JPJ Audio’s L-Acoustics Kara set up at The Capitol Theatre
In order to get Charlie and The Chocolate Factory up and running at QPAC, Associate Sound Designer Michael Waters had to endure two weeks of quarantine in Caloundra.
“I came prepared; I brought my Strat, a MIDI keyboard and a newly vested interest in Logic; watched Netflix docos I’ve wanted to see for years; bought a spin bike; and I learnt to play songs that have been on my list forever and caught up on new spatial audio technology (obviously without a PA in front me to test!),” he commented on how he spent his time couped up in a hotel room. “I shouldn’t say this, but my windows opened and the food was sensational. I know my compadres want to kill me for many reasons, but this was the icing on the cake!!”
The show has existed for many years and was designed by the US team who came and mounted the show in Sydney in December 2018. An attempt was made to open the show at QPAC in March 2020.
“The tour had been going well since January 2019 so the brief was “make it the same”,” added Michael. “As we had the full creative team from the US originally in Sydney they taught us the show and we were able to faithfully recreate the intended sound design from thereon.”
The show’s sound designer is Andrew Keister and his associate is Brian Hseih. They originally spec’d a different system, but due to availability, JPJ offered an L-Acoustics option which, although initially reluctant, they agreed to.
“However when it came to tuning the system and then subsequent performances, they were blown away,” said Michael. “The show has sounded awesome since we first started at The Capitol Theatre. I can’t divulge the quantities of the speakers, as that’s their proprietary information; but suffice to say there’s two left/right hangs of L-Acoustics Kara for the lower sections and upper sections and a centre downfill, along with an enormous amount of L-Acoustics 108p and 5xt for delay and surrounds systems.”
For control, Andrew likes Meyer Galileos and Compass software and the console is a DiGiCo SD7t. For sound effects, there’s an enormous QLab file that not only takes triggers from the SD7t but also sends triggers to lighting and video.
According to Michael, the Lyric Theatre at QPAC has quite a “bouncy” acoustic nature to it. As such, way back in 2004/2005 whilst doing Dirty Dancing, he asked the house folk if they could conjure up some sort of foam-lined absorber panels.
“So Mark Blacker went to work and those panels, I believe, have been used for nearly every musical since then,” added Michael. “It’s quite a phenomenon that when somebody speaks downstage centre unamplified and the listener is sitting dead centre in around rows E to J, the unamplified voice pings around your head. Amplification only exacerbates the situation. Interestingly, performers love the space because the acoustics give so much back to them vocally. We also give them quite a bit of vocal foldback too.”
An enormous amount of L-Acoustics 108p and 5xt were used for delay and surrounds systems.
Photo from The Capitol Theatre
For microphones, the cast wears the Sennheiser MKE 2 which was spec’d by Andrew Keister. A couple of lead characters, Mr Beauregard, and Violet Beauregard (on occasion) wear dpa 4066. The pit is full of condenser mics, across just about everything.
When asked what he is ‘supposed’ to be working on next, Michael says that he has a better chance at winning the lotto than answering the question.
“At this stage, it’s Jagged Little Pill as Associate Sound Designer, 9 to 5 and Cinderella as Sound Designer,” he revealed. “Given that this year has felt more unsettled than last year, I have no idea how theatre will work out in the Covid world. At least last year we completely shut down and had zero work. This time around it’s start, stop, start, stop, rinse and repeat. Despite the vax numbers increasing, who knows what Covid variants lay around the corner? As our industry is the first to suffer any sneeze, it’s hard to predict anything solid for us folk. I’m not a pessimist, but a realist.”
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory wrapped up its QPAC run last Saturday and will open in Perth on November 3rd. Michael has stayed in Queensland during the entire run to ensure he can get to WA.
