Reps: 'Gone Too Far!'
& 'Mr Burns' Journals
Key:
Documents
Tech Learning
Week 1: 19/04/2021
19/04/2021
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9.00: Meeting with the Reps sound team in Silk Street Auditorium. We briefly discussed what we know about the plans so far. However new information is still being discovered from the rehearsal rooms. I will make a document compiling any sound notes taken down by both Stage Managers of 'Mr Burns' and 'Gone Too Far!'. I have also decided to make a document to pre-empt the health & safety requirements for when we start fit-up through till strike day.
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Also had a chat with Production Sound Engineer, Molly Barron, about the Reps in general. I asked if Molly could send over all the progress made about equipment specifically to me, so that I can start researching that equipment.
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The rest of the day, I am focusing on those documents I am planning to prepare as well as sitting in on the sound preparation for 'Love & Information' in Silk Street. Mainly just to oversee Maisie setting up and using Q-Lab.
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I sent off a new version of the Allocation Allocation Plan to Andy.
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Had a start of allocation meeting with Andy at 4.00. We discussed me coming in for a few days this week to play around with the Yamaha QL5 (desk I will be using) as well as become as familiar with Q-Lab as possible before we start Tech.
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Afterwards I began to look at youtube tutorials of Q-Lab.
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What I learnt from these videos was that I should start off by going to View>Toolbox. View>Lists/Carts+Active Cues. And I should want View>Inspector ON at all times. Having these views shows what can inputted into cue lab from the Toolbox view- showing what cues are active using the active cue view and then having the inspector view at the bottom of which gives more information on a cue.
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If I want an audio file in Q-Lab I can just simply drag and drop it into the software. It's also good practise to test the tracks using the GO button when its added to make sure it works. Using the active cue view, you can pause and move to where you want to be in that specific track. Inspector view also shows information of that track, like where its stored on your computer for example.
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Tracks on Q-Lab wont follow on from eachother so I need to initiate auto-follow by double clicking the column underneath the 'Anchor' sign. To then do this for mulitple tracks and save time, highlight all and go to the inspector view, choose Continue: auto-follow. In 'Continue' you can also choose 'auto-continue' of which makes all these highlighted tracks play at the same time which can also be helpful.
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20/04/2021
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Had an end of allocation meeting at 10.45.
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Had a production review meeting at 12.00
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After lunch, I continued to learn more about Q-Lab through the tutorials I was watching on Youtube.
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I emailed India and Anya about acquiring some kind of music tracks to then have a play with in Q-Lab.
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Continued Tutorials of Q-Lab:
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What I have learnt in Q-Lab so far today: Click 'Group' on the Toolbox view and drag into the main track list. This creates a folder for tracks to go into by highlighting and dragging. The group can also be labelled, for example, 'Post-Show Ambience' or by act/scene. It allows certain cues to be a lot more organised in Q-Lab. Groups have a drop down function so you can view everything within that group or hide it by using that function.
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If you have a list of tracks and want it looped, you can grab the 'Start' button from the toolbox view and drag it to the place where you want the loop to start. So for example this would be at the end. Then you drag and drop the first track of that selection into that 'Start' row. This will automatically loop it.
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For pre-waits, you select the track and under the 'pre-wait' column there is an time stamp of (00.00.00 > Minutes/Seconds/Miliseconds). This can be edited by clicking onto it and adding in how much time you want to give before that specific track starts playing. Changing it to: 00.04.00 for example will make that track wait 4 seconds before playing. This can also be applied to multiple cues at once by highlighting what you want, going to the inspector view at the bottom and changing the 'pre-wait' time below. For example, you can make 8 tracks have a pre-wait time of 2 seconds each, so there will be a 2 second gap before the next one plays.
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Another name for the content in Q-Lab is called 'Children' or 'Child' as the 'tracks' may not necessary be audio, but lighting, video etc. So they are referred to as children instead.
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A 'Stop' cue can be added the same way a 'Start' cue is added by dragging and dropping this function from the toolbox into the main list. A 'Stop' function is helpful for making a specific track stop at a specific time. Opening the 'Time and Loops' tab in the Inspector View will show the audio file similar to how Protools display audio. You can drag and drop when you want the stop function to happen at a more specific point.
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In a group you can randomise when each track will play each time you press the 'GO' button. This is done by highlighting the group name and selecting 'Start random child and go to next cue' in the Inspector View>Mode Tab.
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I then added my sound report notes document into teams so everyone has access to it.
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Began to look at the scripts- specifically Mr Burns as I know this drama less than Gone Too Far. Molly mentioned that the episode 'Cape Feare' is the episode of the Simpsons that 'Mr Burns' the play is based off of. I think it might be a nice idea for me to have a look at this episode at some point. As well as watching some over drama schools/companies do this. I learn better by watching rather than reading.
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I emailed Rose Dayan, Stage Manager of Mr Burns, to ask when I could sit in on rehearsals at Jerwood Space. Hopefully I can sit in on Thursday morning and familiarise myself with the show better.
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21/04/2021
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World of Work at 11.00 with Nick Davis, Festival Republic.
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Went into uni to find the Yamaha QL5 and have a play with it. Adi Currie, of whom was sound operator last term, showed me some very basic things about the desk. Such as starting a new show file by pressing down the 'SEL' button at the edge of the desk whilst its turning on. Learning how to rename channels by clicking the 11 button to change the digital view. Then by pressing the highlighted channel box at the top, you can edit the name of the patch, channel and symbol/colour.
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I tried playing Q-Lab from my laptop into the desk using a mini jack to XLR. I changed the audio output on Q-Lab to External Output and when playing a track, nothing happened. I also connected the speakers in the control room into the cables behind the desk and nothing occured. I then clicked on 'Edit Patch 1' and it told me I needed a license to go further.
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I feel like I can't do anything further with the desk until I have in-person help from someone or have the correct license/sign-in on my Q-Lab account. I have sent an email to Ben Collins (Sound Staff) and CC'd in Andy Taylor (Sound Lecturer) and Molly (PSE) about this.
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I went to see Ben Collins briefly and he tried to explain how the output wasn't working because of the desk rather than Q-Lab. I went back to the desk and tried to find a solution based on what he told me- the desk needing to recognise tthat there is an input and to tell the desk where to output that sound. I realised that my speakers were off anyway so I turned them on and continued to try and solve the issue of why no sound was coming through.
