When it came to Young People’s Theatre (YPT) presentation of the stage musical adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, both sound designer Brian Kenny and YPT Head of Audio Mike Mills have nothing but praise for GerrAudio's help with a comprehensive upgrade of the venue's audio systems.
“We really didn't need anything (additional),” Mills says. “Maybe one or two additional microphones Brian wanted, but other than that, we had everything we needed.”
Directed by Thom Allison, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory marked YPT’s return to live musicals, post-pandemic, and benefitted greatly from the new systems. Among them: a Meyer Sound PA with a mobile surround configuration, a DiGiCo Quantum 338 console, a KLANG:vokal immersive IEM mixing system, and an updated microphone pack including DPA 4061s, 4080 lavalier mics, and DPA 4099 instrument mics.
While YPT was equipped with everything Kenny required, the show was still a challenge. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - being a musical with a live band and a cast of twelve, it was going to push any rig in the theatre of this size to its limits.”
“But everything worked phenomenally,” Mills says, pointing first to the DPA mics. "They’re so durable. I don't think we had even one sweat out during the entire two-month run, and some actors were pretty physical (with them),” he adds, chuckling.
A longtime DPA user, Kenny also appreciated the expansion of YPT’s kit, particularly the DPA 4061s used exclusively for the cast. “They provided excellent clarity and a lot of gain before feedback. So we were able to get the show to sound exciting without worrying about feedback (during musical numbers). And, for dialogue, I was really happy with the balance we struck. It sounded clear and naturalistic, not overly amplified.”
Given the show isn’t that different in scope from the film versions, he adds, “ It required a lot of stage magic to keep the audience, mostly children, engaged.”
Part of that magic was accomplished via an immersive sound design that enabled music, vocals, sound effects, and soundscapes to hit the audience from all angles. “The way the proscenium system was configured was fantastic for audience engagement, but we also used the Meyer ULTRA-X20s and UP-4slim’s as surrounds and fills to cover the house,” Kenny says.
“For this show, we set up rear left and right speaker zones,” Mills adds. “And the way we programmed the Q338 – we’d have characters going from dialogue to songs, and because of the reverb tails Brian put in the rear speakers - even before the cast started singing you felt the room open up wide - it was just gorgeous sounding. Brian’s a great designer.”
“I love the sound of Meyer speakers,” Kenny says. "They get loud without sounding harsh, which was important here because volume goes through the roof when you add 400 kids. At our first preview, they were probably hitting 100 dB. So, for the jokes to land and lyrics to be understood, we probably turned the system up 30 percent within the first four minutes. Luckily we had the power to go there, and the kids made sure that we went there.”
Featuring only a 3-piece band (2 keyboardists and a live drummer who also played electronic pads and triggers), given the degree of orchestration, Kenny says, "They had to work really hard.”
Given the complexity of the show overall and the heavy lifting the band had to do, the Q338’s advanced functionality came in handy. “The Q338 was fantastic. I really enjoyed the Mustard Processing, Chili, and Spice Racks. Being able to get down to granular details in terms of tonal shaping to make the trio sound like an orchestra was huge.”
There were also unexpected benefits, Kenny says: “When you're putting a lavalier mic on someone you have to do a base EQ curve to compensate for positioning. Normally I high pass it a fair bit, scoop a lot of low mids out, and add a bit of brightness… On the SD Series, that would take up all of the available EQ bands on the input strip. What I hadn't realized until I was there was that the Mustard EQ is on every channel strip, which meant I had two tools; a surgical scalpel (the SD EQ) for compensating for a microphone taped to someone's forehead, and a second EQ to apply, musically. It’s like having an outboard EQ for every actor, which provided a lot more flexibility.”
As for KLANG, he continues: “Each musician had a KLANG controller, so, other than initial levelling during sound check, we rarely spent time fielding monitoring requests.”
In addition, KLANG allowed the players to get as granular as necessary. Essentially, taking the day-to-day minor (or major) tweaking of monitors out of the mix.
The benefits for musicians go beyond ‘on demand’ control, since KLANG allows players to adjust and save their presets. “If they’re thinking ‘Wow, tonight’s mix sounded great. I'm going to save the tweaks I made, it takes that air of mystery away,” Kenny says. Especially, "if they fire everything up and even though it’s the same preset as last night when something sounds off, they don't necessarily have to flag down an engineer and say, ‘Hey, did you change anything last night?’”
In short, rather than defaulting to ‘Something’s wrong with my mix – what happened?’ musicians are more likely to realize it could be they're just coming in with fresh ears. “KLANG is also useful in flagging other issues that might go unnoticed,” he adds.
Additionally, with monitors not taking up three stereo AUXs on the console, “There’s that many more options I have, on the console, to use for (the rest of) the show's purpose. I can use them to sub-mix the orchestra, or as additional outputs to add speakers around the theatre, or create a vocal effect. So, yeah, it's become a staple for me now, to get that MADI split happening so that bands can mix themselves.”
And, as always, GerrAudio was fantastic," Kenny says. "I was probably pushing the system further than anybody else had since the renovation. Mike had some Dante routing questions. We were using almost every speaker and microphone in YPT's inventory, so we had some growing pains, but everything got resolved within a day or two with a couple of calls to Ian Robertson at Gerr. The work Ian and GerrAudio did, designing this system – they knocked it out of the park.”
Mills also points to GerrAudio's responsiveness in responding to an earlier issue setting KLANG up, and later when a couple of loudspeakers were damaged. “I contacted Gerr and they were like - send it and we'll fix it. At the time, they’d been in for roughly 3 years, he adds. “So the fact that they're still happy to repair everything and all that, that's pretty great.”
Behind the Sound at YPT's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory