SR/Live Sat, October 11, 2008

GREASE
You’re the One that I Want! was a TV reality series (patterned after a BBC show, of course) whose winners, Laura Osnes and Max Crumm, won lead roles in the Broadway revival of the musical that just opened. The Brooks Atkinson Theater on 47th Street, past the Hotel Edison, is a smaller 1,100-seat theater with a short four-row mezzanine and an eight-row balcony. Grease sound designer Brian Ronan struck gold with last year’s Grey Gardens, Spring Awakening, and this spring’s Curtains. We met production mixer Mike Farfalla at a matinee and were given a tour of the system.

The main system is a dominated by a 12-box Meyer M’elodie center cluster, aided by HP600 dual-15 subwoofers, with a pair of CQ-2s firing down to help cover the orchestra level. Instead of an orchestra pit, the band plays on an upstage platform over the stage and plays through two single left-and-right M’elodies on its front edge to which band information in the rest of the system is timed. Dual-mono six-box leftand- right Meyer M1D arrays on a FOH truss cover the balcony. The front fills and under-balcony fills are EAW JF-80s, and halfway back, under the mezzanine are a half-dozen tiny d&b audiotechnik E0 speakers that Farfalla calls “producer speakers.” In front of the stage lip are four compact Meyer UMS-1P subs. JF-80s are also used to cover the opera boxes. On the orchestra level another pair of d&b E0s cover the widest seats. Two pairs of Meyer CQ-1s are used at the traditional proscenium edge position, one high for the mezzanine, and another lower down for the orchestra level.

Farfalla mixes on a dual-engine Yamaha PM-1D in mirror-mode. Sound effects play from Christopher Ashworth’s Mac-based QLab (the basic program is a free download) which uses a pair of MOTU USB 828mkII interfaces for output, and QLab drives the show via MIDI. Four custom MIDI show-control buttons were installed on the PM-1D’s wrist rest.

In addition to a pair of Meyer Gallileo processors, outboard processing includes a TC Electronic M6000 which convincingly recreates the high-school gym’s acoustics at the prom, and a TC Electronic EQ Station for the principal actors. Digital I/O is used wherever possible and an Apogee Big Ben keeps it all ticking in time. A half-dozen Aphex 1788a remote-controllable mic-pres are used for the band inputs, and their auxiliary outputs feed a PM-5D in the “rackroom” under the stage fitted with Aviom cards to feed a dozen A-16II personal mixers for the band’s headphone, Anchor AN1000 and Galaxy MicroSpot mixes.

TJ McEvoy assists on deck with Sennheiser SK5212 compact wireless transmitters that rely mostly on MKE-2 Gold microphones, though a few DPA 4061s are used where there are “sweat issues.” Farfalla points out that the two are nearly indistinguishable sonically. Up on the band platform, the drums are mic’ed with an Audio- Technica AE 2500 dual-element kick microphone, a Shure SM-57 on snare, Sennheiser e604 on toms and the new MKH 8040s for overheads. Neumann KM184s are used for hi-hats and percussion, and a U89 is used to mic the upright bass, Avalon Tube DIs are used for both the upright and electric bass. The piano is mic’ed with a Crown PCC 160 on the lows and an AKG C-414. Down in the rack room there’s a pair of Fender Blues Jr. amps in isolation boxes, mic’ed with Sennheiser e609 microphones and using Radial Engineering SGI Studio Guitar Interface systems to make the trip downstairs. A Shure SM-55 makes a convincing appearance as the announce microphone at the sock hop.

LEGALLY BLONDE
ACME Sound Partner Tom Clark designed the sound for Legally Blonde. Clark, along with partners Nevin Steinberg and Mark Menard, followed 2005’s Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels, Light in the Piazza and Spamalot with 2006’s The Drowsy Chaperone, A Chorus Line and How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The day I stopped by, Clark and production mixer Bob Biasetti were meeting with Dave Hewitt about using Remote Recording’s new compact digital truck to record Legally Blonde for an unprecedented free play on MTV (where there are a few Elle Woods fans) in early October.

The Palace Theatre, on 7th Avenue at 47th street, is in the heart of Times Square and for years was the flagship of RKO’s Orpheum chain. The 1,750-seat theater has a deep 16-row mezzanine with an 8-row balcony above.

The main system consists of 4 fivebox Meyer MICA arrays at the stage’s edge, the lower arrays for the orchestra level and a higher set above for the mezzanine, each array supported by an HP600 subwoofer. There is also a 12- box L’Acoustics dV-DOSC center cluster, flanked by two pairs of Meyer MSL- 2 for band fill, with the upper pair aimed at the balcony and the lower covering the orchestra. Three dozen compact d&b audiotechnik E3s are employed as front-fills, under-balcony speakers and fills for the opera boxes and side areas shadowed from the mains. The mezzanine is deep enough that a second row of E3s are installed halfway back. EAW JF-80s and JF-60s are used for off-stage fold-back, and the surround system employs three dozen evenly-spread EAW UB-12 passive speakers. The system was aligned and EQ’ed by ACME partner Mark Menard using XTA DP-226 processors and a Meyer SIM III system. 

This is Biasetti’s second show on a DiGiCo D5T digital console, after mixing Scoundrels on it for almost two years. Outboard gear consists of three TC Electronic M3000 effects assigned to guitar, strings, principals and ensemble, while a TC Electronic Finalizer is used on the band subgroup. A Valvotronics Gain Ryder 3 is used on all vocals as a “peak stop” more than anything else. Several sound effects and a cute pre-show announcement play from a PC running Stage Research’s SFX Pro Audio Show Control software.

The show uses 36 channels of Sennheiser EM-3532 receivers and SK- 5212 compact bodypacks, with DPA 4061 microphones. Clark adds that ACME believes the 4061 is both more natural sounding and more sweatresistant than the MKE-2. The drums are mic’ed with an EV RE-20 on kick, a Shure SM-57 on snare, a Neumann KM-100 on hi-hats, Senheiser MD-421s on toms, and a pair of Neumann KM184s for overheads, as well as for bells, marimba and xylophone. KM184s were also used for the high reeds, DPA 4006 omnis are employed for the brass and upright bass, and DPA 4061s with string kits are on two violins and a cello. Neumann U89s are used for the low reed, and well as for tympani and vibes. Two Mesa Boogie Express combos are mic’ed with Shure SM-57s, AKG C-451s are used on acoustic guitars, and BSS AR-133 DIs are used for mandolin, upright bass and keyboards, while an Aguilar DB900 tube DI is used on electric bass.