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Star Turn for Midas XL8 at RADA
Midas has supplied an XL8 Live Performance System to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) for a musical production of Little Women at RADA’s Vanbrugh Theatre, performed and operated by this year’s graduating students.
Initial XL8 training was provided by Shuttlesound’s Jason Kelly and Midas and Klark Teknik brand development manager Richard Ferriday before the system was left in the hands of the RADA sound crew and students.
“Musicals are by nature very busy for the sound department, but things like routing are so brilliantly simple on the XL8 that the initial setup of the PA system went like clockwork,” says RADA’s head of sound Chris Mock.
Operating the show was student John Maddox, whose previous experience was limited to analogue consoles. “Seeing that this is the first time I’ve used the XL8, I was surprised at how quickly and easy it is to learn to operate all aspects of programming and live mixing,” he says. “Being able to customise the whole layout of the console meant that the functions needed for every scene were quickly accessible. If this desk were a car, Jeremy Clarkson would love it!”
Maddox’s basic channel list comprised of a small orchestra plus an 11-way radio mic system and a further eight inputs from the SFX workstation.
“Once we had all channels routed, labelled and coloured correctly, being able to group them into VCAs (variable control association) or POP (population) groups so easily saved us a lot of headaches further down the line when it came to live storing of scenes during the technical rehearsal,” continues Mock. “Another great feature was the Show Editor in the master section, which enabled us to copy settings from all channels in one scene and propagate them into all the other scenes. As we weren’t able to soundcheck with the orchestra, band and cast members during technical rehearsals, and we had to plot all the scenes on the desk to control mutes to correspond with entrances and exits, this feature saved hours of reprogramming all scenes individually.”
Show Editor is a new feature of the latest XL8 v1.06 software, which allows the user to make changes to the number of inputs and outputs in one scene in the automation, and propagate those changes to any of the other scenes.
An added bonus for Mock was being able to work with the new Klark Teknik DN9696 hard disk recorder, which facilitates virtual soundchecks. “This proved extremely useful when working with other students; being able to press play and have every input on the desk behave as if band and cast were present is a fantastic possibility when training on the XL8.”
For Midas, Klark Teknik and Shuttlesound, this was an opportunity to support their growing involvement with educational facilities. “We are always looking to get involved with the next generation of technical staff, and this was a great opportunity to get an XL8 into a theatre, allowing students who may not be familiar with the Midas brand or digital consoles to learn new skills,” says Shuttlesound’s Midas and Klark Teknik sales consultant Jason Kelly.
The RADA sound department was equally happy with the opportunity this provided. “Having the XL8 for our production of ‘Little Women’ has been an excellent learning curve for our technical students here at RADA, and I’m very grateful to Midas for letting us have this opportunity to expand our training in the sound department,” concludes Mock. “Those that have had a chance to learn the basics can already see the advantages of the features included on the XL8.”
In picture: Chris Mock, head of sound, RADA with John Maddox, show operator.
18th March 2008
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