| May 2008 | |
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AITKEN CHOOSES D5T FOR ANOTHER OPERATIC SUCCESS AT THE RAH |
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Returning to the Royal Albert Hall at the beginning of the year for another successful run, Raymond Gubbay’s production of Tosca included a sound design that once again benefited from the experienced ear of Bobby Aitken and a DiGiCo D5T. Aitken was one of the first proponents of the D5T and has been using it in his designs since it first came onto the market, with a raft of successful productions such as Mamma Mia, We Will Rock You, Dirty Dancing, La Boheme and Grease benefitting from its impressive channel capacity and superior sound quality. In recent years, the majority of operatic performances that he has worked on at the RAH have been performed in the round - and Tosca is no exception. Although he applies the same basic principles to all such productions, there is no opportunity to ‘cut and paste’ from one show to the next and each production is treated on its own merits. “What we’re trying to achieve from one opera to the next is fairly constant, because the room doesn’t change,” says Aitken. “However, if we try to input information from the previous opera, it just never seems to work. We have to do it from scratch every time. “Working on Tosca, or any opera, always brings the same challenge. An ‘in the round production’ means a singer will be performing straight to some of the audience whilst their back is to another section, so the challenge is to make where the sound is coming from believable. “An additional challenge is that the operas at the RAH are all sung in English, which means you have to be able to hear all the words, yet we still need to make it sound unamplified.” Aitken’s audio set up is complex. “As far as vocals are concerned, we bring radio mics into the D5T and then straight out on direct outputs,” he explains. “We don’t mix any radios on the DiGiCo. We simply use the faders and then we’re straight into the TiMax Talent Tracker [a system that, as it suggests, tracks where the actors are on stage at all times], with all the individual vocals and mixing done on the TiMax matrix.” So with TiMax performing mix duties, why does Aitken insist on using the D5T? “It’s the sheer number of inputs,” he says. “We used to use an analogue desk, but now the place would just be full of frames because we have maybe 40 or 50 vocal channels, 60 or so orchestral channels and then effects returns. You end up with well over a hundred inputs and on an analogue desk that’s just physically too big.” The orchestral mix is performed on D5T and it also has complete backup saved on it, so should the TiMax system fail, instant switch back to the console ensures the show goes on. “In reality, the most important part of my job is my relationship with the artists and making sure that they’re happy that day, not the equipment I’m using. So if it all works properly, it makes life that much easier!”
Press Contacts: Sarah James at Gasoline Media |
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