I recently discovered an article I wrote for Pro Sound News Asia in 2005. I had been developing a style of sound design for a number of years which had culminated in a variety of shows ranging from subtle reinforcement through to more obvious amplification. It is interesting to look back at where audio was in 2005 and how things have moved on since.
The Singapore production The Admiral’s Odyssey celebrated a forgotten Chinese explorer, and offered an exploration of theatre sound possibilities, explains Mike Walker:
One of my own journeys started in 1994, when I was invited by Singapore Repertory Theatre to design the sound for Into The Woods. I was fortunate enough to work with an enlightened producer – Tony Petito – for whom sound is a very important part of any production. As these things sometimes do, one thing led to another and I ended up providing the sound design for five shows in Singapore that year.
Having an understanding producer who appreciated the value good sound design brings to a production and was prepared to budget accordingly, allowed designs to move towards using tools that were appropriate for a particular production, rather than those that happened to be in the venue when the production arrived. Venues still seem intent on installing inflexible or immoveable systems that prevent a sound system designed for a show being installed.
The role of sound designer for a musical tends to be reactive in that we are gathering sounds created by others, putting them into some semblance of order and redistributing them for the audience to hear throughout the theatre. The more closely that the sound matches the visual of a performance, and the greater the consistency once the style of sound has been established, the more credible the sound design is. If the sound becomes inconsistent or no longer believable, then it will detract from the performance.
It is a live show and so should sound live. If it sounds like a CD, then people can sit and listen to it at home from the comfort of their own armchair, with a remote control to adjust their listening level. This is not to say that the quality of audio shouldn’t be as good – in fact, it needs to be significantly better. Higher power systems will greatly amplify any weakness.
To aid credibility, the sound system should not get in the way of the audience accessing the performance. It should deliver, yet not pin the audience to their seats; it should have a dynamic that follows the natural structure of the show and enhance the story being told. The choice of equipment, where it is placed, how it is set up and how it is operated all form part of the brief of the sound designer. Every show requires a bespoke approach and, for the design to work effectively, this has to be adjusted for every venue in which the show may perform.
We are very lucky in theatre, in that venues are (mostly) designed with acoustics in mind, in order to allow sound from the stage to be heard in all parts of the auditorium. Providing that a sound design acknowledges that there is an acoustic and works with it, and tries not to override it, it will generally succeed.
Several coincidences lie behind the writing of this article: In May last year, I was asked by Action Theatre to join the creative team of a new musical called The Admiral’s Odyssey to be performed in Singapore. The musical was to be about the explorer, Admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He) and his seven journeys with the Chinese Treasure Fleet in the 15th century. Second was the discovery of the online back editions of Pro Audio Asia, to which I had contributed an article on the sound for the Action Theatre production of Chang and Eng. Finally there was Tim Goodyer’s editorial from July last year regarding Cheng Ho and his travels.
For Chang and Eng at the Kallang Theatre, the design used a selection of Tannoy loudspeakers, Yamaha amplifiers, Sennheiser radio mics, BSS processing and an analogue control surface by Cadac. We refined and adjusted these over several incarnations of the show around the region and moved on to develop it further in other shows in London.
There are three aspects to the sound design of a show – how audio is gathered, how it is manipulated, and how it is reproduced. To the latter first, and the loudspeaker placement revolved around the dual (A/B) loudspeaker system idea, first pioneered by Martin Levan on the short-lived production of Carrie at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon [in the UK]. This involves two discrete speaker systems placed alongside each other with no electrical connection between them.
Generally when two performers are close to each other an unpleasant ‘phasing’ sound can be heard through their radio microphones. Often on a single system, an operator ends up choosing to use one radio microphone only. As a result, you are never able to balance the two voices easily and how you get into and out of these moments can be very inconsistent and so it becomes distracting for an audience to listen to. With the dual system, when one of the radio mics is routed to System A and the other to System B, you are able to maintain a much greater clarity of audio and significantly better balance between voices without any of the unpleasantness apparent on a single loudspeaker system. Obviously a greater amount of resources are required of not only amplifiers and loudspeakers, but also groups and matrices on the control desk. With a Cadac J-Type desk, on a standard output module there are twice as many matrices as subgroups.
