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Sound Advice
Balancing levels and processing during an energetic number is part of a sound designer’s job on a musical.
so that when the drums
are downstage you’re getting
a lot of natural sound,
but as they go upstage we
have to start turning up
the overheads so you get
more cymbals that naturally
carry in the house.”
EZ EQ
Just like Travis mentions,
a large part of each
cue isn’t just volume, but
EQ and other processing. To make managing processing
easier, Studer created a function called “Library
Events” within each cue. They give the designers
extreme granular control over any of the board’s settings
for a particular cue—or actor.
Like many consoles, Studer will let you assign a
name to a channel. In the Broadway world, it’s easy to
see how labeling an RF mic on channel 33 “Elphaba”
could be useful. Designers could then lock in EQ settings
for that actor/mic combo and whatever cue
they’re placed in, the EQ settings are recalled.
But what happens when the Elphaba puts on her
hat? The EQ and settings for that cue need to be different
to keep the sound the same. Studer’s new Library
Events feature enables the engineer to create an EQ
setting for when Elphaba is wearing her hat, and save
it as a Library Event. This Event can be copied into any
“You never want to hear the music
change, even though the drummer
went from being 10 feet from
the front of the stage to 20 feet
upstage behind a solid wall inside
the same song.” —Ken Travis
cue that includes the hat.
To change back to normal
EQ settings, simply dropping
the Normal EQ Event
back into the cue list will
make the change.
These Library Event settings
can also be changed
live, and will replicate
throughout the show
wherever that Library
Event is placed. For example,
if Elphaba’s mic placement
is a little off one night and the sound is different,
you can change a Library Event and those changes
will propagate throughout the cue list—the Library
Event makes sure the settings are carried throughout
the show, as opposed to the engineer having to tweak
every cue as it’s brought up in a snapshot.
To further simplify things, these settings can also be
automatically copied to a new actor—useful for setting
up an understudy. You can copy an actor’s Library,
including all of their EQ events, to a new actor’s name,
tweak the settings to account for the understudy’s
voice, and you’re set.
This was particularly important on Memphis, a
demanding show which calls for a lot of swing actors
and rotation of parts.
“It’s very rare that we do a show where we have an
original cast member of everybody in,” says Travis.
18 March 2010 • www.stage-directions.com