Country Teamwork - Stage Directions Magazine

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Sound Designa live band in smaller spaces butnever with a roving band. It alsogets down to where you put thespeakers. Because of the low ceilingsand the large speakers that thereare, the sound system is generallyused in a more conventional waywith center, left, right. The idealplace here was to put the speakersin the corners, because there wereno areas in the middle of the stagewhere they would not actually getin the way. They would be hangingtoo low because of the ceiling andjust the way that the performers aremoving around. That presented aninteresting challenge.It certainly bugs me a lot whenI hear an amplified voice emanatingfrom a location different fromthe singer or the speaker. I try tocompensate the best that I can toa degree where essentially eachmic is meant to cover an area thatif you are in that area you don’tneed amplification because you’restanding right next to them. That’sthe other thing: half the audienceis experiencing music unamplifiedbecause they’re actually so close tothe source that they’re experiencingthe direct sound. However becauseyou move around, half the audienceat that particular moment, until theactors move to a different location,is actually on the other side, so nowthey are another observing this fromdepth and distance. You’re still hearingit fine because there’s plenty ofdirect sound, but it requires just alittle bit of amplification to help thevoices carry a little bit and help theintelligibility, because Gilbert andSullivan are so much about words.That became the priority, which isodd for me just because it has to beabout words, even if it has to comefrom a location that’s not ideal.Intelligibility became more importantthan directionality.So the sound engineer is in theother room during the show?Yes. And the truth of it is, becauseof the position and for a numberof reasons, I set it up not to be asmuch about engineering, becausethere no wireless or personal mics,so there’s not a lot of modifying. Iessentially set up a system with sixmics and tuned them in a certainway and each of them has a slightlydifferent matrix of the speakersthat are around the space to minimizefeedback and also to maximizeamplification for the people whoneed it most. Let’s say the space hasfour quadrants, so if I’m miking thezone that’s in quadrant one, if thepeople who have the most difficulthearing it are in quadrant three, thatis kitty-corner from it, that mic isdesigned to maximize amplificationfor those folks who are in that quadrant.The point is there’s not a lot ofriding microphones. The board opis instructed to listen to it. Despitethe fact that levels don’t move, fromday to day I’m riding the mics fairlyhigh because I’m relying on only sixmicrophones to cover a fairly largearea. Sometimes we run into feedback,which is totally unpredictable,so that’s the only thing I’m watchingout for. I would not call thema sound engineer because they’renot really engineering, they’re listeningand make small adjustments.They’re not turning mics on andoff because I actually have themthroughout the space.36 March 2011 • www.stage-directions.com
Nikki Klix, Emily Casey and Becky Poole (left-right), and all other performers accompanied themselves on instruments.www.stage-directions.com • March 2011 37
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