Big Fish: sound design

"The musical numbers, a little better, but still sounded like we were in another room."

Count yourself lucky. The musical numbers were much better from another room than if you were in the same room!

I'm glad someone else brought this up.

I found the ensemble singing to be virtually inaudible. Seriously I couldn't hear a single lyric when they were performing as a group. Sadly, quite a bit of background is given in the lyric of one production number early in the first act and it left me pondering what the hell the story was about. It also confused me as to what the tone of the show was going to be.

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I sat in the second to last row of the mezz and could hear everything fine. Must really have to do with you specific seating in the theater.

"I've always wanted to design a show where the entire audience wears headphones. Perfect sound for everyone."

Of course that would have its own limitations. Think of a show like Phantom, for instance, where the use of multiple speakers throughout the house helps create the aural effect of the Phantom being able to throw his voice all over the theatre.

"After the show, I did find the sound engineer and complained. She listened and asked a few questions, but basically seemed unfazed by my comments. I asked her if this was an ongoing issue or specific to this performance. She didn't seem to have an answer."

I don't know the specifics of this case, but I just wanted to respond to this bit. There are so many factors going into each individual audience member's appreciation of a show's sound that it's unsurprising that every show will occasionally get sound complaints. The complaints are often directed at the mixer, the person behind the sound board, who is generally the most visible target. They, however, report to a number of people, and are supposed to be implementing the design as set by the designer (there may also be other factors, like producers or directors or stage managers giving notes, sometimes conflicting notes). The person doing the mixing may actually disagree with the design of the sound. Or they might completely agree with it, and know exactly how it sounds in your seat, and just disagree with your disliking of it. Or there might be a technical problem that they're not aware of. Or some other option. But in all of these cases, the safest way to respond is basically "unfazed". Collect information about location, if the problem was with dialogue or music, if the problem was instruments or vocals, if the problem lasted the whole show or just portions, etc, and then maybe politely apologize and thank the patron for their input. "Is this an ongoing issue or specific to this performance" doesn't HAVE an answer that the mixer can give -- if she says "yes, it's an ongoing issue", then the natural followup is "why haven't you fixed it?" And if she says "no, this is just a problem with this performance", then the followup is "can I have my money back, then?"

I'm sure that your complaint was taken back to the appropriate people, but I just wanted to explain why you might get that sort of response.

kmccoy2 thank you for your excellent post. I actually agree with all of what you wrote. I should also state that I am very appreciative of the sound when its good / excellent and will always try and find the sound engineer (mixer) to express my appreciation. I do understand the situation that the mixer is in.

When I wrote that the sound was "atrocious" I wasn't exaggerating. The sound Wednesday night from the center of the front mezzanine was unacceptable.

oasisjeff an interesting idea that I didn't even consider. My hearing is excellent, as is my partner's and I suspect - but don't know - the young woman sitting next to me. I have never worn an assisted hearing device, but had I know that I wasn't going to be able to hear, it becomes an interesting option. I think the reason this didn't occur to me was the belief that this was a simple fix (a speaker that just wasn't turned on) and that with my comments the situation would be rectified.

Honestly, the sound was so bad, it seemed more a mistake of that evening's performance than faulty design.

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Updated On: 11/15/13 at 10:15 AM

Bad sound design is kind of an epidemic on Broadway lately. As someone who has done a little bit of sound design myself, I'm more sensitive to it. I'm sure it has something to do with the old theaters being hard to work with, I'll give them that, but I've seen so many productions in which I found the sound design to be bad nominated for a Best Sound Design Tony Award. It just goes to show the nominators have no idea what they're talking about.

I think the production teams should really sit all over the theater before they decide the sound design is done, especially in a musical.

morosco... cool. I just ordered a copy. I'm not planning on becoming a sound designer, but I am fascinated by the technologies that make live performance magical. Sound is such an important part.

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Shannon Slaton's book is, frankly, an incredible addition to a library on a topic that doesn't receive nearly the writing it should. In fact, the entire loone of technical theatre books from the Focal Press is fantastic and i highly recommend them all.

Installing seat speakers is not only ridiculously cost projibitive, but would prove physically impossible in some cases.

As has been said before, perfect spund coverage is impossible for a number of favtors, so they try to hedge bets to create the best overall experience. Often, your best choices to HEAR the suow as designed is just under the mezz overhang or near a wall.

In regards to simple fixes or a speaker not being on, it is often never simple. Much of the design is set programmed, especially as far as distribution and routing to speakers. The mixer can control mic power and volume, but making ot *louder* will not neccessarily fix an issue, especially if part of the issue is white noise drowning out the mix. I can pretty much guarantee that a speaker will never been forgotten when powerering up for many reasons, including sound check before the show, but it is entirely possible for a speaker to fail mid performance. If that happens, there is not a lot an engineer can do other than try to compensate within their ability.

Without giving too much away, another problem with this show's sound is the placement of the orchestra. Certain instruments were coming right at me and blocked out the voices.

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The costs doing such an install WOULD be folded over and charged to the shows by the landlords. To think otherwise would be a mistake.

The sound design you can have for a show a Cirque style show is very different than what would or could work for a dramatic production, for better AND for worse.

The larger issue is one of space. Most Broadway theatres are landmarked and seating space is at an absolute premium. You have to understand that adding speakers to seats would take up valuable space. Every 1" adds up. You also then deal with issues of wiring and powering speakers and where exactly you can place those wires in a space that was not designed to HAVE those wires. The cirques you mention are in custom designed spaced or gut renovated spaces, where every detail was designed in concert for those elements, including acoustics to allow speakers in every seat without sound growing muddled and aisle spacing and cable runs for wiring.

Beyond that, you then encounter compatibility issues. Remember that a theatre rental comes bare bones - you get four walls, the seats and the counterwieght / hemp fly systems.. no lighting or sound equipment included. By incorporating speakers, you then absolutely hamper the production by narrowing down what sound board and systems they are allowed to use, as they would have to be compatible with whatever sound instruments the landlord elected to use.

Then you get to maintenance, where you have 600-1,900 additional individual instruments that must be checked regularly and maintained as well as miles of extra cable that you have now added. that's 1,000+ potential instrument failures and miles of cable to go through should something go wrong..

I caught Big Fish this past weekend and was in the 5th row Orch center. The sound was bad even from there. There were numerous points in the show where I could truly not hear any of the words being said. It was really disappointing. :/