. The idea is that the washer will help distribute accumulated sweat out instead of down into the capsule. I got mine in a pack of 100 for less than $10 from McMaster-Carr.

#5 Mary Poppins

The most important thing to remember for this show is that Mary Poppins=FLYING!  This is important to remember because

#1:  In addition to her heavy costume, corset, and mic belt, Mary Poppins also wears a flying harness.

#2: Depending on where her take-off and landing zones are, you may not have as much off-stage access to Mary as you might like.

This becomes problematic when microphone troubleshooting becomes necessary. There are also very few moments that Mary Poppins is off stage, so I decided to double mic her.  I originally had her two transmitters on her mic belt under her corset, but I found that their antennas were having a difficult time cutting through all of the layers of heavy fabrics.  It was also quite uncomfortable for our Mary Poppins, given the extra belt of the fly harness.

I ended up moving one transmitter to inside her wig, and the other clipped to the front, outside of her corset.  The wigged transmitter was a Shure UR1M. I think this position would have been too uncomfortable with anything other than a micro-transmitter. The costume department helped by making a wig cap sandwich to help keep the transmitter secure, yet still accessible.  The actor playing Mary Poppins would pin curl her hair and wear a wig cap

#1 over the curls. On top of this wig cap was an added pocket for the transmitter. She then added a wig cap

#2, which was held on with 2 hairpins. The wig was then applied. There were many times throughout this run when we had to switch to the backup mic mid-show, so I’m glad we made the choice to double mic.

#4 Beauty and the Beast   

This is a BEAST of a show!  As we all know, there are many enchanted objects that live in the beasts castle.  If the mouth and/or majority of the face are obstructed by costumes, my advice is to build the microphone into the costume in such a way that it has better access to the mouth.

I chose a forehead microphone placement for our beast, but his hair/mane was worn so low on his forehead that it became necessary to place the capsule of his mic just above his brow line, which was fine, just required a bit of a different EQ.  Most productions, including ours, feature a Beast double for the final battle between Beast and Gaston. This is to facilitate the transformation of Beast to Prince.

There are several Beast lines that occur while the double is on stage, so as not to let on about our theatre magic, I chose to record those lines and have them played back.  There is a lot happening in this scene, and it should be pretty dark and scary, so there’s no need to worry about lip sync lining up. We had a second microphone element mounted on an ear rig for Beast’s transformation to the Prince, so during that costume change, we switched to the second element.

#3 The Little Mermaid

I am currently contracted to design this show, but will not begin the process for another few months.  So far, my biggest concern is, again, flying. While our production does not feature true flying, we will be using a few silks and ropes that actors will climb and swing on.  They will be harnessed, so I will be thinking of careful transmitter placement to guard against the actor or the equipment getting damaged.

# 2 Mamma Mia! 

Mamma Mia!  seems like it would be a pretty straightforward show, and it is.  The thing that required some extra thought for me was the large number of backup vocals.  We did not use pit or offstage singers, so I chose to record our ensemble singing all of the backup vocals.  Our production also features lots of dancing, so we did record some ensemble vocal overdubs to playback and sweeten those very heavy dance moments.

The curtain call of this show features what is basically an Abba concert. For this moment, I had originally planned on our music director and his assistant to be wheeled out on stage while playing live keyboards, but because of a personnel change very close to the opening of this show, we had to scrap that idea.  I’m telling everyone this tidbit because I’m hoping someone out there is able to up the stakes of this glimmering disco concert! I also insisted that the main six use handheld wireless microphones during the concert, and we even managed to add some blingy handle covers for good measure!

 

#1 The Addams Family   

 

It seems only right that this show is in the number one slot, it is definitely in my top three favorite designs.  If I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t encounter too many issues I needed a creative solution for on this show.  I did get to play with a few fun effects, though. I don’t know if this is the typical casting, but our Cousin It also played the monster in Pugsley’s room.

