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Practically Perfect

Recently for a RADA show that I was sound designing, it seemed that there was scope to make a practical radio. Practicals are some of the best fun in theatre without the audience knowing that there are little bits of trickery happening.

The show was Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris in RADA’s GBS Theatre, in-the-round, directed by Michael Fentiman and designed by James Turner. The story is told in two halves; the first Act being set in 1959 in a suburban Chicago house, and we are introduced to a married couple. As the Act goes on we learn that their son died, and that the remaining parents are moving to escape neighbourhood gossip; what follows is a heated discussion as to who should be allowed to move into the house after they’ve gone. Introducing Act 2, we have moved on 50 years and are now in 2009 in the same house. A group of people from the neighbourhood are discussing what should become of the house, and who exactly should move into it (which echoes Act 1). More arguments ensue and the play ends on a flashback to 1959, with a conversation between the deceased son and his mother. It’s a politically charged play full of dark humour and uncomfortable truths.

Here is the end product:

Clybourne Park 2016 – GBS Theatre, RADA)

 

I found that 1950’s-era replica in Deptford Market for a tenner, and it’s the best practical I’ve ever made (and I must confess that it functioned as a real radio before I destroyed the inside of it). I’d decided to go ahead and make the practical myself, by way of a challenge in between attending rehearsals and dealing with paperwork.

So I bring the radio back to the sound workshop, and I’ve ordered a mini-amp online that will sit inside the radio, along with an IEM, and I’d been hoping to hook it up to the speaker that came with the radio itself. Quite happily, my mini-amp arrived that same day so I can get started straight away.

One problem, however.

Now I don’t know what I was expecting, but I certainly didn’t expect that the amp would come in pieces and I’d have to solder it all myself.

So now I had to solder this thing having never really paid attention to circuit boards before. I dug out some instructions (all 2 pages of them) off the company’s website and set to work.

That said, this is probably the most common way to create a practical in theatre with the basic workflow as such: Qlab – Sound Desk – IEM Transmitter – IEM Receiver – Mini-Amp – Speaker

Most mini-speakers will simply be attached to the IEM because they’ll be self-powered, however, my system just so happened to need an amp because it was just the cone that sits inside the radio. Below is my system diagram for the show, so that we can see where the practical will sit in the larger scale of things (relevant signal flow is highlighted).

System diagram for Clybourne Park

Practical radios are almost two a penny in theatre amongst other fan favourites such as doorbells, telephones, intercoms, etc., all of which would have their own tried-and-tested ways of being produced.

For instance, we’ve had a couple of shows that require practical mobile phones, and for this we use an app called StageCaller that works over Midi/OSC – you’ll need an iPhone to do this and Dropbox, and for the best results, a stable WiFi connection that is used solely for the practical phone.

To get the sounds onto the StageCaller app you’ll need to download them from Dropbox and upload them in the app – all you’re doing in Qlab is sending OSC commands – all of the audio lives in the app. So from here you can trigger the sounds via OSC from your Qlab file (with relevant IP addresses) and in the most recent version, the app allows you to set up ‘heartbeat’ pings so that it doesn’t become completely inactive and triggers precisely when you want it to. There are various other little tricks that you can set up, too, including the sound cutting out as the character lifts the phone to their ear, or no sound at all and just a text vibrate.

You can find out more about the functionality of StageCaller on the Figure 53 website

 

The amp inside the radio hooked up to the internal speaker – IEM not pictured

Back to the radio, I powered through and soldered the entire circuit board and tested it by plugging my phone into the mini-amp via a mini jack-mini jack cable, and hooking up 2 other speakers (L/R) that also came free with the kit from the online shop. Miraculously – it worked!

So now I had a working system, and all I had left to do was to find a way to attach all of this inside the radio (lots of glue and velcro was involved here – not my finest prop-making) and plug up my IEM – for this I was using a Shure PSM300 System – and have a go at sending audio to it via Qlab.

It worked like a dream and was the most stable practical that I’ve used – of course, I had a backup in place just in case something went wrong with it, which is also quite common practice. The backup was simply an assigned key on my sound desk (a Yamaha 01V96i) which my operators could press, and the audio being sent to the radio would be internally reassigned to a JBL Control 1 speaker rigged above the stage, which would hopefully not interrupt the action! (As it was, the ops never had to use the backup, but it’s very good practice to have something in place anyway). My Operators, who took turns opping the show every day, then had the task of looking after the practical radio and changing the batteries before every show.

Practicals to me are little bits of fun that we can add in to a show to represent something that otherwise, a good few years ago, would have ended up being played from the nearest speaker, or being mimed. We’re quite fortunate that we now have such wide ranges of technology to play with, and again little tricks up our sleeves to truly create our own version of reality.

