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Overview
The Soundscape of a play helps to establish the atmosphere, the setting, and the energy of a performance. Sound Effects can be anything from doorbells, bear roars, and rain sound to breaking celery or balsa wood to make
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super-battle-damage
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sounds.
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The SD collects all the sounds and music a production calls for in a medium that can be used in the space in which the play is performed and then makes sure the "Sounds" sound right in the space during the performance.
So You Want to be a Sound Designer? Do this: read the script, make an exhaustive list of possible cues, talk to the director, get possible sounds from Rinaldi, test sounds with the director, then test them in the theatre. Not necessarily in that order, and read below for more details.
Basics
Music is self-explanatory, but it is not the sound designer's job to compose original scores (except when it is). Useful software include Audacity, Adobe Audition, and Reaper. QLAB (for mac) or Ableton Live (for mac and windows) are good for writing sound queues.
Obtaining Sounds
Rinaldi has a bunch of sound effect CD's that are available for you use. E33 Productions, the student lighting club, also has CDs you can borrow. Effects can be found online. You can also record and edit your own clips. Collect anything and everything that might work- it's much better to cut sounds than scramble to find something to add. Music wise, if the entire James Taylor's Greatest Hits has the mellow feel of the second act, take the whole thing. Music that doesn't make the cut for the show, might be appropriate for pre and post show or intermission music.
Designing the SoundScape
Preliminaries
Begin with the script. Read it, aloud. Note any place where sound plays a role in the action, ie (the door bell rings) or Prospero: "Damn, won't that rain stop! Shit!" At this point be over-zealous, note any and all noises you could possibly image. Try to create a continuos soundscape for the show. Now read the script again, this time focusing on the dramatic and emotional forces at work. Note moments of intense emotion, high drama, sharp conflict, anytime when, in a Molly Ringwald 80's movie, Tears for Fears would start playing. Analyze these points to clarify exactly what emotional situation is happening, remember, not all love scenes are happy, not all victories are glorious. SD should know the drama of the play as well as the director.
Art
Once this homework is done then the SD can raise their lowly head to meet with the director. Talk about setting, time period, themes, and what role the director sees music playing in the performance. Often times a director has an idea of a general setting but hasn't thought specifically about sound or music, that is why there is an SD.
Practicality
Now meet with producer and stage manager to talk about strengths and limitations of the production. If the show is in Little Kresege there are is a better sound infrastructure than in Sala. At this point find out what kinds of playback equipment is possible in the space. Little Kresege has a big 'ol sound system with a board and everything. Spend some time playing with all the different toys like CD, cassette, MIDI, and DAT.
Semifinal Sound Design
Come up with a preliminary sound design to show the director and prod staff. This is primary plan for what you'd like to hear. Find sounds for each major event. Be prepared to listen to hundreds of little noises. Now make up a initial soundscape. This the rough draft. Try to run this rough draft in the space. This should help uncover any technical problems before it becomes a real bitch to change things. Now take the rough draft to the director and find out that all your notions of the play were totally wrong. Now begins the collaboration-compromise step of the process. By this point you should have the skills necessary to turn what you have into what the director wants. Be creative, a lot of noises sound similar, a wave sound can be a roar or a train passing if it's played right. Remember that sound is a three dimensional medium, a bell from stage right is different from a bell from stage left and rain comes from the sky.
Final Sound Design
Finalize your soundscape, and set the volume levels for all the particular effects. Put together pre-show, intermission, and post-show music if necessary.
Prod Week
Pre-Put-In
Before Put-In, make sure you've obtained speakers, generally from MTG. The TD is going to ask MTG to borrow masonite and audience railings anyone- the easiest and best thing for you to do is get the TD to request the speakers as well. Remember that YOU NEED TO BORROW CABLES WHEN YOU BORROW SPEAKERS. You can't exactly hang the speakers if you don't have cables to attach them to one another.
Figure out where your speakers are going to go (behind the set, under the audience, in the sky, etc.) and talk to the TD. Remember that you have a limited amount of cable and plan your layout accordingly. If you plan on hanging speakers in the sky, talk to Lights. Take a look at the light plot and figure out where you're hanging such that you don't interfere with lights or cables. Try to know where speakers are going to be placed and which cables go where so that speaker hang takes 15 minutes rather than two hours.
Paper Tech
This generally happens on the day before Put-In. Paper Tech is a meeting where the director, SM, light designer, sound designer, and possibly others sit down and read through the script. Every queue is written down on a master script at Paper Tech as well as a separate light script and sound script so that queues can be more easily written. This is also where any conflicts or misunderstandings between sound and the director should be ironed out so that Q2Q can run as smoothly as possible.
Put-In
Hang your speakers AFTER lights has hung, hopefully sometime in the mid afternoon or early evening. Get the cables hooked up in a safe fashion. You will need a Mac (borrow from a cast member) and your own 1/2" to 1/4" cable.
Q2Q
Typically the day after Put-In, Q2Q is a rehearsal where, paradoxically, there is no rehearsing. Instead, actors are told to go from one queue to the next so that the SM and designers can finalize the sound and light board queues. This process is long but is much shorter than it would be without Paper Tech.
Writing Sound Queues
The Rest of the Week
Train the Sound Board Operator to make the sound sound right. Sound check everything. Play with all your equipment to be sure everyone who needs to know how to use a piece of equipment knows how to use the equipment.
Post Show
Make sure you get any CDs you borrowed back to your owners. Make sure that either you or the TD get the speakers back to MTG.