Both of these characters featured a costume that completely covered the actor’s head. The monster costume was literally built on top of a motorcycle helmet worn by the actor.  As you can imagine, these are not ideal microphone situations. I chose to cover the echo chamber that these pieces created with effects. Since both characters made only sounds and not words, I was able to be pretty heavy-handed with the effects, as I was not worried about intelligibility or tedious balance.

For both characters, I used a dual pitch. I dialed both of It’s pitches extremely high, and both of the monster’s pitches extremely low. We gave the actor some time during tech to experiment with different sounds to see what could be produced through these effects. The outcome was very exciting, and a crowd favorite!

The opening number of the show features ensemble “ah’s,” which were sung offstage for our production. To give this an “other-worldly” feel, I basically drowned them in a large chamber reverb with a shockingly long 9-second decay. The same effect was applied to the women’s ensemble final “ah’s” in The Moon and Me.

Whatever musical you may be working on, remember that you do not always have to be beholden to budget, inventory, or personnel.  Creative solutions are out there, you just have to think outside the box. Also, remember your community if you get stuck! There is nothing wrong with reaching out to your hive, analog or digital, to discover just the right trick!     

Theatre Sound Design

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Being A Musician Makes Me A Better Sound Designer and Engineer

I have been a musician for almost my entire life.  At four years old, I could sing every word of Annie without skipping a note.  When I was in the third grade, I got a piano for my birthday and started the first of many private lessons.  In the fourth grade, I started playing the viola in my school orchestra. I don’t usually count that as one of my instruments because, in orchestra class, I was more interested in talking to my best friend, who played the cello and sat right next to me.  Because of this, I never learned how to read alto clef fluently, and so I faked the viola until I was in the 7th grade and had to quit when my rouse caught up with me. In the 6th grade, I started playing flute and piccolo in the school band. In the 8th grade, the jazz band needed a tenor saxophone player, so I did that for a year since it was a smooth transition from the flute.  Somewhere in middle school, my dad got me a Fender California Series acoustic guitar, and in high school, he got me a Gibson SG. I can play the guitar well enough to be entertaining at a campfire. I was a music major in college, and while there, I took private piano and flute lessons. Most of my music school friends were percussionists, so halfway through my college career, I started taking private percussion lessons, and somehow became the principal percussionist in Campus Band.  So, as you can see, I have a pretty diverse background in music. Music has driven every of my life decisions. So why, when I started my studio recording private lessons, did I not want to play any music?

My degree is in Commercial Music.  My focus in that area was on engineering and producing.  As part of this focus, I was required to write, record, and produce a song once a week.  I would then have a one-hour lesson where my professor would respond to my latest creation.  The expectation was that I would absorb these notes, and my next project would be better. The thing is, it took me a while to get better because I did not want to write or play my own music.  For some reason, once I began the Commercial Music program, I decided I only wanted to be an engineer and producer, and I did not want to be a musician anymore. I asked my professor if I could hire musicians to play for me.  I told him I would do two lessons a week instead of one; I just did not want to play anymore. He did not bend–not even a little. Then he told me something that I have never forgotten. It’s a phrase I use with my students all the time.  He said, “My engineers are not just button pushers.” He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and he is a fantastic trumpet player. He has a wealth of musical knowledge, so it frustrates him when sound engineers don’t feel the music the way he does.  He told me a story about a sound engineer that worked for him in the past. He said this guy did not have a musical bone in his body. He was a button pusher. Mics would come on; mics would go off. That’s it. My professor decided that he did not want anyone coming out of his program to perform like that.  I fought it for a while, but eventually, I gave in, and I’m glad I did. It was the best decision I ever made.

Now I’m a sound designer for theatre, and my musicianship helps inform many of my decisions.  I know to push the music during a big musical swell or interlude. I know that a little reverb in the back makes a small orchestra sound more prominent and lusher.  I know to fade down to underscoring, and I know to gracefully fade up to transition music. It’s not something I think about. It’s something I feel in my body, and my hands just follow.  I know it’s easy for me to say though. I’m a musician, and I have been for most of my life. So what if you’re not a musician? What if you can’t read music, you’ve never touched a musical instrument, but you are a sound engineer?  You don’t have to be a musician to be musical. You don’t have to be a musician to feel the music in your body, and I have a few exercises to help bring the music out of a non-musician’s soul.