*all production photo credits belong to Linda Carter for RADA

What I Learned This Week

Four things I learned about sound design this week

This week I took a bit of a break from sitting in a dark theatre (or studio) to go off and learn more about sound design at the Association of Sound Designer’s Winter School. From Foley to speaker system optimisation, the seminars covered a wide range of topics in and around sound for theatre, and there were several social events as well, so we could meet fellow soundies. Of the many interesting and useful pieces of information I’ve encountered this week, I’ve picked out a few to share:

There’s a lot of Foley in nature documentaries

When you think about it, it’s not that surprising that nature documentaries require extensive Foley work. It’d be a bit tricky to get a boom operator close enough to record polar bear footsteps across the snow, for example. I was impressed by the layers of Foley required to create complex sounds, like the sound of an active volcano. Top tip: shampoo rubbed over your hands can be used to create a whole world of sounds, from a large animal licking its young to liquid lava flow (when pitched down).

Recording sound effects will always require more time and more preparation than you think – especially when recording outdoors

There are many variables to consider when recording sound effects in nature, most of which you can’t control – including the weather and external noise. Thorough preparation and patience are attributes to develop if you ever want to invest time and money in recording sound effects. Sound design guru John Leonard told us several entertaining stories which highlighted the need for research before you embark on a location recording session, especially checking if it’s the right time/season/weather to capture the sound you need. He learned this the hard way after standing for several hours late at night (when it would be quiet) waiting for a clock to chime, only to find out the next day that they turned it off every night at 10 pm.

You don’t have to invest in a pricey mic to experiment with surround sound

I investigated using ambisonic (surround) microphones last year as part of my explorations into surround sound formats but was a bit put off by the price. A Sennheiser Ambeo will set you back around £1500GBP or $1650USD, and a DPA 5100 Mobile Surround mic is even more. So I was delighted to learn (thanks again to John Leonard) that there’s a cheaper alternative if you want to experiment with surround before investing. The Zoom H2N (a much more affordable £120GBP/$160USD) has a firmware upgrade that allows for four channel surround sound, combining the X/Y and MS in “Spatial Audio” mode. Also worth keeping an ear out for are Sennheiser’s AMBEO Smart Surround compact earphones (yes, consumer-level) with binaural recording capabilities.

Adding an audience won’t affect the overall level as much as you might have thought

I’ve always considered audience size when setting my levels for a theatre show, in particular, the absorptive effect of a large number of human bodies. It turns out that I don’t need to worry as much for those venues which already contain a high amount of absorbent materials. Bodies sitting on soft seats, for example, won’t increase the amount of absorption. Of course, it’s still important to consider venues with a lot of reflective surfaces and hard seats.

There’s always something new to learn

It’s not just about new gear and technical know-how. More than anything, this week has reminded me how important it is to get out and expose my ears to the world outside my studio. This week was the perfect opportunity to not only learn about techniques and software that have been on my list for a while but also meet and learn from my fellow peers. As well as discovering more about Max DSP and DMEs (Digital Mixing Engines), I also increased my list of preferred theatre sound hire companies,  got a great recommendation for a film composition course and learned more about why and how colleagues choose a particular system.

If you have the opportunity to get out of your particular box this month, I would recommend it. You never know what useful tips you might pick up.

The Nativity

The Nativity is one of three plays adapted by Tony Harrison. The plays are a version of the medieval English Mystery Plays. The play is set in the north of England and uses a northern English dialect. As the play was being performed in London and not in the North, I thought intelligibility might be an issue.

Here is a link to an earlier version of the play performed at the National Theatre you can hear the dialect used. An added complication for intelligibility was the venue. A church, you can hear the acoustics here in the welcome to the church from Fr Paul. The performance space was also in the round, in front of the altar, in the aisles, and more importantly for sound often in front of the speakers.

As you can see, we had some challenges to overcome. We visited the church before rehearsals to get an idea of how voices would carry without amplification and assess if the band area would be suitable. It was an actor/musician show meaning the entire cast played instruments and there would not a separate band. The musical director (MD) came with us so he could hear the space before he started the arrangements. The music was arranged with mainly acoustic instruments, though they would be amplified and there was also an electric guitar and bass.  

I chose Meyer UPJ’s as the speakers, knowing I could achieve a tight coverage pattern if I needed it and would help with limiting the natural reverb of the space. We utilized six UPJ s, subs and a few SFX speakers as well. I set up multiple groups for the vocal system one that went to front left and right, one that went to the side left and front left and one that went to side right and front right. This allowed us to facilitate the cast moving around the space and create vocal zones. Jenn Goodheart-Smithe, the operator, faded between vocal groups that corresponded with the zones as the cast moved around. It worked quite well as long as the cast didn’t stand directly in front of a speaker when they were delivering dialogue.  