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I went through the patch settings of the channels that I have manually imputted cables into in the setup window but I was having no luck. I saw however that sound from my laptop was being recognised by the desk but there was still no sound output. Fortunately, I will be having a sound session with Ben from 12 till 4 on Monday with the desk, so we can go through that then.
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Its a shame that I didn't manage to achieve as much as I had hoped today, but I feel like I can't really progress on the desk without guidance. The documents I saw on google were confusing to me or counter-intuitive.
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22/04/2021
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Arrived at Jerwood Space at 10 am and got settled down. From what I learnt from the show is that it has a lot of musical/singing moments, however as I am not mixing, this isn't going to be an issue for me in my specific role. I confirmed with Anya that there definately wont be any backing tracks for these moments as all the music will always be live. It was noted that in terms of sound cues- 'Mr Burns' will not be as busy as 'Gone too Far!'. When I asked Anya Urban (Sound Designer) about ambient sounds she said 'if we're lucky' so it will be interesting to see how much sound cues I will putting into Q-Lab by the time we get to tech.
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I brought back the equipment that Anya had back to Molly from Jerwood to Guildhall.
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13.30: 'Mr Burns' Progress Meeting
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14.10: 'Gone Too Far!' Progress Meeting
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Summary so far:
Mr Burns:
- No Amplifications of Actors or Instruments
- Many instruments to be confirmed this week
- No Practicals
- Music call for instruments 7-9pm on the 10th May
- Should be an easy DSM-called GO Button show
- Comms and Cue Lights
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Gone Too Far:
- No Actor Mics, only amplification for when they use the handhelds.
- Carnival Music Based
- Composer is Conrad Barnes-Worrell, he is working with SD India Mason Mills.
- Maybe a speaker in the set?
- TV/PS2 needs to make noise (IEM?)
- Originally needed 2x handheld mics for the cipher at the end but this may now be one mic on a stand for everyone to use (tbc)
- 1x Handheld mic needed for Scene 2
- Comms and Cue Lights
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Molly told me about QL Editor of which is just a software laptop version of the Yamaha QL5- which is super helpful. So I downloaded it for Mac straight away.
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23/04/2021
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Worked on fade cues in Q-Lab using these videos:
Click and drag the 'Fade' function from the Toolbox view into the workspace/cue list, ideally underneath the track you wish to fade. Drag the track you wish to fade ontop of the fade cue. Click on the fade and go to the audio output levels. For Fade-in, make sure the original track is set all the way down on the master fader and for the 'Stop target when done' to NOT be ticked. The fade itself should be to about a 0 on the Master Fader. Therefore I am fading in the original sound from -INF to 0.
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For Fade-out it is the complete opposite, so the volume for the original sound is 0 and the volume for the fade is 0. Also the 'Stop target when done' should be ticked as you ideally want the original track to stop playing when the fade has ended. Furthermore, having these specific fade sections put into groups will make it easier to control, but more importantly to have the 'Timeline- Start all children simultaneously' enabled so the cues play altogether for the fades to work when fired. My biggest question with this however is- how will fade cues work when most if not all cues in a show have fades in them. Will they need to be grouped individually to stop multiple tracks from firing?
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I did also have a look at more advanced cuing and for the fade-out cues, they dont need to be apart of the group involving the original track and fade-in, it can be separated. Also the fades dont have go all the way down, they can be faded down to a lower volume, which can be quite nice especially for when dialogue is added and you want the track to still be present.
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I did have another look at the QL Editor but I am not too sure what I can do with it online? I am still confused by how I am meant to play around with it in person, so im not sure what I can do with the software at the moment.
On-going Rehearsal Report
Notes for Sound:
Equipment Research:
Active Cues:
Inspector Views:
Auto-Follow Symbol:
Reflection of the Week:
I was very aware that this week I wouldn't have a lot to do. Without any speaker plans and with new sound information coming out of the rehearsal room everyday, I knew that this time period would very much be the calm before the storm. Andy Taylor suggested I put Q-Lab to learn at the top of my priority list, so this week was mainly familiarising myself with the software. I also came in to have a look at the Yamaha QL5, but without staff supervision, I couldn't really learn anything on my own. Even figuring out how to get sound into the desk out through the speakers was a goal that I didn't manage to achieve. Overall this week was mainly keeping close communication with Molly Barron (Production Sound Engineer), Anya Urban and India Mason-Mills (Sound Designers). Understanding the text of the shows better and the kind of expectations shown from the creative teams as each day passes.
Week 2: 26/04/2021
26/04/2021
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Met up with Molly Barron (PSE), Anya Urban (SD) and India Mason-Mills (SD) in the morning to have a catch-up. We discovered that the LX team are fitting up this morning of which was only decided last friday by the Prod LX, Nat Scase. This has thrown a spanner in the works for us as we don't have two speaker plans ready yet as endless information is still coming from the rehearsal rooms. Especially for 'Gone Too Far'.
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India Mason-Mills is now making a document compiling all of the sound effects, which speaker they're coming out of and where in the script it will be. Purely because of just how busy 'Gone too Far' is becoming. This is in Google Documents.
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So far I have discovered today that in GTF we have/need:
- Two radio mics, one for Sam Thorpe-Spinks for the Police echo and Sheyi Cole for Yemis Prayer. This would be good for me regardless as I can learn a little bit about micing up people (with COVID protocols in place)
- There are two doors in the set, we don't know whether the sound effects for the 'kick' and 'knock' are on the same door or two different doors.
- Need to find the grey chunky TV in Silk Street, and figure out how to hide an IEM inside of it. However there is Tech happening in the SS theatre currently so will need to find a suitable time to do this.
- Sound effect that may affect speaker placement are the possible 'racist whispers' coming from the head of the king? and the sword being put into and taken out of the stone.
- Lastly it has been confirmed that there will be handheld mics for the Cipher rather than one standing microphone.
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Myself, Molly and India went to the Studio space just to see what is going on and how it is all developing. We got the newest version of the LX plan and Molly will overlap Anyas speaker plan and then eventually India's. I spent most of the morning cleaning up my area for the desk in the MC Studio Control Box. Me and Molly kept 2m apart at all times and wore our masks whilst inside the control box when clearing.