First, make playlist of ten songs.  These should be some of your favorite songs, and if they’re contrasting genres, even better.  Next, get some headphones, and head to a quiet room where you can be alone. If it doesn’t creep you out too much, turn off the lights.  Now put on your headphones, and listen to your entire playlist. Note the parts that give you the warm fuzzies, or make the hair on your arms stand up, or force tears to flow from your eyes.  What is happening musically in those moments? Did the instruments crescendo? Was there a vocal effect? Did the reverb ring out after the final note? What about that music made it an experience as opposed to an exercise.  Remember that stuff, and carry it with you into your next gig.

After you’ve done the headphones task, do it again, but this time listen through the best speakers you have access to.  Even if that’s in your car, that’s ok. Listen to the same playlist, and remember those spots you loved. Keep your hand on the volume knob, and gently follow the musical line.  Turn up the volume slightly with that swell. Fade it back down when the line does. This will start to help you attach your warm fuzzy feelings to your technical hands. This is an exercise I love, so I always encourage people to do make multiple playlists and practice this regiment often.  It really does help train your brain and your body to work together.

Another great exercise I like to have my interns and students work on is shadow mixing a movie.  My suggestion is to choose a few movie musicals like Les Miserables, Moulin Rouge, or literally any Disney movie.  Now, sit on your couch, and put 8 pennies on the coffee table in front of you.  For the first movie, keep your pointer and middle finger on your right hand on two of those pennies.  Those are your music faders. Just like the volume knob exercise, move those penny faders with the music.  If you want to add a level of precision, mark a piece of paper with decibel markings to put under the pennies and keep track of the relationship of your pennies to unity.  Do not note things like “Now I am at -10, now I am at -12.” Once you start relying on the numbers, you stop using your ears, and they are your most valuable tool. The muscle memory and relationship between your ears and fingers is what is most important.  After you’re comfortable with the music, watch the movie again, and this time, assign characters to the other 6 faders. This part you will probably have to practice scene by scene, and if there are more than 6 characters per scene, you can assign groups to one DCA, or penny, in your case.  So now, you just repeat the process but adding vocals. When you hear voices get big, follow them with your pennies, and keep doing what you were doing on the first round with the music. If you’re going scene by scene, try filming your hands, and repeat the scene twice. Do your hands have basically the same relationship each time? Are there long stretches of time where you have forgotten to consider music changes? Review the footage, and repeat the practice. The next time you are mixing or designing a show, you just might find that your natural inclination will now be to enhance the musical line with subtle fader movements, thus giving an otherwise flat sound some body and life.  This will be the difference between an acceptable show and an impressively beautiful show.

 

10 Ways To Make the Most of the Quiet Season

The end of the year will be here before we know it. December-January is often a bit of a quiet season for the sound industry, so for my last blog for 2017, I’ve put together a list of ten highly recommended activities to make the most of it.

Step away from the faders.

Rest. It’s been a busy year; you need it. Start the next year refreshed, not exhausted.

Get some exercise

…that’s not just running cables. If it’s cold on your side of the planet, wrap up appropriately and remind yourself what weather feels like. If it’s warm, sit in the sun and take the fluorescent edge off your studio tan

Be an audience member

Watch a play, see your favourite band, take in a film without trying to analyse the convolution reverb. Take your sound ears off for a bit and remember what it feels like to just enjoy a great piece of art.

Do a career stocktake

Look back at the work you’ve done this year. Which projects took you closer to your career goals? Which ones took you further away from your goals? Which were a side-step? Use this to figure out what kind of work you want to do more and less. Maybe you’ll find it’s time for a brand new set of goals altogether.