EFX

I pre-recorded the voice of God announcing to Mary the virgin birth so that the angel could mouth the words and we would hear the voice of God. It was played through a small speaker hidden very close to the actor to give the illusion of God speaking through the angel.

The play starts with the book of Genesis before the world was complete and everyone that spoke had a reverb to emphasize their other-worldliness. There was also a sound effects bed to help with the setting of that space.

Death is a character in the play, and I gave her a bit of a pitch shift on her mic. Obviously, you could still hear her acoustic voice, but there was an underscore of something a lot deeper as well.  

The band lineup was mostly mic’d acoustic instruments. There was a large brass section, strings, organ, reeds, woodwind, and electric bass and guitar. We decided to divide the musical numbers into two parts; one would numbers performed in the band area and numbers performed in a surround mode. In the gentler moments, it worked well to have the acoustic instruments in amongst the audience, giving an immersive feel to the show. It also allowed us to control the natural acoustics of the church.

Actor-musician shows can be a challenge there is little parallel rehearsing, the band can rehearse in one room and the overall rehearsal time is effectively less. Often, the band is large and some instruments will be played for only half of one song there can be a lot of double use of microphones. This can be trickier to be accurate with the mix but Jenn our operator did a good job with that.

This was a working church, so that meant every evening we had to be out of the building for two hours so that they could perform evening mass. We also had to be out of view entirely for the Sunday service. We took everything down and had to rebuild it for the Monday evening show. That took a huge chunk out of our rehearsal time. It meant we had to label and photograph everything. I chose a digital snake and a Rio rather than a copper multicore and stage box as this would make for a quicker setup. The speakers were powered, so no amps, and the radio receivers were by the sound desk, so hopefully, there would be minimal unplugging for the turnaround.

Remember a successful show run is in the details and the preparation that starts well before rehearsals.

Drama School, Darling

Knock, knock.

(Who’s there?)

The sound designer because the practical doorbell doesn’t work.

(and that is the most wholesome joke that I could come up with – don’t let anyone tell you that people who work in Sound aren’t funny)

So anyway…

My name is Candice Weaver and I am student at RADA studying towards a postgraduate degree in Sound Design for Theatre.

Prior to my current degree, I also completed an Undergraduate Bachelors in Commercial Music at the University of Westminster, where I really discovered sound design and started working in theatre. Since then I have been fortunate enough to work with the English National Opera, Secret Cinema, and casual at the Royal Opera House among others (Sleep? Never heard of it).

Having realised that I definitely didn’t possess the skills to really get into theatre yet, naturally I thought ‘Well hey! Drama school sounds good!’, but little did I know that it was this exhausting, this time-consuming, and often just a little bit ridiculous.

It is also, however, ridiculously rewarding and without a doubt the best thing I have ever done.

At RADA (or, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as we are sometimes known), we really run as a mini-rep production house and we have three theatres:

– the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre

– the George Bernard Shaw Theatre (The GBS for short)

– and, the John Gielgud Theatre

They each vary in size and can have stagings in any variation. For instance the Vanbrugh Theatre is traditionally a proscenium arch, however we have a musical opening this February which will be staged in-the-round.

Every six weeks we turn around three new shows in each of our theatres (excepting twice a year when we do a Film/Radio production block), and we can easily get through hundreds of shows/productions and events/film screenings/galas throughout the academic year. Every student coming into RADA has the opportunity to work on these shows, which are all staffed by students in every role – from third year actors to sound/LX designers, scenic artists, construction, flymen/women, technical management and stage management). They’re also directed by external directors, and for the majority are Designed (costume/set) by external professionals, too. What’s better is that the public can actively come and see our productions (which each run for a couple of weeks after opening, after which we tear them down and start all over again).

 

I’ve now worked in all three of our theatres as both Production Sound Engineer and Sound Designer, and the next project is the musical A Little Night Music staged in-the-round, in our Vanbrugh Theatre. I will be the Associate Sound Designer for this production – for a musical, which we only stage once a year, we tend to get in industry Sound/Lighting Designers simply because the musical is usually quite a momentous task; this naturally still means that I’ll be dealing with the rig plans, budget, organising system diagrams, attending rehearsals, and passing on any relevant information to my PSE’s and Sound No. 1/Sound No. 2’s/Operators.

The show roles are generally given out based on what our next step of learning might be, as well as what our personal goals are – for instance in my first year of RADA, I only did a couple of sound designs because I needed to focus on my Production Sound and practical skills.