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I had a little play around with Q-Lab Fade cues in the production office for the rest of the day and organising myself on the schedule ahead. Molly Barron (PSE) said that we can't do anything about moving the Yamaha QL5 as there is some confusion on what production is acutally using it. As well as, having no need to test the IEM just yet. We plan to start our sound fit-up tomorrow after mine and India Mason Mills (SD) Q-Lab session with Ben Collins tomorrow morning.
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27/04/2021
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At 9.00 I went to meet India Masion-Mills (SD) and Ben Collins (Sound Staff) to have a basic lesson on Q-Lab. I found this session really insightful into the world of both sound and being a sound designer. Things I learnt included:
- Pressing alt whilst clicking on the fader will change it from -INF to 0, which is really useful.
- Understanding that the crosspoint boxes underneath the faders in the inspector view is about the speaker placement/panning. 1: Left, 1: Right.
- If panning whilst fading between different speakers in a cue, make sure all speakers are active on the faders even when no sound is meant to be coming out of them. So if going from Left to Right. Left should still be set to -INF and be in yellow.
- Auto-Contiue: Plays tracks at the same time upon firing GO
- Auto-Follow: Plays cue after the cue before it has fully finished
- ESC is another way to stop the cues that are currently active and this will fade over a few seconds. Double taping ESC makes it stop immediately.
- Audio Effects can be added onto a track. Select track- Audio Effects tab-add effect- apple...
- Time and Loops tab shows the track in a wave-form. You can add vamping which can be really useful. To do this, you can click in the track where you want to slice to- click 'add slice' and you can do this again to have one specific section to loop. Either a certain amount of times or Infinity (INF). If infinity, a 'Devamp' cue can be added.
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We also had an in depth conversation about roles as a Sound Designer, whether that be more creative or more sourcing sound effects. However, if a director went through the trouble of hiring a composer, it will most likely be the latter. Being in rehearsals as much as possible is really important too, mainly to be at the same point in the production in regards to Q-Lab. As well as to show ideas/samples/potential cues to the director. It is important they hear what you have to show before Tech otherwise once in tech- it could be completely wrong for the type/flow of the show.
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I was meant to start prep with Molly Barron (PSE) at 1pm but she had a meeting for another production. In the meantime I sourced four e0 speakers, with rigging and safety cables that were sitting on the ledge in the MC Studio Control Room.
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I then moved the Yamaha QL5 into MC Studio Control Room, with steel boots and hi-vis on. We just popped the Rio next to it and put the monitor on top for the time being. We would have started plugging up but because the speaker plan hasn't been finalised yet- we are holding off.
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28/04/21
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Came in and begun to create Sound Plot documents for both shows to understand better when and where the sound equipment is being used in all three of the acts. However I can't really add much as it is all still very much TBC.
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Me and Molly are trying to priotise the hanging frames for the speakers and find a solution to the lack of scaff, as currently we have nothing to hang our equipment off of.
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I went and counted the comm and cue light flightcase and counted our inventory. However we do not have enough equipment to share with both our production and the other production in the building. We cannot borrow from anywhere else and we dont have the budget to hire more. So this is an ongoing issue.
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I looked through some sound books and read some useful information. From the books 'The Ultimate Live Sound Operator's Handbook 2nd Edition' by Bill Gibson and 'Sound Reinforcement Handbook' by Gary Davis and Ralph Jones. I have addded this to my sound equipment research.
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We found some scaff/doughty arms from level 1 in Milton Court and moved them down to the studio, which solves the lack of scaff to hang speakers from. We will need to eventually find 2 more however, as we only sourced 5. Sam Bull (TM Lecturer) confirmed there are more scaff in MC Theatre substage.
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I went to the ledge in the Studio Control Room and tidied what I can. I also collated as much that I thought we might possibly use tomorrow also.
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29/04/21
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Went around to look for amps at 9.00- but realised we might be fine for most of the rig- its mainly the onstage speakers that we wont be able to fit up yet as they are within the set. The amps we are using at E-PAC. Molly wanted to find them all so we can build the rack all-in-one go.
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We got on our PPE and went up to the tension wire grid with our speakers (making sure that all loose objects in our pockets are put on the side before going onto the grid). We first got the scaff that was left on the ledge of the grid and placed where we need it from the plan (making sure a member of PV was creating an exclusion zone as we go). We started placing speakers but forgot to change the cones to be horizontal- so we derigged them and changed the cones before putting them back.
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Helped Tom Dixon move all the comms and cue lights to the control boxes/galleries in Silk Street after the last Tech was completed for Love and Information at half 12.
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1.30: 'Mr Burns' Production Meeting
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2.00: 'Gone Too Far!' Production Meeting
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We started plugging up Speakon into the speakers and ran the cables to the coordinating patch points to where ever was nearest. I shouted out the coordinates to Molly Barron (PSE) of the speaker placement so for example: D2 to D3 and the patch point - e.g SCB 3-208 and which input it is so either 1 or 2, some SCBs only have one. We then went to the patch bay and correlated the SCB number to the correct Input on whatever amp was free. For example: SCB 3-201 went to Channel 1 in D6 Amp 3. When we get to the desk, we will then know what to patch in.
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Both myself and Molly felt quite ill all day and decided to leave further fit-up/ testing to tomorrow. Especially as I have a Yamaha session with Ben Collins (Sound Staff) in the afternoon- we could have him assist us in this next step.
30/04/21
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I went to find 4 BNC cables for Molly Barron (PSE) when I got in from Milton Court Theatre Stage. They had to be 5-10m long 50ohm. However I could only find two of reasonable size and the other two where about 15m that I found from the ledge in MC Studio Theatre Control Room. Molly said this should be fine for what we need it for- and might be able to get away just using two.
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Meeting with Andy Taylor (TT Lecturer) at 9.30 about Grad Project.
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Re-joined fit-up with Molly Barron (PSE) at 10.00. However, Molly and India have to do a channel plan first before we test the amps. We had a brief meeting with Eilidh Mackenzie (Stage Manager for Mr Burns) to discuss Microphones and specifically the cipher section. There plans to have the actors 1m away from the mic to ensure pick-up but to be 2m away from each other on stage.
