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“The theatre is a bit like a recording
studio where everything must
be represented in the mix.”
— John Shivers
element needed to be present in the sound system. The
vocals don't naturally project from the stage, and with
the minimal natural reflections and reverberation there
was virtually nothing to help blend the elements into a
cohesive and pleasing sound.
All photograpy by Joan Marcus
Left to right: Megan Hilty, Allison Janney and Stephanie J. Block in 9 to 5
Having said all that, there is something I like about this
sort of environment. In fact, I much prefer it to one where
the room acoustics are so wet and spectrally imbalanced
that it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain vocal intelligibility
and a satisfying level of detail from the orchestra.
The theatre is a bit like a recording studio where
everything must be represented in the mix. So we, with
a great deal of effort, started putting the pieces together
to generate a pleasing and cohesive sonic experience for
the audience. Through the proper use of equalization,
compression, reverbs and a solid and dynamic mix I think
we achieve a pretty satisfying sound. To add some "liveness"
to the room we utilized our surround system to help
create a sense of spatial dimension.
How was surround sound used specifically in the
show?
The surround system was used very minimally. We
used it for the opening alarms and, as mentioned before,
to attempt to add some liveness to the venue.
I noticed that many of the musicians in the pit are
seated in separate chambers to avoid bleed-through.
Is this becoming more common in shows, and does it
presumably make your life easier in terms of sonically