 

I’ve also just finished a Film block where I was the Sound Assistant/Boom Operator – we filmed three films across a few weeks, all on locations found by my fellow students. In my first year I completed a Radio block which also involved studio recordings of three plays in RADA’s main studio in the Sound Department, editing them together, adding sound design, and eventually taking them to be mastered in a professional studio.

I’ve certainly had plenty to keep me busy since starting RADA in September 2015, from production roles to projects, and I really am looking forward to getting our next shows up and running. It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to have something for audiences to come and see, and be able to understand where sound design sits in the larger scale of productions.

I’ll also look forward to sharing some of the things that I’ve been up to with you, and my experiences as I complete my final year of drama school (darling).

(I’ll definitely be bringing more jokes with me)

*Photo credits for 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 belong to Linda Carter for RADA

 

Making Mistakes – Learn and Move On

You are going to make mistakes, you just are, there is no one who hasn’t made a mistake. One of my favorite things about the West End is our pragmatic approach to a life long career. Common phases in use are “ We’ll all be laughing about it in a years time” “I’ll dine out on this for years” and “I’ve screwed up bigger shows than this one”.

Of course messing up something that doesn’t get fixed before it makes it into the show is not a habit to cultivate.  But dwelling on the mistake you just made is not going to keep you focused in the moment and moving the show along. The skill to master first is how to keep going under pressure. Reshma Saujani is the founder of Girls of Code. Says “we’re raising our girls to be perfect and we’re raising our boys to be brave” She has a great TED talk.

Reshma  talks about her experiences teaching girls to code.  

“We immediately see in our program our girls’ fear of not getting it right, of not being perfect. Every Girls Who Code teacher tells me the same story. During the first week, when the girls are learning how to code, a student will call her over and she’ll say, “I don’t know what code to write.” The teacher will look at her screen, and she’ll see a blank text editor. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think that her student spent the past 20 minutes just staring at the screen. But if she presses undo a few times, she’ll see that her student wrote code and then deleted it. She tried, she came close, but she didn’t get it exactly right. Instead of showing the progress that she made, she’d rather show nothing at all. Perfection or bust.”  

So what do you do when things get really bad I recently had an experience where I spec’d a Rio ( Yamaha digital stage box) with an old Yamaha desk. The show is in rep, I had to use that desk as it is owned by the theatre company, and I wanted to avoid a copper multi core in order to make the turn around as easy as I could. I am use to Rio and newer Yamaha desks working together. The M7CL took a bit more persuading than I’m use to with the newer desks. So I downloaded all the manuals and spent some time working it out. I posted in a few forums in case that would be a quicker route to a solution.   Could I have researched more that there might be an issue ? Is this the gig that is finally going to expose me as a fraud” – OR  – Had to use an old desk, spec’d a Rio with it. Made it work I am awesome.  

There is a famous Les Mis Story.  Les Miserable’s is a long running musical in the West End. It opened in 1885 and is still going. The Head of Sound was mixing and had been at the desk for the sound check. The SFX were played from a CD player that was also used for the sound check. On that day the sound check CD had been left in and instead of a carthorse SFX there was a Goriliz track. Obviously this is considered a huge error and as the show was being archived that night. (there is an audio recording of the whole thing).  That Head of Sound has moved on to other shows and is still one of the most sought after mixers in the Westend. He has a copy of the audio of that nights show and will play it for you if asked. Was he mortified? Absolutely! Will that ever happen on a show he’s operating again, I doubt it.  It has neither defined nor ended his career and your bad gig isn’t going to define yours either.

Get up Trinity.

So how do you get through the gig itself? It’s easy to slip into “deer in the headlights” mode when things are going wrong. It’s a flight or fight response and it’s a perfectly natural state of being but it is not helpful in this situation. So take a breath, assess what is really going on and make a plan. Start with what you know is working, it can seem like nothing is going well but it’s rare that nothing at all is, start with those certainties and build from there.

The sound of the Elizabethan era: Sound design for Shakespeare’s Sister

It’s always exciting to work on the first production of a new play. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve loved working on the re-envisioned versions of Shakespeare, Wilde, and others, but there’s something quite special about knowing your production will be the first time anyone has breathed life into this particular story.

So when I accepted the role as the sound designer for ALRA drama school’s production of Shakespeare’s Sister, and I found out that this would be the first full production, I was excited.

Shakespeare’s Sister is a play about the sister of William Shakespeare – nothing to do with the band, in case you were wondering! It follows the fictional character of Judith Shakespeare as a budding playwright when, following an unwanted marriage proposal, she follows in her brother’s footsteps and travels to London to seek a career as a playwright.