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Myself and Molly Barron (PSE) went to patch the amps to the correct input from upstairs to the MC Control Box. In the end, we used Ghielmetti cables to patch this as we only have 8 amps and theres no real need to use the Rio for the input part of the patching. We then continued using the Ghielmetti in the Control Room to correspond to the inputs upstairs, for it to talk to the desk. We then plugged up the desk using the XLR Loom (OMNI) before having a chat with Ben Collins before we went onto lunch.
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Begun Yamaha sound session with Ben Collins (Sound Staff) and India Mason-Mills (Sound Designer) at 14.00. I learnt how to:
- Initialize the desk (put it back to factory settings). This is to ensure that whoever has used it beforehand hasn't done some internal changes that might ruin tech a few days in. This is done on this particular desk the same way I initialized it before: Holding down the 'SEL' button on Input 'B' (the last button on the desk) whilst physically turning the yamaha on from the back.
- We first test to find if there is anything going into the desk before we look at outputting anything. So we looked at simple 1-1 patching. Input 1, Channel 1, Mix 1, Speaker 1, Output 1 etc. We made sure all of the inputs are on 'Post Fade' by individually double clicking on each input pot as we want to make sure the output sound will go down to -INF when we put the fader down. In 'Pre-Fade' this won't happen. Once we've done this, we took out input 1 from the XLR loom and plugged in a little behringer microphone into input one behind the desk (omni). Making sure the Microphone is patched into Omni 1, Mix 1.
We then tested the signal of this by scratching the microphone and lifting up the gain pot until we reach to a decent VU level on the desk- making sure the fader is still all the way down. Now we have input working on the desk.
- For output we turn on the speakers- in this case a simple on-switch button, as they are already in the control box working. And made sure that the speakers are patched into the Audio Line-in next to it on the wall. The Audio Line-in then goes to the SCR-07 rack in the control room. We then connected the audio line-in on the rack to input 1 on the desk using Ghielmetti cable. We then pressed the 'Setup' button on the QL5 and it opens a screen- press 'Output Port' to patch it to an output. In this case, it is OMNI 1-8.
​- Still setting the fader at -INF, we slowly raise the fader up, whilst speaking to test the sound. We can also test feedback now we have a speaker working by raising the fader all the way to the top and adjusting the gain pot (with no sound at all) just enough to make headroom- ensuring no feedback occurs even if we push the volume to its limit.
- We plugged in the Mac Mini to the monitor (HDMI) and into the desk using cat5. We then made sure the Dante network was on. However the Rio wasn't responding to the desk as AV have patched into Dante and has taken away our access. So we couldn't learn Dante in its entirety because of this. Either way, we learnt that having a network switches (primary and secondary) allow the desk, dante and mac mini to talk to each other flawlessly automatically, by understanding all of their own IP addresses. All we have to worry about is Unit numbers if using more than one sound desk. Dante can have two different versions- managed and unmanaged. We use unmanaged (so it can talk to anything and everything), managed means it only talks to what we want it to. This can be helpful if the lighting team next door, want its own dante network to us. The secondary switch is just a backup for if the primary one goes down for any reason.
- The Rio can also be patched into the wall FOH using a cat5 cable that can be patched from inside the control box- from the SCB straight into the network switch with another cat5. In this situation for the Reps; this works for 'Gone Too Far' as two characters will need to walk on with wired SM58 microphones. The mics can be plugged in directly to the Rio.
- We then had a quick at the Amps upstairs. Ben explained further that every amp can take 2 speakers. In our case, we have 7 overhead speakers and two sub-woofers that are connected together: making 8 overall. We have 4 amps, making the perfect amount we need for our rig. Beforehand however, we thought we needed another E-PAC amp for another spot effect speaker (E0) in a certain position but we comprimised by just using one of the E8s in the rig- pointed directly downwards to act as this spot effect. This just means that I will have to alter this in turnaround time, each time.
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I have printed off both Rep show Scripts and put them into a binder folder. I aim to vaguely add where I think the SFX for each show will be based off the TBC shared files of cues from India Mason-Mills and Anya Urban (Sound Designers), on the weekend.
Reflection of the Week:
This week has been a lot more productive for the Sound Department but slow at the same time. In hind-sight all we have managed to ahcieve hardware wise was fitting up 7 speakers and complete the patch- a patch that we haven't even manage to test yet. Because the set hasn't been successfully built yet, we can only do half of the rig. Furthermore, there are so many changed- both official and unofficial being made throughout the weekd from the rehearsal room, it is becoming increasingly hard to plan what equipment we need, especially for 'Gone too Far'. On the other hand, like I have learnt a lot in terms of my education in sound, rather than progress on the show itself. Having the Q-Lab and Yamaha sessions with Ben Collins was the most valuable parts of the week. Because Molly Barron (PSE) was spreading herself thin between the Reps and the upcoming Opera, I found myself waiting around most days to get some new orders from her. Most of this week, I knew I could have done the tasks on my own, but I have never done any of this work before. I dont exactly feel confident or compitent to do most of it, which is fine, but I can't help but a feel a little frustrated at myself for not being more helpful to Molly. My biggest concern right now from an operator point of view: is not knowing the exact moments of the Sound Effects cues from both Rep shows in the scripts. The creatives are still treating the scripts as if they're devised/barely there, so we can't pin-point specifics. The sooner we know all the equipment work and the Q-Lab/sfx points in the scripts are somewhat finalised- I can rest a bit more easy.
Week 3: 03/05/2021
03/05/2021
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Bank Holiday Monday
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04/05/2021
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In at 9.00 but all i've done is label up not even half of the comms packs. I just assisted Natayla Scase (PM) in moving two rack items (not sure what they was) to the Silk Street Tech Lab. We cant put any comms in anyway as the production desks aren't set up and we don't know where teams (e.g SM and Costume) will be placed. I do think this is a somewhat bad planning on Production Managements part- especially as their work affects us a lot of the time both in getting tasks done and the general scheduling. Molly Barron (PSE) showed me how to set a number on the corresponding cue light by clicking the light the required amount of times. It should flash back that same sequence to show it is that number (e.g 6 presses = 6 flashes of light)
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Focused the speakers in the rig at 17.00 with Sound Desginers present. We moved the back two speakers even further back to sit on the scaff on the wall. Moved them to SCB 3-208, input 1 and 2.
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Most of day, I have been focusing on starting my Grad project.
