Due to the nature of the play every aspect of the performance was open to interpretation. Though I was not directly part of the sound team I will explain a little of what that team did.
Following the meeting with the director on the 20th January we had the following scene list and ideas – 20-jan-2017-scene-list & scene-list. This gave the sound team something to go on.
One member of the team started to come up with some ideas for various songs/music for the show though this was their only input towards supporting the sound for this show.
This list was never used – during rehearsals the actors had come up with the music they wanted to use and when. As far as I’m aware this was not communicated to the sound team until a couple of days before the show, so time was very limited in terms of editing and ensuring levels etc were correct for the show, luckily, one of the actors had done all this kind of work. This though obviously very helpful meant that the sound team did not get to practice or learn wha twas needed to edit the music. It also meant that they were limited with what was supplied to them. Some music was edited down to a shorter length which meant that if a scene overran then the music would stop, this problem was over come by having the the music loop.
The other member of the team looked at sound effects for the scenes. this was done by taking both ideas and the discussion with the director into account – effects such a mobile phones ringing, newsroom, typewriter, school bells, pub ambience were all researched and acquired. This was a constantly ongoing and growing process, he sorted them into types. However he was unsure about what would be used fro the show, again a lack of direction here we were only told in vague terms what was required.
online SFX resources
The plan was to use a Midas Pro 1 desk this was chosen as the technician wished to attempt to use 5.1 surround sound.
The midas desk lends itself to this having the inbuilt capacity for this type of mixing – page from manual alongside qlab we had the potential to create a very dynamic and immersive experience for the audience. We needed to change out the sound desk in the box and install the Pro1, this was then wired into the house speakers, we already have 2 front and 2 rear speakers alongside a subwoofer. These were all patched in with the necessary DI boxes for each channel. Unfortunately due to time he was reduced in the use of this being only able to have the time to program it for a couple of scenes.
Matt Cooper 