From the outset, it was clear to me that music would be an important part of establishing the period and the world of the Elizabethan theatre. In our first sound meeting, the director and I discussed the emotional context for each scene and what we wanted the music to achieve, and I outlined my views on the role of music in the play.

The director, Titania Krimpas, had already researched possible music choices as she wanted the music to be used in rehearsals from the start, particularly in the choreographed scene changes. The tracks she suggested opened up a discussion about how we wanted the music to sound – all period-appropriate pieces or modern tracks with a period feel? Live or recorded? Recordings of Renaissance music played on modern instruments, or on period instruments?

kirsty-gillmore-nov2016-pic5At this point, I looked at the design and lighting design, to give me an idea of their general approach and make sure I was aligning my design with theirs. The set consisted of a raised stage with stairs (quickly named the “raised platform” to avoid confusion with the stage itself) and moveable pieces of furniture and props on the ground in front of it (the “apron”), with action taking place on both levels. The raised platform acted as both the stage of the Rose Theatre in London, the setting for much of the play, and another level for scenes set in Stratford and the Tower of London. Although the design wasn’t intended to be strictly traditionally Elizabethan, it took inspiration from the world that Elizabethan actors would have inhabited: simple, almost stark, in plain neutral colours, with few embellishments except for touches of flamboyance in the costumes, as befitted key characters.kirsty-gillmore-nov2016-pic3

A conversation with the lighting designer, Ben Cowens, revealed his intentions to make the lighting design as naturalistic as possible, supporting the set design, and thus I had a clear direction for the music. I dismissed modern songs and investigated recordings of period compositions on period instruments, which I felt gave a much more raw, natural sound than recordings on modern instruments.

Live music was an element that I also considered from early on in the process. I enjoy using live music elements where possible in my sound designs, as I feel they add immediacy and intimacy that is harder to capture with recorded music. In an ideal world, I would have liked to use a live ensemble, but this wasn’t possible given our budget, so instead, we looked at ways of incorporating live music elements at key points. Taking our lead from the references to trumpets and drums in the script, I suggested the use of a bodhrán drum, played by one of the actors as a “player” (the Elizabethan word for an actor). A bodhrán isn’t entirely period-appropriate, but it was much easier to source than a tabor (a type of snare drum used in the period), and I knew the sound was similar enough to work with pre-recorded sounds of trumpets and other drums.

The music component of a sound design is an area where a collaborative relationship with the director is crucial. Music is a subjective discipline, and directors can have definite choices about the music they want for production. Sometimes this feels a bit restrictive for the sound designer as it can mean they have to build their design around the music they didn’t choose. It’s useful to remember that the sound elements of a production, and music in particular, often play a significant role in the rehearsal process. In the case of Shakespeare’s Sister, the choreography of the scene transitions required music and the actor who was playing the bodhrán needed to rehearse with the pre-recorded music which he was to accompany.

As rehearsals continued, I found I was drawn to create the sonic world of the play’s version of Elizabethan London more with music than with sound effects. While I used sound effects and soundscapes to establish location – the crackling of a fire and chickens in the yard for Stratford, wind whistling through cracks, and dripping water for a cell in the Tower of London – I used musical motifs and drums for moments of heightened emotion and physical tension. One of my favourite sound moments in the play was the use of a repetitive drum beat which slowly increased in volume as the scene built to a climax. Rather than keeping the drums at a level that comfortably underscored the actors’ speech, we chose to use the sound to energise the scene and encourage the actors to raise their voices above the drums.kirsty-gillmore-nov2016-pic2

I haven’t spoken much about the speaker positions for this production because these were straightforward. Any production with a limited budget and space restrictions will require a certain amount of compromise, and I worked around fixed speaker positions and speakers that wouldn’t have been my first choice but worked fine for the production and in the space.

Two challenges that I had to overcome were where to position two speakers behind the raised platform and where to put the two subs. I had expected to attach the two speakers on a horizontal bar between wall beams, and the subs under the seating banks, but had neglected to discuss this with the designer or the lighting designer. During the get in I discovered that the designer and lighting designer had planned to install a lighting feature behind the set and the seating banks would be too low to fit subs underneath them, which slightly marred my plans! Thankfully, I was able to re-position all speakers with minimum fuss, and it was a good lesson to maintain the relationship with the creative team right through the rehearsal and production process.

Having designed a baroque opera and an Elizabethan play, it almost feels like my next design should be medieval, but instead, I’ll be concentrating on two banned plays from the 1920s. From courantes to Charlestons, no two plays are the same and my work is more interesting for it.  

 

What would Shakespeare do?

