Into the Woods |
Position: Sound Designer and A1 Mixer
Location: Indian Hill High School Date: 2/23/17-2/25/17 |
This production was the main stage musical at Indian Hill my senior year, also referred to as "Pow-Wow." This production was a challenge for many reasons: the use of a student orchestra, the soundscape the show requires, and a very limited tech window. Since the orchestra was comprised of students, I needed a way to mute and unmute their individual mics when needed (since some can be very talkative). However, this often had to happen over twenty times per song at an exact measure. To accomplish this without running out of scenes at the console I put a Qlab computer in the pit that had thousands of OSC commands that spoke to the Qlab computer at the desk. The Qlab computer at the desk then received the OSC commands and triggered a MIDI command to the console to mute or un-mute certain channels. There was then a crew member in the pit with the score clicking "go" at the right beat.
The soundscape for this show was a big challenge. There are so many foley elements present in this show and of course the giant. I would attempt to recreate some of the effects for reference on here, but it would be near impossible. I relied heavily on the qualities of each speaker in the space and the natural reverence. As you can see in the block diagrams, there were many effect speakers located onstage (to reflect the sound from the stage to the audience), in front of the proscenium on either side, and surround speakers. I even used the resonant frequencies of the building to make it audibly shake as the giant approached. The final sound effects Qlab file had over 600 elements to create a fully immersive environment.
Also, like all my musicals, this was mixed meticulously line-by-line.
The soundscape for this show was a big challenge. There are so many foley elements present in this show and of course the giant. I would attempt to recreate some of the effects for reference on here, but it would be near impossible. I relied heavily on the qualities of each speaker in the space and the natural reverence. As you can see in the block diagrams, there were many effect speakers located onstage (to reflect the sound from the stage to the audience), in front of the proscenium on either side, and surround speakers. I even used the resonant frequencies of the building to make it audibly shake as the giant approached. The final sound effects Qlab file had over 600 elements to create a fully immersive environment.
Also, like all my musicals, this was mixed meticulously line-by-line.
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Audio Selections**These recordings were taken from a direct summation of the mains. They do not take into account the natural sound of the orchestra, surround speakers used for reverb, or the acoustic qualities of the space.
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Qlab Screenshots |
"Behind The scenes" Photos |
Production Photos |
Pictures courtesy of Greg Goold and Kyle Himsworth
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