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05/05/2021
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World of Work at 11.00: Research for Grad Project
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Came in at 2pm, we originally wanted to get the subs in but Molly Barron (PSE) decided that might be best to do either Friday or next week as the set still isn't in properly and LX are still plotting. We wanted to start on Comms, but there are still no production desks up and we don't understand why. Natalya Scase (PM) has neglected this job, therefore has put us in an awkward position. I can forsee us having to come in at 7-8am on Monday to do this before Tech begins which isn't ideal.
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we looked downstairs for the IEM and managed to. find it. However we dont have the right adapter for the plug so that is TBC. We went up to costume on Level 4 and tested the IEM in the different pockets of the Police Vests with the mini rig.
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Apart from this, we still can't set anything up etc. I believe we are now deciding to set up the desk files on Friday in our sound time with Ben Collins (Sound Staff) and the Sound Designers as they are available. Furthermore, Molly Barron (PSE) cannot double check all speaker plug-in points in the grid because of the LX sessions happening in the meantime- to then patch the desk properly.
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It has been a rather dissapointing week so far for the sound department. I just hope we can be ready and organised before we leave friday afternoon- ready for tech Monday morning.
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06/05/2021
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9.30: Chat with Andy Taylor (Head of TT Pathway) about options for third year.
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Focused on my grad most of the day. I wasn't needed in Guildhall today.
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07/05/2021
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Went to power up the desk with Molly Barron (PSE)
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13.00-14.00: Sound session. India Mason-Mills (SD) audtioned her sounds to Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (Director)
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Myself and India sourced many sound effects for any changes/decisions made by Tristan in the previous sound session for the next session at 17.00
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17.00-18.00: More sound auditioning
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Gone Too Far Set:
Reflection of the Week:
This week has been has been slow once again, I think specifically more for me in my role as operator. I have been mostly shadowing Molly Barron (PSE) in her role this week as I haven't really had much to do. I can't really add much to the script until we start tech, as that is very much subject to change, so its best to wait. In reality, we probably wont be doing comms now until Monday, I don't think Nat will put desks in until the very last moment it seems so it will be whenever they are definitely needed. I did enjoy the sound auditioning sessions and listening to how inspired Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (Director) got. As well as assisting India Mason-Mills (SD) to source more sound effects. It is an odd situation considering how my role technially wouldn't start till tech (with fit-up permitting), so this past three weeks have been a filler leading up to next week on Tuesday. I am anxious to start my role but with the help of the other sound members and Stage Management, we should be able to pull through tech just fine.
Week 4: 10/05/2021
10/05/2021 ​
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Watched the 'Gone Too Far!' run through on Zoom, starting at 10.30. I can now see Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu's (Director) vision a lot clearer for what he was describing in our sound sessions; including the kick of the door Centre Stage, the rapping intervals and the more humourous moments of the play- at least from a sound perspective.
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Went to Silk Street with a trolley and got 5x Mic Stands, 1 Battery Charging Station and a box of batteries. Put the Mic stands under the seating bank, and put the battery charging station and batteries in the control box for now.
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Plugged the Rio FOH using Cat-5 from the Rio into a nearby SCB 3-003 socket House Right, that then plugs from the corresponding SCB patch into the Dante Network Primary Switcher. Made sure we was getting a Dante input into the desk by checking I/O Device on the Yamaha. Making sure it is not in virtual for both Dante and the Mac Mini.
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Plugged up the AV House Left, Centre and House Right Mics into the Rio.
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Went around the four corners of the space including the Lighting desk and checked that the cue lights are working using the DSM desk.
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Anya Urban (Sound Designer) was here for 5pm. Set up screen share and she went through her Q-Lab files and levelled it in the space.
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Went up to the grid with two hex-clamps and secured the microphones Ben Collins (Sound Staff) and Andy Taylor (TT Lecturer) plugged up for the feed mix.
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Took a look at the IEM's that have arrived.
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11/05/2021 ​
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Printed off the new version of the Mr Burns Script
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Went front of house to do Rig-Check with Anya, making sure each speaker was working.
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Checked that my comms pack worked with Sam Liquorish (DSM)
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Went through Anyas Q-Lab file put in the cues that she has in so far in pencil- all subject to change throughout the tech period.
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Begun Tech. In the first session, we didn't manage to get past the first cue both because desgin elements were changing (Sound and Lighting) for the opening and because the dante network switch went down, so my cues weren't firing.
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Before dinner, we did manage to get to Act 2 which is great. I think the main hold-ups are transitions and from what I heard- Act 3 has a lot going in, in terms of technical departments, so Chelsea Walker (Director) is a bit concerned at the pace we are moving.
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Personally, I think its gone well so far (even though it has been a bit slow), the show looks and sounds great and because of that, I feel like even if we are late in finishing the tech period, we have some great content so far.
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In the evening, I sat down with Anya Urban (Sound Designer) during the Notes session and watched her make changes whilst Chelsea Walker (Director) told her what she wanted. Just being around for the conversations being had was really insightful. An example of this would be Anya making the whispers in the blackout build-up at the start of the show- more frequent. Chelsea didnt like that there were gaps in between getting the names said. So instead of changing all the pre-waits to be shorter, Anya went into Logic and moved all the individual recordings closer together.
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12/05/2021
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World of Work at 11.00- Taxes as a Freelancer.
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Begun pre-rig at 13.30, ready for the second tech session of Mr Burns at 2.00. Turned on the Amps in the dinner room first then went out into the space and listened to the sound from each speaker. Anya Urban (Sound Designer) created a Pre-Rig cue in Q-Lab for this, made sure it was in red so it is separate from everything else.
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In tech I also occaisonally check the AV sound feed on my desk to make sure everything is still sounding consistant.
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Anya Urban (Sound Designer) had to move up to the sound booth as the ethernet cable wasn't ensuring instant and reliable screen share connection. Ben Collins (Sound Staff) gave me a brand new ethernet cable- but this both wasn't long enough for Anya to stay by her comms or solve the screen sharing issue.
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In the end, I got some comms cable and put Anya into ring A+D with me and is next to me in the control room. So if there are Sound Design changes, Anya has my computer, but she can talk to Chelsea easier. Main issue is that she is not in the space, but being perched by the booth window will have to suffice for now.
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We only managed to get to the beginning of Act 3 of Mr Burns today, but all went very well for the sound department as a whole. I am confident we will get a show by the time we begin our first Dress session tomorrow evening (if all departments run smoothly).