A few months ago I was lucky enough to work at the Globe in London. The Globe is a replica of the theatre Shakespeare worked in when he was working in London during the early 1600s. The Globe is made largely of wood and is open to the elements, it has the only a thatched roof allowed in London. We’re still a bit cautious after the Great Fire of London in 1666.. The Globe had previously been run as a theatrical kind of museum; productions did not utilize tech support or theatrical lighting and sound.

While the audience no longer urinates in the corners of the auditorium and due to modern-day health and safety concerns the theatre capacity is considerably less than it was in the early 1600s. The Globe is still in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames as it was in the 1600s. During the 1600s this was outside of the city of London and such was London’s illicit entertainment district and was full of prostitution, animal fights, and the theatre. Shakespeare was not a stuffy member of the respectable establishment.

About 400 years later I am sitting in a replica of the Globe doing a production of Macbeth. There are two drops of line array a digico, some MSL2s, and a line of delays on every level. It is part of the wonderful season and a new Artistic Director has been appointed to the Globe, Emma Rice. This was her first season at the helm, and modern lighting and sound are being employed, and this is upsetting a lot of people. But the box office is strong with performances having brisk sales.

Yet just after one season, Rice has been asked to step down. In a statement the chief executive of the Globe, Neil Constable said Rice’s “mould-breaking work” had brought in “new and diverse audiences, won huge creative and critical acclaim, and achieved exceptionally strong box office returns.” He goes on to further say, “Following much deliberation and discussion, the Globe Board has concluded that from April 2018, the theatre programming should be structured around light productions without designed sound and light rigging, which characterised a large body of The Globe’s work prior to Emma’s appointment”.

They are getting rid of the lighting and sound and Emma is going as well. What a shame! They want productions without designed sound as Shakespeare did. But Shakespeare utilized a sound department, using sound effects and they lowered actors in from the flys. Shakespeare’s plays would have originally been performed with young men playing the roles of women. Does that mean women shouldn’t be performing as well? There is a place called the “Sound Attic” it has always been the sound attic because that’s where they produced special efx. Such as firing cannons. Cannons that were sound effects. In June 1613 during a production of Henry VIII, a piece of burning wadding fired from a canon in the sound attic, set light to the thatched roof, and in about an hour the theatre had burnt down. Shakespeare did use sound and lighting efx.

Would Shakespeare shun today’s technology?

The Globe’s revenue this season has increased, there have been great reviews. Depending on where in the world you are you can even watch a recording of A Mid Summer Nights Dream. (not the production I was involved with) It’s excellent, you should watch it if you can.

images-35Is the Globe a working theatre or a museum that does theatre? Is there room for it to be both? Artistic Directors sometimes disagree with Chief Executives, but Artistic Directors typically are not called “Naughty” At a recent event on women theatre, Emma Rice revealed she had been emailing someone “pretty high up in the arts” who had referred to her three times as ‘naughty.’ “And I want to say: who would use that word to a man?” she said. Rice was asked at an event if she thought opinionated and ‘loud’ women attract more criticism, she replied: “I don’t think I am loud. I think I have led an incredibly private life.” When it was then suggested there might be a perception that a director is automatically a ‘loud figure,’ Rice responded: “Who says that about a man?”

Was Emma’s gender the reason she had to step down, not necessarily? Does her gender influence how she is spoken about, absolutely!

Theatre Sound Heroes: Overview of the role of a Production Engineer

 

There’s an unsung hero in the world of theatre sound: the production engineer (PE).

As shows get bigger, sound systems become ever-more complex. Someone on your team has to make it all work together, and that person is the production engineer.

Put simply, the production engineer “works with the sound designer to physically and logistically realise the entire sound system from the microphones to the speakers and the kilometres of cable in-between” (Gareth Fry, Theatre Sound: Who Does What?, Lighting and Sound International, April 2015).

Every designer will approach a show from a unique perspective. Some designers focus on the creative aspect; others have a more practical hands-on approach. Most designers will have a definite idea of the speakers and other equipment they want to use and where. The PE makes this happen to the best of their ability and also suggests modifications to make it reliable, effective and adaptable enough to handle every quirky requirement that may come up during tech.

As with sound designers, PEs have different specialties, so it’s important to choose one that suits your show and the way you work as a sound designer. If networking is a crucial element of your show, it won’t make sense to hire a PE who is a master rigger but less knowledgeable when it comes to media networking technology.

Ideally, the PE should get involved with a show at the same time as the sound designer so that the sound design process can be as open as possible with all the creative team. Discussions with the production manager about the budget and integration of the speakers (and associated cabling) within a set are of particular importance.  Involving the PE early on in the process can also help pre-empt tricky situations down the line, for example, when a speaker position doesn’t work for the lighting designer.

