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Sound Advice
By Jason Pritchard
Multiple Perspectives,
(Hopefully)
One Sound
Changes in the
audio system
can beget other
changes, and so
on, and so on.
How the band, the actors and “me” all fit together in performance
I
sit behind a console and mix a show. That’s my reality,
but what about the actor’s show? What show are they
hearing? Then there’s the band or orchestra. Is there
another show happening in the pit?
While everyone is doing the same show, the external
influences that affect each of the participants can be very
different. The people involved are spread out around
the room, the actors on stage, the musicians in the pit,
perhaps backstage or other remote locations. Not to
mention the audio engineer behind the console, which
may or may not be located in a position which allows
the engineer to hear the show that most of the audience
hears. And certainly not what the musicians or actors
hear. Everyone has a different point of reference.
Performing is a complex combination of anticipation
and reaction. Each person’s actions are influenced by
the actions of other people. When anticipation and reality
coincide, the job feels easy. It’s when the collective
anticipated actions are incorrect, and the performance
becomes reactive, that difficulty sets in.
For engineers to be successful, they should have an
understanding of what the other people might be hearing.
Through consistency of performance, understanding
the realities of the other participants and compromise in
execution, the tension of seemingly incoherent actions
can be made amenable.
Me Syndrome
People are selfish. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just reality.
Each of us is in our position because we care about
our little slice of the show. It’s easy for the band to play
the show as though their performance doesn’t affect
the actors onstage. And it is also easy for the actors to
fail to realize that their performance affects the musicians
in the pit. Those performances both affect and are
affected by the audio engineer and the sound system.
Alterations in performance by one group forces the
others to react and change. That’s actually the beauty
of live performance, but it is also the one biggest daily
battle with which we are faced. When the performance
is happening, it is hard to realize that one’s actions have
so much influence on the other groups. The actions of
the others that one experiences are often questioned, or
written off as “I’m just hearing things.” The struggle for
consistency and ease of performance is felt globally.
The Band
A couple of years ago, I had a conversation with the
music director for a show I was mixing. We were discussing
revamping the monitor system for the band. The old
system was unwieldy, loud and didn’t give the musicians
what they needed to hear to play a consistent performance.
The system was so bad, in fact, that it strained
30 November 2007 • www.stage-directions.com