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13/05/2021
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Ran through Tech 5 & 6 of Mr Burns, then did our first Dress Rehearsal in the evening session.
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When I came in, I made sure that the IEM has some new batteries as Anya Urban (Sound Designer) accidentally left it on the night before.
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We just about managed to get though the whole show before we begun our dress run luckily. Most of the stopping was related to lighting and not the sound department which is great for us. I went through my script and solidified the pencil cues into place that I now for definite are staying in.
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As Anya was staying, I left her to power down.
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14/05/2021
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Turnaround from Mr Burns to Gone Too Far.
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Set up wireless mics- put in new batteries and connected them to the transmitters.
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Also put new batteries in the IEMs and made sure they work and are full battery.
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Set up desk- show file and making sure everything is patched correctly
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Made sure everything talked- Rio, Mac Mini and OSC (lighting & sound cue)
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Turned on D6 amps from upstairs
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I plugged up SM58s to the xlr from the audio tie lines in the grid
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Sound checked and levelled the wireless and wired mics
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Went out and completed rig check- speakers, Mini Rig, wired and wireless microphones.
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Me and India Mason-Mills (Sound Designer) added in EQ on the wired mic for Welcome to endz section
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Tech began at 2pm.
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​We managed to get all the way to Scene 4 before 9pm. I am now in a better position so I can see the stage and pre-empt turning up the faders for the microphone sections.
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Powered down amps and took out batteries from the microphones. Had to leave at 9 to catch my train. I will need to find a way to do my post-show powering down before 9- might have to work through the notes sessions.
Reflection of the Week:
This week has been very full on, like I anticipated. Luckily for the sound department, both shows aren't too entirely demanding. Even 'Gone Too Far' having microphones wasn't too overwhelming in the end, but I think that is because every other department was rather late. We did lack sound staff in the morning of the 'Gone Too Far' turnaround and we had to pull through as much as we could before then. For 'Mr Burns', it isn't sound heavy at all which was anticipated too, because of this, I do prefer 'Gone Too Far' from a sound point of view- its more well rounded, due to the microphones, visual cues on my part and just more sound effects to fire in general. I have been enjoying my role as sound operator, I do still feel hopeless sometimes in not being able to fully help other departments- sound design and engineering. At the same time, its a good role to ease into for my first sound allocation. In the future, I would love the opportunity to mix/operate a more mic heavy show like a large drama or musical. I feel like I have learnt so much about a sound designers role by observing through screen share and the conversations between director and designer. And I can really see the importance of understanding Q-Lab thoroughly in this role.
Week 5: 17/05/2021
17/05/2021
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Added batteries to the wireless microphones and IEMs.
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Tested all microphones and rig-checked the speakers. I am reminding myself to write up a power-up and power-down checklist for each day.
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Me and Ben Collins (Sound Staff) tidied the longest XLR from the audio tie line in the grid by pulling up the excess. I retaped the wires back together and make sure they were taped to the floor for safety.
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I put in three hooks to the back of the biggest monolith next to the ladder to hang the microphone coils on but the hooks were too small.
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Tech 2 and 4 of 'Gone Too Far'. We started on Scene 4 and got all the way to Scene 11 which is amazing.
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Molly Barron (PSE) brought over the Campfire Mini-Rig from over the road as we may need it for the sound coming from Ikudayisis earphones in the earlier scenes.
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I powered down everything during the the notes session- as I mainly don't need to be present for it. This included taking out and recharging all of the batteries from the wireless microphones and IEMs. Storing the show file on the desk and saving it to both mine and India Mason-Mills (Sound Designer) USB sticks. As well as bundling the Q-Lab to Indias memory stick as well. Once this is done, I turn the Amps off first, then the Rio, then QL5.
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18/05/2021
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Began the day by firing up the Rio, QL5 and Amps. Making sure nothing is showing up as virtual on the desk, and that everything is talking. Put batteries into the wireless microphones and IEMs. Plugged the IEMS into the two mini rigs (Police Radio and bedroom speaker) and made sure they worked- however the bedroom speaker wasn't connecting to the desk properly, so that was something to solve. I relabelled all of the mics, including the wired one to be neater, and less obvious. 1- Hassan, 2- Tara, 3- Justice (Wired) and then Flamer (Levi) and Yemi (Sheyi) on wireless.
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Went and successfully completed Rig-Check. Will write a power-up, power-down document today.
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I had a conversation with Chloe Jones (DSM) and Eilidh Mackenzie (SM) about the positions during the cipher. Apparently Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (Director) is open to where they stand. So I have requested that Sheyi and Levi are mainly SL/HR as they are wireless and for Hassan, Tara and Justice to be SR/HL as they will be on the SR Wired Microphones.
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Discovered that the Police radio belongs in Grace's jacket- not Sam's. So I changed that around and notified costume about it.
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I relabelled the wired mics with the actors names on it so that they pick up the correct ones for the Cypher. I then notified the actors of this, however we soon discovered that two of the XLRs weren't long enough, so Ben Collins (Sound Staff) quickly got another xlr cable to extend one and then he went up into the grid and lowered some more excess off of the other one. Meanwhile, I explained to the company that they cannot share their microphones. Both for Covid reasons and for the fact that each person is programmed into the faders on the desk. I must say some of the actors needed a better attitude about this and immediately when I told them they can't pass mics, they passed thier mics.
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Tried to find a solution to clear up the XLR cables SR behind the large monolith but didnt find any practical solutions. Need to note down that I have to tidy up those wires either as a post-show check or as a pre-show check.
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Dress 1. Notes that didn't go to plan from my end: I accidentally hit the space bar too early in the transition scene after the 'Welcome to Endz' section. The Armarni and Paris fight is just something to get used to as it is very visual for the sound cues. The police radio in scene 7 was far too quiet. The whole fight dragon section between scene 10 to scene 11 needs to be looked at as levels aren't right and the timing is still off quite a bit. Lastly, the actors picked up the wrong microphones for the Cipher. Justice's had Taras and vice versa. Me and Molly Barron (PSE) came up with a solution to put different coloured glow tape on them so its clearer. Will notify actors of this change before our next dress.
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19/05/2021
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Came in at 1pm and Finished off Sound Checks Document.