Have a bit of a tidy-up

The quiet season is a perfect time to do the tedious but essential maintenance that you put off when you were busy with tours and projects. Software upgrades, backups and archiving, PAT tests, clean-ups, and clear-outs. Start the new year with something resembling a tidy studio/working space and a clean system.

Get educated

Dust off that online course, podcast series or webinar that you never quite got around to watching. Time spent investing in your skills is never time wasted.

Polish up your portfolio

If it’s been a while since you updated your CV or your showreel isn’t showcasing your very best work, you’ll need a refresh. If you’re planning to target a different area of the industry, or a different country, in the new year, make sure you have a portfolio that’s tailored accordingly. Resources for Resumes and Social Media

Say thank you

If you have a mentor, remarkable colleague or someone who’s given you a great opportunity this year, this is a perfect time to say thank you and tell them how much you value their support. It’s simple, it doesn’t have to cost much (or anything), and it will be appreciated.
Indulge in some celebrations

Reflect on your achievements and take a moment to acknowledge what you’ve learned and created. You’ve done good work, and you deserve to celebrate it. Glass of seasonal refreshment is recommended.

On behalf of the UK SoundGirls Chapter, thanks to all our members for being part of our SoundGirls community this year. Cheers to the year to come!

Recommended Reading

Surviving the Slow Season

Live Fast, Stay Young

 

Audio Guides and Creating Intimate Audio Outdoors

I’ve been approached to work on audio guides in the past, but for one reason or another, never actually got to work on one. So when a director at the Arcola Theatre got in touch with me about sound designing an audio guide for their summer outdoor theatre project, I said yes, please!

The project was a community performance-based outdoor installation in East London, UK. Supported by the local council, the experience focused on personal and social responses to mental health and well-being. One area would have pop-up performances and participatory activities like group yoga and dancing. The other was a sixty-minute audio guide that would take audience members through a constructed “labyrinth” that explored the process of “getting better.”

In theory, sound design for audio guides is quite straightforward when compared to standard theatre sound. As you’re designing for headphones or earphones, you don’t have to worry about speaker placement, so everything can be done in the studio and delivered ready to go. Of course, you can always have added layers of complexity such as multiple delivery systems and infrared or RF triggers, but ours was a much simpler setup.

We had hired a single wireless Sennheiser 2020-D tour guide system, which would play a single continuous file from five iPods connected to five different transmitters on separate channels for our five audience groups. Each group would be guided by silent performers through a series of different spaces, including a family birthday dinner, doctor’s surgery, surreal interactive WebMD bingo game, and calm centre.

With any audio guide, the most important element is the voiceover, as the audience relies on this for context, explanation, instructions, and in the case of this project, the narrative thread. Recording clear, high-quality voiceovers was, therefore, my main priority.

In an ideal world, I would always record all voiceovers for a show in a professional studio with a voice booth – usually my own. In the real world, budgets and actor availability often don’t allow for this, which is why I had to record the majority of the voiceovers for this project in a rehearsal space in the theatre. I have a portable voice recording booth for situations such as this, but without time to treat the room further, there wasn’t much I could do about the reflections, nor about the level of external noise. At one point, we were competing with a swing dance lesson in the next room – not the best accompaniment to an emotional narrative about mental health!

I know that it’s often possible (though never preferable) to get away with less high-quality recordings in a theatre because when played out through speakers, the acoustics of the venue will mask a lot of the recording faults. Headphones are a lot less forgiving, however, and I was concerned that the less-than-professional recording set up, not to mention the increased noise floor, would lower the overall quality of the guide.

At this point, I turned to what I knew about the technology that we’d be using – or at least, what I could find out about the technology, as I wouldn’t be able to hear the sound through it until the dress rehearsal.