The first job for a PE after initial discussions with the sound designer is to look at the size of the venue or space where the show will be staged. They’ll consider what the show needs, what the sound designer wants, how much it will cost, and build a system spec from this. As well as evaluating potential speaker positions, the PE also has to factor in whether the venue can physically support and accommodate the system. Where will racks and radio worlds be stationed? Is there enough power available where it’s needed? Where can cable runs go? Is the proscenium arch stable enough to support the hangs – an important consideration when you’re dealing with theatres that can be 100+ years old, as is quite common in the UK.

Once a system spec has been drawn up, it goes to the production manager to tender out to hire companies.

Having solid technical sound know-how is an indispensable part of a PE’s job. Just as important is their ability to manage relationships with three key stakeholders: the sound designer, the hire company, and the manufacturer(s).

The ideal relationship between a sound designer and PE is two-way. The sound designer needs to communicate their requirements so that the PE understands the show from the creative aspect as well as from a technical perspective. This way they can make informed decisions about the system without involving the sound designer at every stage. Is imaging or coverage more important for the show, for example? Does the design need to allow for high SPL, or is it more important for the speakers to be discretely integrated into the set? The better the PE understands the show, the more trust the sound designer will have in their ability to realise the design with the hire company.

The relationship between the hire company and the PE is important, as a lot of what the PE does is dictated by how the hire company works. Production engineers will, therefore, prefer to work with hire companies they know. Often a single hire company won’t be able to offer the exact system spec, in which case the spec will be redrawn and hire companies will suggest alternatives. It’s a balancing act: the PE needs to include all sound (and related AV and stage) elements of the show within the spec, and they also want to work within the resources of the hire company.Kirsty-Gillmore-Aug2016-pic2

At this point, a PE may want to involve different manufacturers to find alternative solutions for aspects of the design outside of the resources of the hire company. Keeping clear lines of communication with manufacturers is important. They can offer product-specific support as well as solutions to problems, based on their in-depth knowledge of their products. A PE may like to involve a particular manufacturer in the system spec to help them create a kit list before it’s sent to hire companies.

Of course, everything revolves around the budget. One of the central roles of the PE is to make practical decisions given the resources they have at their disposal. They may need to negotiate a compromise with the sound designer, convincing the sound designer of an effective alternative approach.

Once the spec is approved, the next step is for the PE to build the kit: stage racks, fly racks, multis, looms, the Deputy Stage Manager (DSM) post,  radio worlds and more. As well as realising the agreed spec, the PE must allow for changes that will invariably happen during the technical rehearsals, e.g. extra runs in the multicore for additional speakers. Then there’s evaluation, testing, and installation in the space, which may take days or even weeks for a large show. Followed by more testing, modifications, expansions and problem solving during the tech and dress rehearsals and previews, and finally, sign off when the show is up and running.

As you may have gathered, a great production engineer is worth their weight in gold. So if you’re a current or aspiring production engineer, let me know! I may have a job for you in the future.

 

 

A Brief History of Theatre Sound Consoles with Autograph Sound

Last Monday the Europe Chapter of Soundgirls.org had the opportunity to learn about theatre sound from one of the top names in the business: Autograph Sound.

Autograph has been at the forefront of theatre sound in the UK, and internationally, since the early 1970s. Before this time, theatres dictated the sound of every show. Their sound equipment wasn’t designed specifically for theatre use, and as there was no consistency in the sound systems between theatres, one show could sound very different in different theatres.

In the late 1960s, the music industry started to hand over production of their live shows to other companies. Around the same time, Andrew Bruce, who was Head of Sound at the Royal Opera House in London, noticed a need for theatre shows to sound the same in each venue – for each show to have a sonic “signature.” As Peppe Mallozzi, Sales Engineer for Autograph explained, this idea formed the company’s name: once a signature becomes recognised, it becomes an autograph.

Autograph Sound Recording was founded in London, U.K. in 1972 by Andrew Bruce. Theatre sound technology of the time centred on fixed input consoles, like the Trident Fleximix, a live sound console that was used for the production of A Chorus Line in London, 1976. But the requirements for musical theatre sound differ from sound for live music shows. In a very general sense, where the driving factor for music shows is often volume, the primary consideration for theatre sound is clarity, of dialogue as well as songs.

Manufacturers caught on and started producing consoles to accommodate the new specific requirements of theatre sound. Theatre sound took a step closer to achieving the clarity that its engineers desired with consoles like the Midas TR, used for Cats in 1981. This console had an output matrix, which allowed you to split a signal to different speakers to achieve all-important high-frequency coverage, crucial for hearing dialogue and singing with absolute clarity.