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Set has been turnaround back to 'Mr Burns'.
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Came in at 1 for Pre-Rig Checks. Soon discovered that both myself, Anya Urban (Sound Designer) and Molly Barron (PSE) didn't save the show file on the desk. So whilst Ben Collins (Sound Staff) quickly created one from scratch, I began my Pre-Show RIg check (See document to the side).
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Started with Act 1, then staggered through Act 2. So far, only the fire sound effect needed to be changed. Revisited Act 1 after Tea Break and continued to tech.
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After dinner we met at 6 and practiced all of our roles in the interval turnaround from Act 2 to Act 3. I put the two rakes and skateboard on the trolley, help Georgie bring in the largest rail DS Centre, and laying it down with the top rail facing the seating bank. I then go up to the grid and page in the tie lines for the tubular bells. We continued to re-tech Act 3, doing a dress run till 9pm.
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20/05/2021
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Came in for 9 to start Rig-Check. I turned on the Rio, desk and amps. I loaded the show file from my USB on the desk, everything seemed fine. Me and Anya Urban was about to do Rig-Check when a piano tuner came in. We then couldn't make any noise because of this- PM completely neglected to tell anyone about this, it was not on the schedule. So the director became agitated and we couldn't do anything about this as rig-check should have been completed by this point. We managed to quickly rig check in a small break when SM were working (luckily the section they were looking at beforehand didn't require sound).
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Re-teched Act 3 further- mainly lighting changes to be made appropriate for stream. Only sound note for us was that Chelsea didn't like the 'fire' sound that Anya had. So over lunch, Anya. sourced a new one and I stood with the Mini-rig centre stage to show Chelsea. This was approved.
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Show 1 of Mr Burns at 19.30- everything went really well from a sound point of view. Main note for the next show is to make the campfire a bit louder as Anya couldn't hear it on the stream.
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21/05/2021
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Turnaround from 'Mr Burns' to 'Gone Too Far!'. I did my rig check all by myself in the morning and couldn't put the wired microphones in until the GTF set was in for me to bring the cables down from the grid.
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GTF Notes: there wasn't many notes for sound in particular, mainly lighting. However there was rather bad tension between all departments and this was mainly caused by the fact that Tristan wanting to keep adding more and more in that we can't facilitate, especially as our first show is tomorrow.
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GTF Dress 2: Began dress at messed up the first cue- this was because I closed up all my groups on Q-Lab to clean up the view. However cue number 1 was hidden in a group so I clicked the 'ship horn' cue thinking it was cue 1 but the previous cue kept playing and eventually the ship horn played twice. The levels for the sypher was wrong I also cued the
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22/05/2021
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Rig check at 11. Got music ready for the actors physical warm-up at 12.25, however this didn't happen until 12.45/13.00 as the floor was painted not too long ago, so the actors couldn't come into the space the time intended.
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Eilidhs comm cable was missing, so I contacted Molly Barron (PSE) to solve this. Whilst I was negotiating to have a short moment with the actors in the space to sing their lines for the sypher as the mic labelling is still wrong.
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I managed to strike as much comm cable, headsets and comm packs that I could as both shows are no longer in the dress period. I put it all back into the comm flightcase on the level 1 dock.
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Show 1 at 14.00: I hit one cue to end too late and in the sypher, the VU levels keep going wrong on the same two people using the wired mics. Luckily, I quickly figured out who it was singing and it weren't a noticable issue even if I miss Justices lines a little at the beginning.
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Levi (actor/'Flamer') notified me that his wireless mic in his carnival section went off for a short period of time. I never noticed that and appearently he could be heard fine on the stream. I turned him down as he was screaming into it so he might not have heard himself on the PA that well as we don't have fold back/in-ears. I reckon this must be the case but amused him by saying I'll look into it.
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I went through the mics again with Greg from PV and re-labelled the mic channels on the desk once more and saved it.
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Show 2 at 19.30: Everything went perfectly this time around. I hit every cue right and the microphone levels were perfect for each mic section. Finally the right mic was coming through the desk and apparently it sounded great and well balanced. A really good way to close opening night.
Sound Checks/Plot
'Gone Too Far' Set.
Sound Practicals for GTF
What I should see on the desk
Microphone cable management
Glow Tape on Mics
Bedroom IEM and Mini-Rig Placement
IEM and Mini-Rig placement in Police Jacket
Faders for AV at 0
Script example
Testing the Islamic Prayer using the Bedroom Mini-Rig instead:
Mr Burns Act 1 Tech
Reflection of the Week:
Similar to the week before it has been very busy, however it has mostly been refining and perfecting from the tech/dress sessions. All in all Mr Burns has gone a lot more smoothly for sound which is to be expected as there is only one mini-rig for the first act then the rest is just 'GO's on Q-Lab. Exhaustion has really set in for me this week, even though I am now staying at a close friends. When the AV sound feed weren't working this topped off my anxiety/stress/exhaustion and I had a private breakdown. But I need it to then move on with everything else, I also learnt how important show files/ doing the correct rig-check the hard way. The microphone situation has been the most challenging mainly just getting the levels right. One big complaint that I will be making sure is in the post production meeting is that Sound is in the control room, whereas lighting is FOH. This is so backwards, as ideally, lighting should be next to the DSM and sound should be in the space to hear properly. I can barely get a sense of what something sounds like in the control room and this causing ongoing issues. For the sypher I have to take my comms off but even then I can't hear all that well, that is why Molly Barron (PSE) has to join me and stand by the window to tell me if it sounds alright. Its not okay and I will be bringing this up. In the end, we have had great shows this week despite some tech/dress runs which is the main thing.
Week 6: 24/05/2021
24/05/2021
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Rig-check begun at 12.00 ready for the physical warm up and matinee at 2.00 pm. Need to double check that I have uploaded the most up-to-date show file of Mr Burns onto the QL5. And even test the AV feed with sound to make sure it all working.
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Put in new batteries in the IEM at the half and placed it into the campfire. It keeps making interferance however next to the lighting equipment. I have adjusted it twice before the show went up and hoped for the best. I notified those on comms to let me know if it starts making noise and i'll turn it down (even though I'm not sure it would make a difference).
