Uptown Automation Modified For Live Use With Broadway's 42nd Street Production

Sound Designer Peter Fitzgerald is using ATI's www.apiaudio.com Uptown Automation with the two consoles required for the current run of "42nd Street", appearing at New York's Ford Center for the Performing Arts.

The production includes a cast of 50, a live orchestra, and dozens of stage effects, with Fitzgerald and his company, Sound Associates, providing the sound design and system. A significant number of inputs were needed to accommodate all of the play's singers, musicians, effects, and dancers.

Left to right: Peter Fitzgerald, sound designer; Mike Krauss, Uptown specialist; and Valerie Spradling, production sound engineer

Fitzgerald opted to use two consoles: a 68-input Cadac www.cadac-sound.com/ J-Type for all of the singers and tappers on stage, and a 40-input Midas XL3 for all of the musicians in the orchestra pit. By keeping the two sources distinct, edits to one or the other mix during either stage or musical rehearsal remained transparent. Sound Associates retrofitted each console with Uptown Automation's moving fader and mute system. (Uptown is a division of the ATI Group). Fitzgerald dedicated a primary and a backup Hewlett Packard computer to each console to run the

Uptown MIX live performance software, a variant of Uptown's studio software for live/theatrical use. For cues, Production Sound Engineer Valerie Spradling uses a remote box to step through the scene cues to trigger both computers simultaneously so that everything runs in synch.

"Uptown incorporates all of the features demanded in a theatrical environment," commented Fitzgerald. "Most importantly, Uptown supports intuitive moving fader operation, where most manufacturers merely supply 'snapshot' automation. With snapshot automation, you're forced to play games with crossfade times to achieve any dynamic mixing. With Uptown, I have seamless dynamic mixing available all the time, and updating during rehearsals is a snap. Further, I can easily manipulate the timecode to track any changes that occur as the play unfolds. I prefer Uptown Automation hands down over any other moving fader system."

42nd Street uses over two hundred moving fader cues, each of which is triggered by an operator at the appropriate moment during the play. The Uptown Automation software also triggers MIDI events in a separate, easy to use window. Fitzgerald configured MIDI to trigger automation in an auxiliary Soundcraft Spirit console, to change reverb presets, and to trigger sound effect samples.

In addition to designing sound for theater, Sound Associates rents audio equipment, and an ever-growing legion of customers are demanding Uptown Automation. "We have a lot of these systems," remarked Fitzgerald. "We've retrofitted Uptown Automation into four Midas consoles, three Cadac consoles, and numerous Crest GTX boards to keep up with customer demand."