The HDE 2020-D receivers are known as “stethoset” receivers, presumably because they have a stethoscope design where the earphones are attached directly to the receiver by fixed curved handles. The design has practical merit – without headphones, there was no danger of the audience tangling wires or disconnecting the headphones from the receiver pack – but from a sound perspective, it isn’t the best method to deliver a subtle soundtrack. The earphones don’t block out much external sound as headphones would, and the weight of the receiver pack limited how snugly you could secure the earphones into ears. They also had a frequency response of 100Hz – 7kHz.  This range is pretty limited, but it worked in my favour for this particular project. Given that the frequency range used for speech transmission (telephones in particular) is around 300Hz – 3.4kHz, I could filter off most of the noise from my recordings and still have an intelligible recording. Filtering, plus the use of background music, masked most of the room sound in the voice-over recordings.

After the recording sessions, my main task was creating two sixty-minute versions of the guide – one with a female narrator, one with a male. After clean-up and editing the voiceovers were all fine, but I was conflicted about how loud to make the background soundscapes. Without being able to hear my audio through the receivers in advance, in the performance environment, it was hard to judge how present they needed to be. I did know that the audio guide would be competing with a live sound system in another area of the installation – but without knowing how loud or how far away this would be, it was tricky to know how much this would affect the audibility of my guide.

The dress rehearsal was our only chance to test the audio through the delivery system, in a performance scenario, while music was playing in other areas of the installation. I quickly discovered that for the audio guide narration to be clearly audible through the receivers, the gain had to be set to maximum at each level – iPods, transmitters, and the receivers themselves. Not ideal, but at least the audience could hear their guides!

Unfortunately, the ambient noise of the performance environment (a public square), plus the loose fit of the earphones meant that my more subtle soundscapes were often inaudible. While this didn’t seem to hamper any understanding the audience had of the performance, some of the more immersive moments lost their impact. Although maybe it was unrealistic of me to expect this with an urban outdoor performance!

If I have the chance to design another outdoor audio guide, I know that I’ll push for a more powerful playout system (for more volume!) and to have access to the delivery system earlier. I’ll also agree on a production schedule that allows for testing the finished audio in the performance space ahead of the dress rehearsal. Finally, I’ll have a more realistic idea of how much subtlety you can realistically achieve in a design delivered through a tour guide headphone system, and how much is actually necessary. After all, as long as the audience can follow the story, you’ve achieved your key goal.

 

Radio Mics and Foley – UK SoundGirls Workshops with the ASD

On a warm day at the end of June, the UK chapter of SoundGirls had our first shared events with the Association of Sound Designers, in the form of two workshops about very different and equally fascinating sound skills.

First up “Pin the Radio Mic on the Actor,” given by sound engineer and expert “mic hider” Zoe Milton. A vital skill for anyone wanting to work in theatre sound, fitting radio mics is also important for film and TV location sound and in any situation where you want to conceal a body mic on a performer.

Zoe started by taking us through a brief history of the use of radio mics in the theatre. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, bandwidth restrictions limited the number of RF channels which meant that even large West End shows had far fewer transmitter packs than cast members. Les Miserable shared sixteen packs between their cast, which resulted in upwards of 100 pack swaps per night!

Fortunately, advancements in radio mic technology and a reduction in the costs of RF licensing in the UK means this doesn’t happen as much these days. Of course, Sound No. 2 and No. 3’s are still expected to be able to swap mic packs within a matter of minutes if necessary, especially on large shows.

Next, we had a closer look at some of the various mic techniques used to accommodate different hair lengths – including no hair – and performance types. Zoe reminded us that that fitting a radio mic is as much about teamwork and communication as it is about technique. You work in very close proximity with the performer, and you have to make both the experience and the position of the mic and pack comfortable for them. You also have to make final decisions on the mic position that will provide the best and most consistent sound for your Sound No. 1 or sound operator. There can be a big difference in the sound of a mic fitted at someone’s hairline, and one fitted over an ear.