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Show began. The first cue (0.5- Blackout) lagged, fired late and because I hit the spacebar twice it went straight to 0.6 which was a stop. Then the cue after that for the scene change (Cue 1.5) lagged as well and started late. I made sure I only pressed the space bar once this time. I messaged Ben Collins (Sound Staff) about this and he said if the WiFi is on on the Mac Mini, it can do this. My WiFi was on, so I turned it off but everything continued to lag after that. The problem seems to be related to there being a long pause between each cue, Ben came in at the interval and said to press the 'L' button on the next cue to make sure it is loaded so it should definately fire. I also plan to restart the Mac Mini before the evening show as well.
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Also, I couldn't hear the feed through the headphones connected to the Scarlett. I wanted to know how loud the campfire was as Anya Urban (Sound Designer) said that she couldn't hear it on the stream last time. Victor from PV was next to me and I asked him about it. He found it plugged into Mix11 and 12. The faders were down, so he moved it the same output as AV ML and AV MR and I can now hear it. Problem is though- I remember the sound designers mixing the levels of the space for the stream to listen to- so maybe its meant to stay on those outputs. But the faders are down? Will need to ask Ben Collins (Sound Staff) or Molly Barron (PSE) about this.
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Ben reckons from the amount of changes, I wouldn't give it an accurate representation of the feed anyway through the headphones.
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Earlier, Sam didn't call a 0.6 cue to stop the name build up in the beginning and when I asked she doesn't think there is one. So when I played 0.5 before dinner, the name build up kept going and didn't stop so I thought I might have to put a pre-wait in of 5 seconds and put on an auto follow. However when sam looked at her book there was in fact a 0.6 and she just couldn't remember it.
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The Mac Mini was coming up as Virtual on the QL5 just before rig-check and even when refreshing it wasn't connecting. Molly Barron (PSE) came to troubleshoot and we restarted the mac mini and the desk. Finally it stopped being virtual.
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Show at 19.30. The first cue lagged again (even though I loaded it) when I hit go but I let it run this time instead of panicking, it wasn't noticable. I tried loading the next cue nearer the time of pressing 'go' and it went immediately. I am just curious as to why this is happening now. Overall, the show went very well and there were no notes for sound in the show report at all.
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25/05/2021
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Rig-Check at 17.15-17.45.
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Final show of Mr Burns at 19.30. Everything went really well, even though Q-Lab still showed signs of lagging.
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26/05/2021
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Came in for 1 to help the turnaround/get-in/rig-check from Mr Burns to Gone too Far! Checked the speakers, wired microphones and the OSC Cues with Rosie.
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My Mini-Rig was making sharp and loud interference everytime I brought up the volume of the IEM. Rosie pointed out that one of the leads outside the window hit against the on/off button of one of the transmitters. Luckily this was the simple reason for this- I turned it back on and it worked perfectly.
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My biggest concern coming into this turnaround was the AV side of things, as when I left GTF! I had to bring up and down six faders for AV instead of Left and Right. So I called up the AV department using the phone and tested this out again (as Mr Burns on requires the two faders). The issue was still the same, so it was an issue with the show file. Izzy from AV came over within 20 mins and had a look at the desk for me. For a while she couldn't see what was causing it but somehow after some tweaking, she managed to get the AV volumes through just by using the two faders.
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Furthemore, I noticed something odd when I am on scene 002 (Cypher). The four AV channels (AV ML, AV MR and the two AV FX) were to -INF. I flagged this up when Izzy was with me and she thought that was odd, so she set them back up to around the 0 mark. I then realised that if I was moving these 4 faders to bring the down the levels at the end of the last show- and stored it- I did this and not some sound demon in the middle of the night. Thank god I noticed this before the show.
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27/05/2021
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Final show of Gone Too Far! Came in for Rig-Check at 5.30.
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28/05/2021
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Strike day for The Reps. Came in at 8.30 and began stripping the comms cables in the control room as well as the cables by the Rio box- taking up the matting and coiling all the XLRs.
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Ripped up the tape holding down the microphone wires upstage right and put them to one side ready to be paged back up into the grid
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Toolbox talk
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Continued collecting comms cabels, cue light cable, cue lights, comm packs and headsets, making sure to take the labels off. I discovered that the Projects group are using the comms flight case as a base for their projector to sit on. So we made an arrangement that they would put everything away for me as part of their strike.
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Began unplugging the subs underneath the seating banks and put the speakon into the control room.
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Had an interview with an external examiner.
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Had a counselling session at 12.
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Resumed work after lunch- the grid was done from our end. All was left to do was to put the sub speakers back in, run some various video cable and XLR back to Silk Street. As well as microphones, the mac-mini and a monitor. Once I gave the rechargable batteries to Maisie Roberts (to then give to Josh Collins) I was done for the day.
Campfire IEM Placement
Final Wired Microphone Placement
Mr Burns Crew Photo
Gone too Far Cast and Crew Photo
Reflection of the Week:
This week was a lot more relaxed than all of the other weeks leading up to it. I suppose this is because it is show week and we aren't needed in till much later on in the day. I wish I could say it was a flawless week for me as a sound operator but unfortunately at the last minute, the mac mini was causing the Q Lab audio to pause briefly every now and again. An issue that wasn't a straight forward fix, however it wasn't an issue that was big enough to take away from the performance, or to stop the show. Most of the time, no one even noticed, so I was lucky on that side of things. My microphone sections of Gone Too Far! Especially during the Cypher was now really consistent and clean, and even Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (GTF Director) complimented me on both the opening and closing nights. Upon reflection I feel really blessed to have been put on both Reps as they are so different from each other. Especially Gone Too Far as it had each element of Q-Lab, IEM and Microphones, as well as it being one of the best dramas I have seen at Guildhall so far.
References
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Dbaudio.com. 2021. D6 amplifier. [online] Available at: <https://www.dbaudio.com/global/en/products/amplifiers/d6/> [Accessed 30 May 2021].
Dbaudio.com. 2021. E8 loudspeaker from our E-Series | d&b audiotechnik. [online] Available at: <https://www.dbaudio.com/global/en/products/series/e-series/e8/> [Accessed 30 May 2021].
Gibson, B., n.d. The ultimate live sound operator's handbook. Bill Gibson.
Uk.yamaha.com. 2021. QL Series - Overview - Yamaha - UK and Ireland. [online] Available at: <https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/proaudio/mixers/ql_series/index.html> [Accessed 30 May 2021].