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A Chorus of Approval Greets DiGiCo D5T's Latest Broadway Success
With 6,137 performances on its original 1975-1990 Broadway run, A Chorus Line is one of the most successful musicals in American history. The 2006-2008 Broadway revival has been another major success and, with a DiGiCo D5T console at front of house, the show sounds just as good as it looks.
The D5T was supplied by New York-based Autograph A2D to PRG Audio, who leased the console to A Chorus Line's production company. They, in turn, brought in theatrical sound design specialists Acme Sound Design Partners to design the show's audio production.
"We've been using DiGiCo D5Ts since the summer of 2004, when it was on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at The Old Globe Theatre in LA Jolla, California," says Acme's Tom Clark.
"Since then the D5T has become our default console for Broadway productions due to its audio quality, flexibility and high input/output count."
A Chorus Line is a complex show, with 40 channels of wireless mics, nine channels of off-stage wired vocal and on-stage foot mics, 46 channels of orchestra mics, nine channels of reverb returns, and seven channels of auxiliary inputs.
"As with any Broadway musical, the main challenge is mixing the vocals," says Tom. "To maintain good balance and avoid phasing between adjacent mics, the general rule of thumb is to have the fewest number of open vocal mics possible at every instant of the piece, which results in a lot of mixing. The snapshots feature of the D5T is really good for keeping all the mics under control - there are approximately 85 cues throughout the show."
He continues: "We were also very lucky with the orchestra mix because the orchestrations, by Johnathan Tunick, were extremely well attuned to the vocal lines, and the orchestra itself was able to hear and balance itself for the entire show. This resulted in very little work for the sound department."
One major challenge for the Acme team is that the show's director, Bob Avian, was very strict about microphone placement on actors.
"The director is adamant that he should not see microphones or wires on the actors," says Tom. "So many of their mic positions are less than optimal. For instance there are 16 chest positions, which is extremely rare on Broadway.
"We combat the poor mic positions with the D5T's on-board EQ and, in a few cases, frequency-dependent compression. We do not typically use the onboard digital effects because we need all of the console's DSP power for inputs and outputs, but we do use two channel outboard vocal reverbs and 5.1 surround reverbs for the orchestra."
With A Chorus Line's latest Broadway run due to come to a close on 17th August this year, the DiGiCo D5T has made a significant contribution to the show's success - something borne witness, in true theatrical tradition, by most audience members not even knowing it was there.
"Our job is to make people happy, which usually means they don't notice what we're doing," says Tom.
"The D5T has impressed us in many ways, most importantly with how similar its audio quality is to the analogue desks we had been using in the past, and how flexible its I/O options were. In addition, the D5T is the only digital console we have used that has been designed specifically with Broadway mixing in mind, something that is a huge help to our operators.
"DiGiCo has always been extremely responsive to our needs, and they have been good at getting to the bottom of any mysterious problems quickly!"
Lew Mead, managing director of Autograph A2D, adds: "It has been very interesting for A2D to be involved with this wonderful show. Both (Autograph founder) Andrew Bruce and I were involved with the original Michael Bennett production and the history we have with A Chorus Line makes our involvement with this production even more special to us.
"I must admit that I was curious about how they would do things now. When we originally worked on the show it was with no wireless microphones and an analogue console! But the Acme team and the D5T were a perfect match for A Chorus Line."
21st July 2008
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