By the 1980s, shows were getting bigger and designers needed more inputs, outputs, and more flexibility. In 1982 Autograph commissioned a console from British company Cadac for Little Shop of Horrors at the Comedy Theatre (now the Harold Pinter Theatre), London.

From this first console, christened “The Coffin” for its shape, Cadac’s analogue console have remained in use in theatres up until the present day – Wicked, at the Apollo Theatre in London, will be the last big show to use an analogue Cadac console.

The next step for Autograph was to develop consoles with Cadac for use with any show. This lead to the A-type, used for Les Miserables in London in 1985, which was succeeded by the J-type and E-type. These consoles included automation, using an external computer to send cues to trigger the central VCA section of a console, with VCAs and programmable control groups becoming standard. Early automation was the start of something that became important for theatre sound: being able to operate a show from a central area on a console instead of running up and down a lot of channels.

As shows became bigger, other areas of automation and being able to save settings for individual scenes became crucial, as operators found they struggled to adjust settings manually for expanding numbers of performers. Bruce and his colleagues were also under pressure from producers to find a smaller alternative for the large analogue consoles that took up valuable seat space.

In the early 1990s, Bruce was approached by Soundcraft, a console manufacturer who was exploring the development of a fully assignable digital console for theatre sound. Bruce wanted a console that could digitally save EQ settings, scene snapshots and had the option to save volume levels (or not). Their collaboration led to the Soundcraft Broadway, the first digital theatre sound console.

The Soundcraft Broadway could control analogue input and output racks and be installed for the 1996 production of  Martin Guerre at the Prince Edward theatre in London but never used. Continual bugs and repeated failures with the networking technology of the time meant it couldn’t handle the requirements of the show, and a J-type Cadac replaced it. Soundcraft abandoned its digital theatre console project soon after.

Back at Cadac, analogue consoles were still being produced with digital automation. However, there was another company with an eye on the digital console market: Soundtracs, producer of analogue consoles for studio and live sound since the 1980s. In 2002 the decision was made to launch a new brand focussed on digital consoles for live events. The new company, DiGiCo, and a new digital console, the D5 Live, were launched almost immediately.

James Gordon, the founder of DiGiCo, had already spotted the potential need in the theatre sound market and approached Andrew Bruce directly to develop theatre sound-specific software for the new DiGiCo console. Three months and a lot of research and development later, they launched the D5T: a digital DiGiCo D5 console with “T” (theatre) software, specifically designed to meet the needs of large-scale musical theatre shows. As computer automation control changed the game for theatre sound engineers twenty years earlier, theatre-specific software like T-software took it to a whole new level.

Anyone who has worked on a major West End or Broadway musical knows how complex the sound can get. Thirty-plus performers, all with radio mics, who need to be heard with perfect clarity solely or in duos, trios or choruses that change with every scene. Speaking one minute, singing the next, and wearing a hat (which completely changes the sound of a mic) one minute after that! Every line must be crystal clear for every audience member, no matter where the actors are on stage. And that’s all before you get the musicians involved.

It’s a big ask for the designer to make sure the balance of every one of hundreds of cues is perfectly calibrated. Let alone for the sound operator to set levels, EQ and FX for all actors in one scene, then change it all again with a moment’s notice for a new scene, with a new set of performers.

Theatre-sound-specific hardware and software like the DiGiCo consoles with T software were developed to meet these challenges. They allow for controlled and accurate line-by-line mixing, where each mic is only live when lines are sung or spoken, by pulling groups of channels into the central VCA section. Control of the channels is placed right under the operator’s hands, saving them from to running up and down a long console riding faders for individual channels

They also allow an operator or designer to save settings for individual channels in individual scenes (or even multiple “snapshots” in a single scene) and recall them in an instant. And going one crucial step further – to save different versions of the same channel, with varying settings (“aliases” in DiGiCo terminology), to accommodate understudies playing the same roles, and hats!

As Peppe says, “no one waits for sound.” When a director suddenly decides to jump from the big chorus dance number in Act 1 to the intimate duet between the leads in Act 3, Scene 2, or they suddenly want the lead actor to wear the hat they wore in the very first scene, they don’t want to wait for the sound operator.

Back in the 1980s and even the 1990s with the ability to save only a limited number of settings, jumping between scenes and changes to positions or costume would have meant a break for the company as the sound operator reset everything manually. Now, it’s a matter of a few clicks. What used to take weeks of technical rehearsals can be conquered in a few days.

Many thanks to Peppe at Autograph Sound for putting on a great day for our European Chapter members. We look forward to the next one!

 

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