“General” Front & Back - the Royal Exchange Theatre

Wednesday 13th January 1999
8.30 am Arrive bleary-eyed as
we’ve spent three days
fitting up and doing
technical rehearsals for
Martin Yesterday [a new
play by Brad Fraser]. We
are using a new
computerised matrix, delay,
panning system on this
show for the first time.
It sounds very complicated
but it allows us to move
sound all round the
theatre. We were here
until 11.45pm last night,
programming the system.
Ian, my deputy, disappears
into the auditorium to
work on re-plotting the
effects for the Martin
Yesterday roller coaster
scene. I e-mail the
suppliers of our system
asking for a software
update. We are the first
theatre in the UK to use
the system so they take
a keen interest in our
ideas. I download
yesterday’s rehearsal notes
for Peer Gynt.
9.00 am Coffee in the Green
Room.
9.15 am Feeling wide awake I
check that everything’s
okay in the auditorium,
then back to our studio
for some Peer Gynt
recording.
10.15 am Interrupted by a phone call
about Animal Crackers
which opens in the West
End in March. It is
always difficult
transferring a Royal
Exchange show to a
proscenium arch theatre -
sound effects need rerecording
and the sound
rig must be re-designed.
At the Exchange we can
place sound above, below,
in front of or behind the
audience, and either inside
or outside the theatre
module, giving the
audience an experience
which they cannot get in
any other theatre. I am
using fewer speakers for
A Day in the Life of the Sound Department
Animal Crackers in
London, but have to
convince the producers
that all the equipment is
needed.
10.30 am Back to the Peer Gynt
storm sequence. Phone
rings again: an audience
member with a query
about music from our
December show, Hindle
Wakes.
Schematic of sound layout for Peer Gynt
11.15 am The storm sequence is
coming along well. I’m
using five different wind
recordings, which will be
panned all round the
auditorium. The sounds are
recorded into a sampler,
which enables me to loop
them, making them
continuous. I slow some
sounds down and add
reverb to others. I
change the pitch of a
From wedding dance music to the noise of a storm at sea, sound plays a crucial part in creating
the many, varied settings of the play. With less than a month before opening night, Steve Brown,
the theatre’s Head of Sound, works on his sound design for Peer Gynt while overseeing the
opening of a new play and dealing with a West End transfer.
whistling wind effect to
make it sound more
haunting. A few years ago
this would have taken a
full day, but with new
technology it only takes a
few hours.
11.30 am Phone goes again. The
London producers want a
list of music used in
Animal Crackers a.s.a.p.
Help!!
11.40 am Since we moved back into
the Royal Exchange
building after the bomb
we haven’t had the
chance to unpack all our
boxes. I know that in one
box there’s a computer
disk with all the Animal
Crackers information. But
which box?
12.30 pm Find the disk at last and
fax the information.
12.45 pm Grab a sandwich.
1.00 pm The Peer Gynt production
meeting, a weekly event
when all the production
departments, designer and
director get together and
discuss the show. Any
show is a huge team
effort and these meetings
are very important. I ask
where on stage the
television and video are
located in the massage
parlour scene so that I
can decide how to run
cables to them. I also find
out what musical
instruments are being used
in the wedding scene -
I’ll need to arrange
microphones. I fix a time
to play the director some
of the effects I have
recorded.
2.00 pm Eat sandwich and grab
another cup of coffee.
2.10 pm Receive the software
update via e-mail.
2.20 pm Back to Peer Gynt.
Hunting in our extensive
sound library for
recordings of ships’ sails,
rigging and creaks, I find
some excellent recordings
which I sample, edit and
add to my wind effects.
This sound sequence is
beginning to take shape. I
think about ways to
create the sound of a
ship hitting rocks and
sinking which (for obvious
reasons!) has to be
created from scratch.
3.30 pm Start work on Peer’s
drowning sequence and
search for underwater
recordings. Find some very
good recordings of air
bubbles and I experiment
with de-tuning and
stretching them. The end
effect is almost exactly
what I’m looking for.
5.00 pm A friend from the
National Theatre phones
with a query about music
from Hindle Wakes.
5.30 pm Catch up with Ian to
discuss the day so far.
Last night’s programming
only needed minor
changes.
7.30 pm Watch the preview
performance of Martin
Yesterday begin and then
back to the studio to
record bottle smashes for
Peer Gynt. Make a few
minor changes to the
day’s recordings. I keep
one ear to the show
relay, all seems well.
9.45 pm The show ends and I
check with Ian that all
went okay. We plan
tomorrow’s work.
10.30 pm Go home - at last!