NEW YORK—The recent revival of Waiting For Godot at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54 venue used a 48-input Soundcraft Vi4 digital live mixing console, offering the processing power and sound quality the designer was seeking in a compact frame and, crucial for Godot, quiet operation.
Tony Award-winning Director Anthony Page wanted to create a intimate ambience to engage the audience in the 1,500-seat theater. Sound designer Dan Moses Schreier encouraged Page to use lavalier microphones hidden on the four actors, along with foot microphones.
“There was a lot of emphasis placed on the sound being as transparent as possible so that no one in the audience could tell the show was being amplified at all, so I needed a system that would keep a low profile—visually and aurally,” Schreier said.
“It’s unusual for a play in this sized venue to use lavalier microphones—it would usually go with just foot microphones or none at all,” said David Gotwald, production audio engineer, who mixed the play. “But Anthony Page wanted to be able to have the actors speak in a normal tone and the audience be able to catch all the nuances of the dialogue and their delivery.”
With the decision to use a PA system, the choice of mixing console became critical—it would be the hub of an entire sound system.
“The decision to use the Vi4 began with my use of a Studer Vista 5 console on two prior shows: the new Stephen Sondheim Road Show and the current revival of West Side Story,” Schreier said. “I had very positive experiences with that console, so when the time came for us to look for a console for Godot, I learned of the Vi4 and saw that it shared many of the same qualities as the Vista 5, particularly in how logically the board is laid out.”
“The Vi4’s digital operation was totally silent,” said Gotwald, who has also mixed Broadway shows The Producers and Fosse. “The pre-amps are completely transparent—there is no color whatsoever to the sound. When the actors speak, you hear them and nothing else. The sound was completely natural and there was nothing to distract the audience. They never even knew a PA was there.”
Gotwald listed the Vi4’s other advantages in this setting, including its compact size and flexibility — “the number of matrixed group and aux outputs is very useful,” he said — and the fact that all DSP is done onboard and software-based. “I had access to excellent processing, like the highly consistent compression from the console, and all of that power didn’t add any noise to the system,” Gotwald said. “You could see the audience leaning forward in their seats, totally engrossed in the play, hearing the actors, not the system. That was a real success.”
In just under 1.5m/5 feet of length, the Soundcraft Vi4 digital live sound console offers access to 72 inputs on 24 faders, with a total of 35 output busses available for use as masters, groups, auxes or matrices. It also has the features of the larger Soundcraft Vi6, such as the Vistonics II touch-screen user interface and Soundcraft FaderGlow fader function display.
“One of my many hesitations about digital consoles was the feel that you are mixing on a computer display and that you have to go through a number of screens to make changes,” Schreier said. “But the Vistonics surface provides a very successful emulation of an analog desk in a digital world.”
For more information on Soundcraft and Studer, which are units of Harman International Industries, please visit: www.harman.com.
