Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1995 - 30

This arricle discusses rhe use of compurers to creare sound
scores for rhearrical producrions. Ir srarrs by addressing rhe
overall ser up of rhe hard drives on which rhe sound score
will be stored. Ir men examines rhe rypes of files mar are rypically stored on hard drives in rhe crearion of compurer
scores, mosr norably, audio sequences, and audio sample
files. Audio sequences are furrher broken down into rechniques involved in working wirh rhe rracks rhar make up rhe
sequences, and, finally wirh me dara rhar makes up me individual rracks. Almough many examples are given along rhe
way, rhey are by no means exhausrive. They are, ramer, an
arrempr to demonsrrare rhe rype of organizarion and usage
rhar a sound score designer mighr make of compurers in rhe
prepararion of rhe rhearre sound score.

HARD DRIVE CONSIDERATIONS
* CHOOSING THE RIGHT HARD DRIVES
The fim problem mar needs to be addressed is me size and
rype of storage required for a rypical mearre sound score.
One sysrem mar has worked exrremely well is to have a
smaller (e.g., approximarely 100 MB and usually housed
inside me compurer) hard drive on which all show dara is
stored excepr acrual sounds. Acrual sounds (which use up a
lor of hard drive space) are men stored on a much larger hard
drive (e.g., 600 MB to 2 gigabyre).
There are a couple of reasons for serring up me hard drives in mis manner, besides me rypical space requiremenrs of
borh. Firsr, since many of me rypical files such as correspondences, sequences, cue sheers, and rechnical drawings are
usually fairly small, rhey have a rendency to fragmenr rhe
hard drive. This is usually nor a problem for me programs
rhar run such files, bur can cause playback glirches when rhe
same files fragmenr a hard drive rhar is being used for hard
disk playback. The second reason has to do wim developing
a reliable sysrem for backing up all work.
Anyone who has ever worked wirh a compurer knows
rhe imporrance of backing up anyrhing stored on a hard
drive. There are several merhods commonly in use in me
compurer indusrry to back up hard drives, bur me crearion
of rhearre sound scores has irs own special requiremenrs due
to rhe large amounr of space used for sound samples.
Keeping all of me smaller files togerher on rhe smaller hard
drive allows rhe sound score designer to back up rhese
exrremely imporranr files on a regular basis. The much larger
sound sample files on rhe larger hard drive are rypically
backed up less orren (e.g., only when rhe samples are
changed, and only rhe changed files).
Anorher common difference berween rhe rechniques
used to back up rhe r\Vo differenr rypes of files is rhe medium
used for backup. Smaller files can be rypically backed up on
removable media, while larger files are more economically
backed up on digiral audio rape.

WINTER

1995

TD&T

A good procedure for backing up rhe smaller hard drive
is to ger rwo sers of removable hard drive canridges. The fim
ser is stored in me srudio, rhe second ser is stored in a srurdy
safe. The hard drive is backed up to rhe fim ser and rhen
stored in rhe safe. The nexr rime rhe hard drive is backed up,
rhe second ser is used, stored in rhe safe, and rhe firsr ser is
broughr inro me srudio, ready for rhe nexr back up. In rhis
way mere are always rhree sers of compurer dara: me currenr
dara on rhe smaller inrernal hard drive of rhe compurer, rhe
mosr recenr backup which is safely stored in rhe safe, and rhe
oldesr backup which is stored in rhe srudio, ready for me
nexr backup. Anomer backup caruidge can also be used for
rhe "dead storage" of old shows.
The rechnique for backing up sound samples to digiral
audio rape will vary wirh rhe sofrware, bur one cavear is in
order. Since rhe backup is relarively inexpensive (one digiral
audio rape can easily back up a one gigabyte drive), ir is a
good pracrice to back up all samples rwice, preferably on differenr rapes. If rheses samples are exrremely valuable, rhe
mosr recenr rape should again be stored in a safe. Separare
backup rapes should be kepr for rhe compurer's sound
library and for me currenr show. This may seem redundanr,
and ir is. However, ir seems like rhere is never enough redundancy in backing up sound files.
Keeping me large hard drive from gerring toO fragmenred usually means mar periodically, such as ar rhe srarr
of work on a new show, rhe hard drive is backed up and men
reformarred. If me hard drive is only being used to store
sound samples for me currenr show, once rhe show is finished, me samples can be pur inro storage, and me disk
reformarred.
One final nore on sroring samples on large hard drives,
and hard disk fragmenrarion: Since fragmenrarion really
becomes a problem only when arrempring to play back
sound files in real rime, ir may be advisable to buy, say, rwo
one-gigabyte drives rarher rhan one nvo-gigabyte drive. This
would allow samples and a sample library to be stored on
one hard drive (mar would nor require reformarring, due to
me way samples are loaded into rhe random access memory
of rhe sampler), and samples rhar are to be specifically played
back from a hard drive to be stored on anorher. This second
hard drive could men be reformarred on a regular basis,
wirhour disrurbing me sample library.

·ORGANIZI G THE HARD DRIVES
Srarr by crearing an empry folder on rhe smaller hard drive
which is subsequenrly rided wirh rhe name of rhe show.
Inside rhis folder, creare four more folders for each of rhe following: Cue Sheers, Sequences, Correspondences, and
Technical Drawings.
On rhe sampler hard drive, creare folders for rhe sampler
dara and rhe raw samples rhemselves. ore rhar nor all samplers allow you to store rhe insrrumenr dara separarely from
rhe raw samples-rhese samplers should be avoided due to

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1995