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 super-battle-damage sounds. 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
Possible resources include
- Ensemble has two cases worth of decent sound effect / ambiance CDs (soon to be digitized to an external hard drive)
- Rinaldi has a bunch of sound effect CD's that are available for your use.
- E33 Productions, the student lighting club, also has CDs you can borrow.
- Resources for effects and ambiance can be found online, such as on freesound.org
- 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, curtain call, and / or intermission music.
Creating Sounds
Creating sounds can be a simple or involved process, depending on what's required and the SD's preference to using pre-made sounds or creating their own. If you're going to create your own, it's recommended to be subtle while not fearing to experiment and be loud when necessary. Below are some useful effects / techniques to use if you're going to create or modify sounds.
Layering
Using layering can allow complex and convincing sound effects using numerous simple sounds. An entire shipwreck sound was created using only floor board creaks, a tree falling, and pots and pans falling using this method. Can't find a stormy beach with crows and alien spacecraft? Create one by layering! Be sure not to layer too much in a single file, sometimes sounds are better suited to existing as separate cues.
Panning
Though the performance space may not operate in stereo (this depends on how you setup the audio equipment), panning sounds can allow for unique effects and can greatly deepen the sonic atmosphere. Think about automating panning for fly by effects. Keep in mind that stage left is opposite from the right speaker (assuming speakers are facing the audience from the stage). If a curtain is tearing stage left, pan that sound to the right!
Reverb
Small room reverbs can be used to make a sound more convincing, while large hall reverbs could be used creatively to recreate the setting of a cave, or to make an explosion even more tremendous.
Delay
If you're looking to use delay, you probably know when to use it and when not to. Stereo delays can also be used to widen the stereo field. Experiment! Fade delay trails as necessary; you don't want to distract or muddy up the mix.
Modulation
Modulation isn't typically used, but effects such as flanger, phaser, and chorus and be used for adding subtle movement and imaging to an otherwise bland and simple sound. Again, use blending as necessary.
Pitch Shifting
Pitch shifting can greatly change what the audience perceives a sound to be. For example, a creaking floorboard becomes a ship mast creaking under immense pressure. Blend pitch shifted signals with their original sounds to thicken them up while keeping them realistic.
Automation
All of the above effects / techniques could be automated in order to change levels, panning, or effect parameters on the fly. This allows even more creative freedom with the effects allowing for more sonic depth. Examples include turning up a huge hall reverb for the final word of a prerecorded ghostly speech.
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, DAT, and reel to reel.
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. Additionally, note the state of all equipment upon acquisition and inform the TD if there are any problems or flaws, no matter how minor.
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.
Setting Up Booth
To play music, the Ensemble has a spotify account with email address: mitshakespeareensemble@gmail.com and username: mitshakespeareensemble. There are typically four main components of sound setup with respect to booth: coms, God mic, monitors, and sound input. Coms: In KLT there should be two bins with the coms system in parts. Sets of a headset, box, and connecting cable should be setup backstage left, backstage right, for the SM in booth, for the sound designer in booth, and for the light designer in booth - sometimes there are fewer in booths. There is a central coms box in booth. Use a female-to-female connector to connect this box to Krege's system. If there are issues with the coms, make sure the volume's turned up on the unit, try swapping out the coms boxes (the small ones, not the booth one) or cables, making sure the units are on the same channel, and make sure the Mic button is fully pressed. God mic: There is a grey radio show-style mic in booth that should have one cable running from it to the fourth or fifth channel of the sound board. Make sure that this mic is working. Recently, it has been very quiet, so you may need to increase the gain and/or volume. As part of this, the mic will typically not cause any lights on the board to turn on, so you will need to test it by listening for sound from the speakers. Monitors: There is a monitor in each of KLT's dressing rooms and one in booth. Make sure that the relevant segment of the sound tower is turned on and the volume is up. If the monitors are still not producing sound, make sure that the individual volume controls controlling each speaker are turned up. Sound Input: There are several ways to do this and it's more up to you what works for the current production. For debugging, make sure the master / other relevant volume sliders are up, make sure the gain is up, check which groups the input is going to (L-R, 1-2, 3-4), check that the channel isn't muted, and make sure everything's plugged in . Additionally, the Ensemble has a large piece of sound equipment that is used as an amplifier that requires the software Sapphire to run in addition to being cabled.
Writing Sound Queues
Sound cues can be named in numerical order (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4), act.scene # # (for example, the 12th sound in act 2, scene 3, would be written as 2.312), or however you as sound designer feel comfortable with. It's recommended that this is completed prior to paper tech. When creating cues, be sure to set relative levels as appropriate.
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. Use this opportunity to verify consistent and appropriate audio levels; you don't want birds drowning out the actors and an explosion to barely be audible.
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
After the show, make sure you
- Return any borrowed CDs
- Return speakers and any other equipment to MTG
- Return Ensemble equipment to their proper locations
- Return any other borrowed equipment to their respective owners