This winter, the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre performed 20 shows of Leslie Bricusse’s Scrooge, a musical based on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Staged at the Hong Kong City Hall’s 463-seat proscenium theatre, the presentation marked the christening of HKRep’s new Meyer Sound system.
“Space is very limited, so the speaker system has to be as small as possible, yet able to deliver exceptional sound pressure levels,” says Sound Designer Yuen Cheuk-wa. “There are bangs, thunder, explosions, tornados, and low drones, which demand a lot of headroom and low-frequency extension.”
Using Meyer Sound’s MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program, Yuen designed a system featuring two UPA-2P, four UPJunior VariO , and six MM-4XP miniature loudspeakers, in addition to four UMS-1P subwoofers. A Galileo loudspeaker management system with Compass control software was used for system drive and processing.
Meyer Sound’s Matrix3 audio show control allowed Yuen to create a sound design that immersed audiences in a haunting ambience for ghost Jacob Marley, and captivating gestural effects for the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Wild Tracks hard-disk playback was used for all of the show’s music multitracks, along with a CueMixer serving as a control surface for the sound effects operator.
“Scrooge covers a wide range of dynamics, from tender ballads to powerful thunder cracks,” Yuen says. “The director wanted to make the show sound present and natural, without sounding excessively loud. Meyer loudspeakers have a consistent tonal quality necessary to create the highly accurate coverage patterns we needed. The seams between coverage of each cabinet are essentially unnoticeable. The UMS-1Ps spaced along the forestage sounded powerful but are not seen. Even the producer asked where the subs were when he came to the dress rehearsal!”
Front of House mixing was handled by Kee ‘ah B’ King-yin, Audio Engineer at HKRep, with show programming by Lee Hoi-fai. Cheung King-ching, student intern from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, provided assistance.
