This overview talks about sound design for musicals and straight plays. I give a brief overview of how a sound design fits a particular environment in which our events take place. Starting about five minutes in I spent time discussing the signal path of sound. Starting with the actor's voice, through different microphones and traveling through mixers and amplifiers, and ultimately coming out of powered or passive speakers.
To learn more, please come visit the stage seminars website at stageseminars.com
Sound design for theatre is often overlooked in its importance to the overall theatrical experience the audience deserves.
I created this video in response to many questions from middle and high school theater teachers needing to know more about their sound systems. Many do not have a background in live audio mixing, much less in audio consoles, EQ, etc.
00:00 Start
1:37 What is a Design?
3:40 Types of Sound Designers
4:32 Jack Foley
5:51 Recorded Sound
8:02 Sound Chain
8:24 Inputs
8:57 Microphones
9:11 PCC-160 Floor mic
9:25 Shotgun Mic
9:42 Shure SM58
9:50 Facebook Poll
10:10 WIreless Mics
10:19 Playback, old school
11:02 Mixing Board
11:11 Musical Instruments
12:04 Signal Path
12:10 Inputs, computers, etc.
12:13 Gain
12:26 Volume Slider
12:31 Q-Lab and SFX Playback Software
12:42 Mute Button
12:54 Pan left and right
13:13 Amps and Speakers
13:51 Processing
14:40 Equalizer, aka EQ
15:03 EQ, the most basic. High and Low
15:59 Graphic EQ 5 bands
17:00 Amplifiers
21:54 Output
21:58 Megaphone
23:14 Speakers
23:31 Sound Wave
24:57 Powered vs. Non-Powered Speakers
25:13 Amplifier
26:03 Powered Speaker Mic Inputs
26:12 Line level input
27:10 Main Level Out
28:33 Amps needed for power
28:59 Caution about popping breakers
29:31 Wrapping up.
29:44 Shopping List for Designing
31:26 Books
31:34 Kaye's Small System Diagram
32:26 Kaye's Med Sized System