SAN DIEGO — The Old Globe theater produces 15 plays and musicals on its three stages each year and is currently hosting Sammy, based upon the life of Sammy Davis, Jr. John Shivers and David Patridge designed the production’s sound.
Masque Sound provided elements of the sound system for Shivers and Patridge using a Yamaha PM5D digital audio console. The crew credited the PM5D as digital mixing platform that presented a combination of feature set and economics that is well-suited to regional theater.
On Sammy, they took advantage of the ability to cascade the inputs from a Yamaha MY16-AT card to buss the sound effects system into the PA. Sound effects for Sammy were programmed using QLab V2 that we used as a master cue list to recall scenes in the PM5D. QLab’s audio was routed over optical from an RME Fireface 800 to the PM5D’s card slot, cascaded to the busses and, in turn, routed to various speakers.
Patridge said a Yamaha DM1000 digital console was paired with two AD8HR external preamp units to serve as a sub-mix for both drums and percussion because the sound design for Sammy exceeded the inputs available on the PM5D.
“We like the higher quality microphone preamps available via the AD8HR and the ability to pair them with Yamaha’s product line of digital consoles using MY slots and serial control of preamp functionality is very convenient,” Patridge said.
Old Globe engineer Erik Carstensen performed the FOH mixing duties. It’s the second project he has mixed for Shivers and Patridge. “Erik combines a good deal of industry experience as a sound engineer with a calm and good-natured demeanor⎯an excellent combination for a venue that could easily produce 15 different works in a season,” Patridge said.
“The selected channel programming and routing on the Yamaha PM5D is intuitive and flexible,” noted Carstensen. “I find that changing and storing EQ and dynamics settings, for example, is achieved quickly – vital in the production process where audio usually doesn’t get a lot of time to get it right. On top of that, using the PM5D in combination with our DME64 has been very reliable, show after show.”
With a cast of 16 Broadway singers and dancers, the musical, written by Leslie Bricusse, depicts Sammy’s days as a child working in vaudeville through his time with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra as a member of the Rat Pack, featuring classics like “What Kind of Fool Am I.”
For more information, please visit www.masquesound.com and www.yamahaca.com.
