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Sound Design
“So she sat on the edge
of the stage. I left her mic
open, and she talked to the
audience while I made the
computer swap.”
— Carin Ford
During a preview of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a microchip went bad and delayed the show.
fired a cacophony of multiple [MIDI]
ring sets,” reveals Sanders. “I immediately
had to figure out where to reach
to take it out. In most cases, when
something happens, you just take it
out. It’s done, and she’ll just have to
fake it. You remove the obstruction
as best you can.”
“Sound effects can go wonky,”
confirms Sanders, who had to use
cart machines for sound effects back
on Les Miz. He adds that the carts
were “just like 8-tracks, and they functioned
just about as well sometimes.
In some cases, those would not necessarily
advance, so a couple of times
I had to kill Gavroche with a canno
shot instead of a rifle shot. When the
sound effects go bad, it’s another
momentary thing where your heart
races, but it usually passes.”
One can practically have a heart
attack when audio goes haywire, as
happened on Bells Are Ringing. The
lead actor played a switchboard
operator whose main prop produced
numerous sound effects. “I had a
funny button that all of a sudden
It’s All in the Timing
It is lucky when problems occur
during previews, as it did with Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang. Fortunately, all the
sound designers were on hand when
a chip in one of the digital output
cards in the downstairs audio racks
went bad, sending a nasty sound
rushing through the main speaker
system. Sound Designer Mark Menard