LCR.1 for Live Contemporary Circus Show?

[Moderato Maestoso]

Hi everyone,

I wonder if I could run a few ideas past you to get your thoughts?

I'm at the point of starting to develop the musical ideas and technical requirements for a show I'm writing. It's a contemporary 'cirque' style show, and there is no dialogue (although some musical vocalisations) - essentially, music and effects only. The M+E are very deeply integrated, and treated as the same in this show.

I was thinking about creating the pre-record for an LCR.1 playback, with Left, Centre, Right, and an Lfe channel (NOT a subwoofer channel - although there will be a sub as well, it will be fed from auxes on the LCR channels - but a dedicated Lfe for deep percussive enhancement, and synth effects etc.)

Although I'd like to go 4.1 or 5.1, the PA system has to be tourable, with minimal get-in and get-out times.

Thoughts on LCR.1 for live music and effects would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Martin

[dbuckley]

Just to note that LFE is a cinema term, and the LFE track is exactly that, it is a track, and the LFE track is fed to the sub. The other tracks may also be fed to the sub by means of a crossover, and this is a normal feature of a cinema sound processor.

[ImagineerTom]

And the most important thing you need to know about circus is that an entirely pre-recorded track is going to be a hinderance not an asset. From the smallest family circus to the biggest touring arena show they all use live music performance and accompaniment whenever they can precisely because every single performance is going to be different.

[top-cat]

And the most important thing you need to know about circus is that an entirely pre-recorded track is going to be a hinderance not an asset. From the smallest family circus to the biggest touring arena show they all use live music performance and accompaniment whenever they can precisely because every single performance is going to be different.

 

When you say that are you including DJs as live performance?

[Moderato Maestoso]

Tom - I didn't say 'entirely prerecorded'. We will have a live ensemble as well, and the click tracks will be carefully designed to allow for many loop points and purely live sections. We'll be using Ableton Live, SCS, or Reaper (or a combination of systems) to play back the tracks and generate the MIDI timecode to run the show. I'm working very closely with the director/concept creator, and the music is being developed alongside the performance and projection. All music tracks will be triggered by the MD, and the synth players will also be responsible for triggering many of the effects through a Kontakt system with multiple outs.

David - I know the term derives from the world of cinema, but the concept that will be the same. Both playback tracks and synth players will output to the .1 channel, which will be absolutely dedicated to low freq effects. It will be a sparsely used channel, but really add a bottom end when we need it to. Several of the percussion sample libs I will be using to put together the prerecord have been recorded with a .1 channel - the CineSamples ones particularly.

My question was more about the feasibility of the centre channel. There's a risk it may introduce comb filtering effects, but equally, some of the venues we will be playing are very wide, and we risk losing a lot of the stereo imaging without something to lock the centre to.

Cheers,

Martin

[J Pearce]

I have used a centre in very wide venues to ensure everyone gets some semblance of stereo by setting it up L R L. Obviously half the audience get a flipped image and those in the middle get a centre + width sort of effect, but it can be a useful trick if absolute pan position is not important but separation and motion are.

[ImagineerTom]

Ah cool - it's just something that isn't immediately obvious to outsiders.

 

On a side note before you get too involved in left/centre/right sound mixes just double check what the actual performance environment of the show is going to be across its whole lifetime. If it's generally being used in a real theatre/proscenium performance configuration then you're fine but since most circus is presented in thrust or in-the-round situations and generally in non-theatre spaces (tents, warehouses, arenas) then the whole concept of left/right goes out of the window because it's impractical to implement; not because of the art but simply because of the 270degree audience. Some of the biggest "built in" circus shows have been able to come up with directional sound designs but I can't think of ANY touring circus that uses left/right/surround sound in any traditional sense essentially using "mono" music and the only directional audio being spoken vocals by performers using the extremes of the venue - ie when a clown goes East to hunt for an audience member his vocal is mixed in that direction.

[Moderato Maestoso]

Hi Tom,

 

Sorry for the short reply - I'm running late meeting someone!

 

We are entirely booking proscenium spaces - for many reasons (mostly the design), we want to keep things as similar as possible.

 

In terms of the clicks, I'll be mixing down to different instrument "groups" to give the FOH engineer flexibility at mixdown for each venue. We'll also be running automation in the playback box (another reason Ableton is looking like a good option!).

 

Cheers, and thanks for the replies :)

 

Martin

[dbuckley]

If its the MD driving the show, then I'd suggest you have a look at MIDI Maestro (second recommendation in two days!) as its designed as a MD operated playback device, so it provides all the jump to barpausing, vamping and other stuff that the MD will need. And you can then sync Live or whatever to it as necessaryto do the things it does best.