As well as the performer and the Sound No. 1/sound op, radio mic fitters also have to take potential costumes, hairstyles, wigs, and hats into consideration. Zoe emphasized the importance of speaking with costume and wig designers as early in the production process as possible so that you know where you might be able to hide a mic and mic pack. We looked in detail at positioning mics within hats and discussed solutions for performers with no hair (creating an ear “hanger” works well). Zoe also talked us through how to hide mics and mic packs under wigs. I was particularly impressed with one solution that Zoe and a colleague devised for an opera singer who shed his clothing after his entrance, which meant it wasn’t possible to put his mic pack in his costume. Instead, they had a half-wig created to blend in with his natural hair and give them enough volume to hide his mic pack on his head, within his hairstyle.

After giving us a rundown of the best accessories to use, including the benefits of using wig clips over the tape and how to effectively colour a mic cable, we had the chance to get up close and personal with fitting a mic ourselves.

I came away from the workshop with a much clearer idea of the solutions available when fitting radio mics, as well as feeling slightly guilty about how much I rely on tape (more wig clips, I promise, Zoe!).

In the afternoon, Tom Espiner introduced us to the fascinating world of Foley sound creation. Tom is an actor, puppeteer, theatre practitioner, and Foley artist, who has provided Foley for film and TV as well as live opera and theatre.

With the technical assistance of Gareth Fry, Tom demonstrated the process of recording Foley, using various objects and textures to build up multiple layers of created sound effects. It was fascinating to see Tom take everyday objects such as twine and rubber bands and turn them into snakes sliding across rocks and flicking their tongues.

After we’d seen the expert do it, it was time for us to have a go. We had a lot of fun adding horse hooves (a classic) and saddle noises to a scene from The Revenant and learning what might have gone into making the sound of a dinosaur hatching from Jurassic Park.

Later on in the workshop, we looked at adding live Foley to stage plays, and I learned how difficult it is to keep one hand making the sound of a babbling brook while the other creates splashes in sync with another actor, as they mime washing their hands. In one of the most enjoyable exercises of the day, all of us contributed to creating a Foley soundscape to illustrate a particularly descriptive piece of text, creating the sounds of a deep underground lake in a mysterious land.

As well as being very informative, both workshops reminded me how important it is to get out from behind your computer or console, try something new and get your hands wet literally, as it happens. I think all attendees left inspired to try new techniques and find new ways to make sound.

Many thanks to the Association of Sound Designers for offering the opportunity to our members.

 

Ableton Show Control

For a show not so long ago in RADA (Scuttlers, written by Rona Munro), it was my intention to use Ableton Live for the playback of a variety of songs, beats, and rhythms which the cast would create and interact with throughout the show.

As I have mentioned in my blog Choosing Software, I had decided to use Ableton Live in shows because it allows me the diversity to create my own sound palettes, add in effects, and take them away again easily. Crucially, I can control all of this via MIDI in Qlab, which adds important stability for the show, but still, retains a wide dynamic range of filters and features that can be blended and mixed.

*I’m using a Mac for all of the following features, coupled with Ableton Live 9 Suite, and Qlab 3 with a Pro Audio licence.

First things first, you’ll need to go into your computer’s Audio MIDI Setup, you’ll want to go to Window in the Finder bar, and select Show MIDI Studio.

Show MIDI Studio in the Audio MIDI Setup Window in the Mac Mini

 

Qlab Live will pop up as an IAC Driver, and you’ll need to double-click the Qlab Driver to show the Qlab Live Properties.

Qlab IAC Driver in the MIDI Studio

 

In this new window, you’ll need to add a second Port such as below:

Creating a second bus under the Ports pane

 

These buses will be used to trigger Ableton from Qlab, and Ableton to trigger itself internally.

This then brings us to setting up Ableton MIDI. You’ll need to open a new Ableton file and open up the Preferences pane, from here you’ll need to set up the internal MIDI ports to transmit and receive MIDI via the buses to Qlab that we previously set up in the Mac Mini’s own Audio MIDI Setup. It should look something like below:

Ableton’s MIDI Preferences

You can then open up Qlab and check the MIDI Port Routing in the MIDI preferences and ensure that MIDI is being sent to Ableton via one of the ports like so:

You’re probably going to want to leave at least one MIDI port before the Ableton bus free for a MIDI send to your sound desk, or even to Lighting or Video.

