View From The Tabs

I’ve not been deliberately avoiding writing about shows from behind the scenes of recent - I just haven’t actually worked on many different shows over the last few weeks.

Still, the show calender is full for the next couple of years (!) so here’s the next one (contain yourselves, please). There is some show talk interspersed in this one. If you see acronyms, it’s probably as well to skip on if there’s no gearhead in you.

This week started with another of our one day rehearsals - which actually had a lighting design of sorts (booms, cyc, 2K back wash, a few MAC 500s overhead and corridors of light from our ever tetchy SL profiles); black box masking with cyclorama and white marley; and a little bit of sound.

Anyone paying attention will have a fairly good idea of our ‘basic’ set-up and thus it was again today

-Midas control to MediaMatrix processing for a EAW and JBL rig with Max 12 foldback; same old, same old-

The source today though was five vocalists singing harmonies. Each one had their own SM58 and each made good use of the proximity effect when needed. When I saw the initial tech request for this (asking for 15 SM58 to be split into three groups of five) I was a little dubious, and for the rehearsal set-up, adding a little extra copper was all that was needed.

Radio mics were mentioned but it wasn’t until into the afternoon when we finally heard the pieces that it became clear pretty quickly that lavs just would not be able to do their vocal ranges justice. Our Sony handhelds may well have done the job but I know that they don’t respond as quickly as the SM58’s do - something to try next time though.

While I liked the harmony action, the fast paced contemporary dancing just didn’t seem to match. There was a tabla for a couple of sections and it may be the plan to expand the use of instrumentation - as it was, the singing and dancing seemed very disconnected.

The main piece we’ve had in for the rest of the week had a very synchronous design - a study of monochrome, really - though more involving than that descriptor sounds.

The show, from an established continental dance company with a very good reputation, opens on a black box stage with a grey floor. And a light orbiting a dead tree. Hung upside down (the tree, not the light)

The dancers are also in black and the piece is scored to Cage, Glass, Bach and Biber.

Once it finishes, the tabs come in and we actually do a proper scene change - when the tabs go out at the end of the interval, the floor is now black and several small black tabs are hung at angles over the dance floor. As the piece progresses, these change height, moving in and out and silks upstage begin to billow as if a wind is being blown across them (as if). Again, the works of Glass are used for this dance.

Once the tabs go out for the third piece, the set-up has changed again. Now the floor is black one side and white the other. A grand piano is on the dark side with 10′ legs and the pianist is accompanying the works of Beckett, Mozart and Haubrich. Meanwhile on the white side is a pile of light - literally.

One day, I’ll explain how to make a pile of light

The nearest any of these pieces comes to colour is the tungsten lamps in the few lanterns not gelled in a flavour of CCT blue - that’s not to say the performance is tedious. The performers are excellent and the pieces work very well.

It’s just that together, they are all a little similar. A little too similar. I always tend to think that companies showing a collection of pieces should have some cohesive element to them. These three pieces are just a little too alike to be shown together.

[SHOP TALK]

Okays, for those who’ve been waiting patiently.

This production is a little showcase for d&b Audiotechnic. A pair of F1220 hung from our pros speaker bar, a second replacing our stalls EAW and a third acting as front fill left and right from beside a B1 each side. Onstage a pair of M2 monitors each side provide foldback.

Everything is powered from P1200 amps with the appropriate cards - as they prefer the sound of the older analog amps to the newer D12s for their speakers.

At the control position are two CD players and a small sampler, running through a Yamaha DM2000. There are two mics on the grand piano (though it being a little taller than normal, I never actually saw what was inside).

Most of our system was switched off except for the E3s and EAW that serve as delays and centre cluster. Processing and delays were all on the DM2k, apart from system processing on our speakers that was our normal MediaMatrix settings.

It was nice to hear the F1220 with a piece that wasn’t recorded directly from an old record player

[/SHOP TALK]

And as a note, there probably won’t be much more show related posts for a few more weeks.

Wife number one and myself will be making a big donation to a carbon positive scheme at somepoint soon to make up for the imminent flight to NYC and DC on what will be our first holiday on our own - ever.

That should be worth a post or two …