Norwest Productions has supplied audio production and support for the annual outdoor Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour for many years, allowing them to become familiar with all the intricacies of the site and job, which provides a welcome backup for any sound engineer. This year, Jim Atkins was excited to land the position of Sound Designer for the production of Guys and Dolls. Having attended several previous HOSH shows, he observed what works well and what does not in the audio world.
“Foldback doesn’t work well there, so I insisted everyone was on IEMs, which worked fine,” he said. “The other thing was I wanted two speaker systems, one for the band and one for the vocals, so I could separate those out. I also tried to lift the band acoustically to give the impression that they were floating in the air. Then I wanted to keep the sense of vocals coming from the stage as much as possible so that people weren’t hearing voices, you know, on the opposite side of where they appeared visually.”
Atkins notes that the gig is 80% waterproofing and 20% audio. Whilst the rain was not too bad during the performances compared to other years, it would rain overnight, so there were lots of tarps and plastic coverings to set up.
With six speakers for the orchestra (four hangs and two ground stacks), six for vocals (four ground stacks and two frontfill), and a wide audience seating area, Atkins’ job was not easy. However, he says separating the band and orchestra meant it was easier to focus on just one if the balance was not quite right.
Like the lighting, the permanent structure that goes deep into the ocean bed dictates the positioning of the L-Acoustics PA system. To open up more possibilities, Atkins added a cross piece of truss towards the middle of the ‘goal post’, allowing the six-box hang of K2 on either side.
“The K2s carry the body of sound, and then the inner hangs covered the rest of it, except for that very centre section right in front of the tower, which had some Arcs on stage to fill in some clarity,” Atkins explained. “Two box-hangs of KIVA just under the stage and then more K2 on the side of the stage, ground stacked, covered vocals.”
Atkins ran a DiGiCo Quantum 338 with Pulse for control with two Bricasti M7 and a TC 6000. Anthony Lorenze was the show mixer at FOH, and Matt Papdi ran monitors on a DiGiCo SD7.
Atkins soon discovered that hearing the mix from within the mix tower was impossible, so he had to constantly stick his head out to listen to enough of the PA to make any mixing decisions!
Fortunately, Atkins could do most of the programming in the rehearsal space with people wearing their mics and IEMs. The leads had Shure PSM1000 IEMs with the female and male chorus on Sennheiser 2050-GW. Atkins realised that the more you can prep and be organised before you get to the site, the better. The whole show runs on snapshots, so he had a score reader to push the go button, and QLab triggered the snapshots onto both the DiGiCos.
The chorus utilised DPA 4066 microphones, while the leads were double-mic’d with DPA 4066s and DPA 4061s. Violins and cellos had DPA 4099s, and the double bass had a pickup and a DPA 4099. The brass section uses Shure BETA 57s and percussion SCH Mk4. The six wind players employed AKG 414s.
“I kept the drums pretty straightforward – a Beyerdynamic M88 on the kick, Shure SM57 on the snare, SM81 on high hats, Sennheiser 604s for the toms, and AKG414s for Ohs,” added Atkins. “I didn’t want a rock sound; I wanted it to be slightly jazzier, with a big band sound. There were subs in the hangs, but it’s not rock and roll. Let’s say it was trying to keep the mix true to the style.”
Atkins was delighted when one of the production managers, who had been doing HOSH for many years, said it was the best audio he’d heard.
“It was very kind of him,” said. “I went as a punter on the last night, and I was pleasantly surprised, I have to say!”
Production photo: Hamilton Lund
This article first appeared in the July edition of Lighting & Sound International magazine.