Once you’ve set up these initial steps, this is when it gets slightly more complicated. You’ll need to keep a strict record of the MIDI triggers that you’re sending, and indeed all of the values and channel numbers. These will eventually each do different commands so getting one value crossed with another could end up with not only a lot of confusion, but you could end up triggering cues before they’re supposed to Go!

In your Ableton session, look to the top right-hand corner, and you will see a small MIDI toggle button. This is your MIDI view button, and when clicked you’ll also be able to track your MIDI across your session and throughout the show. It will be generic Ableton colour until you click it, when it will become pale blue:

 

A portion of the rest of your Ableton session will also be highlighted in blue, and the highlighted sections are all of the features available for MIDI control. This can range from volume control on Ableton channels, changing the tempo, fading in/out effects, and starting ‘scenes’ on the Master channel bank.

So I’m now dragging in a sample to the first Audio channel in Ableton

This is the first Audio track that I’d like to MIDI, so I set up a new MIDI cue in Qlab, and make sure that it’s a simple Note On MIDI command – Qlab will always default to Channel 1, Note Number 60, Velocity 64, but this can be changed depending on how you plan on tracking your commands. I’ll set this to Channel 4 (leaving the first 3 Channels free for desk MIDI, LX and maybe Video or spare in case something needs re-working during tech). I’ve then set it to Note 1, with a Velocity of 104 (104 is a key number here, this roughly works out at 0db within Ableton, so is handy to remember if MIDI’ing any level changes). Because all I’ve done here is send a simple ‘Go’ command to the Audio track, however, the Velocity number is sort of irrelevant – because the track is at 0db anyway, it will simply play at 0db.

I’ll then ensure that MIDI output is enabled in Qlab, and open the MIDI window in Ableton, again, from the top right-hand corner, and select my track with my mouse (this might not necessarily be highlighted any more, but it will be selected). I’ll then jump back to Qlab, and fire off the MIDI cue. Ableton will recognise this, and not only will the programmed MIDI show up in the MIDI Mappings side of the session, but it will show up directly on top of the Audio cue, like thus:

So now that we have an audio track playing and the action is happening on stage, you might have even fired through several other generic Qlab cues, but you want to stop the music and start the scene. There is no escape in Qlab for Ableton, so Ableton is going to keep going until we programme some more MIDI cues; So I’m simply going to programme a fade down of the music, and then a stop.

What I’ve done it programme a MIDI fade, which as you can see in the picture, it starts at the 0db value of 104, and then fades down over 5 seconds to 0, or infinity. You can also control the curve shape of the fade as usual in Qlab, and of course, the fade time is completely adjustable.

Once I’ve programmed the fade and added in the stop, my MIDI window looks a bit like this:

Ableton has accepted what ‘notes,’ or for Qlab, what values I’ve added in that complete different commands, and also given me a description of what these are doing. Something to note here is that the value to change the volume, whether you’re adding in fades up or down, will always be the same – it is the volume value in Qlab that will see the change.

So now that I’ve stopped the music, I might want to start it again in a separate scene if it was a motif for a character, for example. This programming can be part of the same cue:

Again, you’ll notice that the Ableton fader is resetting back to 0db. Of course, this is just one channel, and just one track within Ableton, and the more you add, the more complicated the programming can get. I’ve also added in a channel stop to make sure that should we want to play something off a separate scene in Ableton; nothing else gets fired off with it (just in case).

In terms of MIDI’ing within Ableton, when in your MIDI pane, as a general rule, anything that shows up in blue is viable to receive and be altered by MIDI. This means that you can add in reverbs over a certain amount of time, take them away again, and alter any of the highlighted parameters completely to taste. You’ll then just need to go back and make sure that any fade ins have outs again and a reset.

This is a brief intro to having more control over Ableton during a show within Qlab, and of course the more effects and cues might get added, the more complicated the MIDI mapping becomes.