The other odd difference that I have been working with is the use of Tannoy dual-concentric drivers out of their cabinet. The open driver was another pioneering idea of Martin Levan, this time first used on Phantom of the Opera in London. It puts a great reliance on the acoustic of the auditorium and the exact speaker placement within it. Once the two are working together, a very diffuse image can be constructed, allowing any small acoustic sound to be the perceived source.
The crucial interface between the sound design and the nightly performance is the sound operator. The operator’s mechanical interface is the sound desk and this heart of the sound system must not be obtrusive. It has not to get in the way from either an audio quality or operational perspective. The way the sound desk allows you to manipulate the audio, bringing the required detail in front of an operator on a cue-by-cue basis causing fewer worries about the mechanics and allowing greater concentration on listening and adjusting is paramount. The sound operator is never ‘in control’ of the audio, as there is always an acoustic sound to work with as well. They are more of a marshal, helping to reshuffle and enhance the sounds that arrive at the sound desk and ensuring that they are heard effectively.
The audio gathering, or input, stage demands consistent microphone positions on performers and reliable relay of the audio from the performer to the control. Today we are completely dependent on radio transmission for getting the audio from the performer to the control system. Inherently this is the weak link in the chain and anything that increases the quality and reliability of this improves the overall credibility of the sound. The exact placement of the microphone capsule on a performer has to be worked through during the technical rehearsals and preview period. There are many mechanical factors that can change the audio going into the capsule, from problems with hats to how tightly the capsule or cables are fixed to the performer. Then there is the inevitable problem, under hot stage lights, of sweat. Radio mic technicians have developed many unique ways of preventing sweat reaching the mic capsule. Orchestra microphones generally have a larger diaphragm than those used on performers – there are fewer variables here, as often the players are in a fixed position and the microphones can be advantageously positioned.
All of these factors are considered in relation to the production being presented and the venue in which it is being performed. The resulting sound design ideas are often then modified or adjusted to work in different venues (if the show is touring) or often completely reworked for another production to provide a different sound altogether. I have been able to stretch the uses to which some ideas above were used: from the rock based score for The Full Monty to the subtle, but crucial reinforcement required for Jerry Springer – The Opera. Both of these shows used variations of the ideas that started with Chang and Eng.
For The Admiral’s Odyssey, some of these fundamentals were implemented in the smaller, 400-seat environment of the Jubilee Hall. This new musical, written by Jean Tay with music and lyrics by Ken Low, celebrated the 600th anniversary of the explorer Cheng Ho. The production used Cheng Ho’s seven voyages around the world as a basis to reflect a modern hero’s story.
As there is no orchestra pit in the Jubilee Hall, the seven musicians were located off to one side of the stage. A selection of Neumann and Sennheiser microphones were used on the acoustic instruments. Radio mics, again, were Sennheiser 5000 series with the desk being a Soundcraft Series 5. Loudspeakers, amplifiers and processing were also nothing new – Tannoy 3836 open drivers driven by Yamaha H5000 amplifiers with a little help from some BSS FDS366 Omnidrives. My colleague Chris Simpson provided the ‘audio marshalling’ at the sound control with the production engineering undertaken by Eddie Teo, who runs the Singapore office of Loh Humm Audio.
Now, after some 30 productions in Singapore and seven years evolving a style of sound design, I am about to embark on another journey. As ever, the trigger is often accidental, and came from a colleague introducing me to a loudspeaker and amplifier system. I have started hearing clarity and depth to sounds that I hadn’t considered were possible in a live environment. It has made me realise that there are limitations to the way I have been using systems and that I may be able to provide more accurate and natural reinforcement of shows using a different approach. So on the design side, there are new ideas developing and new considerations to be made. I’m not sure where it will lead but it will be an exciting journey finding out.
© Mike Walker 2005