The great thing about using Ableton in a show is that there are certain parameters (also with MIDI control) that can be changed such as how long after receiving a stop should the track last (one bar, or half a bar, or a beat for example) to always ensure that music ends on beat and makes sense to the listeners. For me, Ableton allows you enough control over what it does, but enough flexibility.

When the Going gets Tough…

Sometimes things are tough. We are all strong and competent, but sometimes the circumstances we find ourselves in are tough. Even the strongest and most experienced of us have bad days. There is no nirvana level of badass that we reach where events can no longer bother us. But life, or at least working in a male-dominated industry, isn’t about how we get knocked down – it’s about how we get up again. Why would I allow my knockbacks to define me when I could choose to let my recoveries do so?

How do you recover from a knockback, from that awful gig, from finding out those you thought had your back didn’t? Firstly, stop. Stop, take a breath and think: Is there anything about what happened that you could learn from? Is there any responsibility you can take for any part of what happened? If there is, then you will become stronger by admitting it, if only to yourself, especially to yourself. Can you afford to let this one thing rock you?

Where to look for sources of strength

Ever since I was a girl, I have found books, both fictional and factual, to be a great place to mine for inspiration:

Fiction

‘Granny sighed. “You have learned something,” she said and thought it safe to insert a touch of sternness into her voice. “They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one-half so bad as a lot of ignorance.’

― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

‘Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.’

― Terry Pratchett

‘If you trust in yourself….and believe in your dreams….and follow your star…you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy.’

― Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

‘“The secret is not to dream,” she whispered. “The secret is to wake up. Waking up is harder. I have woken up, and I am real. I know where I come from and I know where I’m going. You cannot fool me any more. Or touch me. Or anything that is mine.”’

― Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men
I’ve been a huge fan of Terry Pratchett since I was a girl. It struck me as magical that a grown man could know what it was like to be a teenage girl. He has written a whole cannon of works that have a variety of women in lead roles, overcoming obstacles, and not caring what the rest of the world thought.

Iain M Banks

I discovered the fiction of Ian M Banks when I was a teenager. He wrote both science-fiction and a strange (to me) type of mainstream fiction. The Wasp Factory was the first novel of his I read, and it changed the way I thought about a lot of things. I also spent a lot of time reading his science fiction novels as well.

Although fiction is stirring and often empowering, I find factual accounts to be more so. Knowing that the things I am reading actually happened, that other people have faced challenges greater than any I personally face – I find it especially humbling and it helps give me perspective.

I Write What I Like is a collection of works by Steve Biko, a journalist, and activist who was killed by the South African government for speaking out about Apartheid.

‘The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.’

― Steve Biko

‘You are either alive and proud, or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can’t care anyway.’

― Steve Biko

‘A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.’

― Steve Biko

My Own Story is an account of the British Suffragette movement. It chronicles Emmeline Pankhurst’s struggles with the police and the British Government.

“As long as women consent to be unjustly governed, they will be.”
— from Pankhurst’s speech in Hartford, Connecticut on Nov. 13, 1913
‘Men make the moral code, and they expect women to accept it. They have decided that it is entirely right and proper for men to fight for their liberties and their rights, but that it is not right and proper for women to fight for theirs.’

— Emmeline Pankhurst

Who do you surround yourself with? Are the people that you allow into your life supportive, or are they happy to give you a bit more grief when you are trying to push through a rough patch? There is a theory that the five people you spend the most time with will have a great influence on how you live your life. I don’t know how true that is but I do know it’s important to have people around you that make you feel supported.

‘You can’t change the people around you. But you can change the people around you.’
— Joshua Fields Millburn.

Fix your own oxygen mask first – that is what you are told during the safety drill on an airplane. You can’t take care of anyone else if you are letting your own state slide. Taking good care of yourself is especially important when you have faced a setback. Even if it can feel indulgent to be extra nice to yourself, it is important to realize you need a bit of support from yourself at times.

We all have difficulties at times but, if you think back to the difficulties you have had in the past, you overcame them. There is no reason why you won’t overcome this as well.

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