Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1995 - 42

Obviously, predicting where these moments may occur is
very difficult in the early srages of a sound score design. It is
extremely hard to predict the unique interpretation the actor
will give to a moment or for other creative ideas that will
occur in the rehearsal process. When a sound occurs in the
production is something that usually needs to be zeroed in
on, rather than forced on top of a producrion. This is a
major reason why rehearsal sound is so important to a production, and why the sound score designer needs to be intimately involved in the rehearsal process.
To save space in the cue sheets and to maximize communication, the CUE is usually limited to three or four words.
Actors names are abbreviated to the first three letters of the
name and capitalized, e.g. HAM for Hamlet, GER for
Gertrude, etc. For visual cues, give a short description of the
cue (e.g., HAM sees ghost). For a cue line, use the last 3
words preceding the place where the change is to start (e.g.,
HAM: not to be).
SPEAKER: In preliminary sound plots, speaker locations
should be given in very broad, simple, and easily recognized abbreviations. SL (stage left), USL (upstage left),
Prosc (Proscenium), etc. This will give the production
team a general idea of where the actual source of the sound
will be located. In the preliminary cue sheets that are
released with the technical drawings, the speaker numbers
should correlate with the speaker numbers used on the
speaker plot.
Assign a number (from the speaker plot) to each loudspeaker and list which speaker(s) will be used in this cue.
In production cue sheets, use rhe label attached to the
appropriate speaker preset of the mixer in the field,
SPEAKER. If using multiple speakers, explain in the description field.
DECK: When the first version of the preliminary cue sheets
are created, it is very important to assign a deck to each cue
on tape. Doing this will help to clarifY the feasibility of running multiple decks simultaneously. Remember that on
every deck, you should allow about five seconds after the cue
has expired as a minimum amount of time required to cue
the deck up for the next cue.
Cues that are to be faded out require special attention. It
is important to have at least 25% more audio on a deck that
is to be faded out than is required for the cue, in case the
scene lasts longer during any given performance. For example, in the case of a four-minute scene requiring an ambience
underneath throughout, at least five minutes of ambiance
should be recorded on tape.
Obviously at least 5:05 needs to be allowed from the starr
of this ambiance cue before another cue can be run on this
deck. It is also extremely inadvisable to ever fast forward or
rewind a tape deck during a performance. In addition to the
acoustic noise that occurs, fast forwarding and rewinding
decks during a performance is very prone to causing errors

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such as improperly cued rape decks, broken or stretched
tape, etc.
Tape decks are usually labeled with a letter: "A," "B,"
"C," etc. Other equipment such as samplers may use
acronyms such as "Em," or "SCH." Microphones are usually designated by the input channel number of the mixer to
which they are connected.
* ZounDesignerprovides Deck cutting Older compilation and
tape box label supportfor up to three tape decks. In Older to use
this feature, you must label these three decks, A, B, and C. .You
may use other labels, but ZounDesigner will ignore them when
compiling cues in the tape logs. Simply type in the letter ofthe
deck to which this cue will be assigned. When you go to compile
your list ofcues on that deck, ZounDesigner will find all ofthe
cues that belong on that deck and put them in order on a card
suitable for pasting on the tape box.
DESCRIPTIO : This is a catch-all area for any notes, ideas,
reminders, etc. for this cue. It is sometimes referred to as the
MESSAGE box, for in preliminary cue sheets, it is a space used
to communicate information about the cue back and forrh
among the production team. In this capacity, notes in this
box should be written in plain English so that the nonsound area members of the production team can readily
understand the message.
TIME: In the early stages of the planning process, you will
estimate the length of each cue (usually by reading your own
timing of a scene) and record it here. When you start creating the actual cues, record the length of the sound that is on
the tape here. This should be the same length as the timings
you put on your master tapes, rough sound and rehearsal
cassettes, and show tapes. Of course, you will update these
timings as the cues change.
Timing of sound cues is an extremely important part of
the process of designing sound. It can be extremely frightening when this important step has been overlooked and
one waits until the first tech rehearsal to find out that all of
their carefully recorded cues are toO shorr (the most typical
problem)! The following process helps to ensure thar the
length of sound cues is tracked throughout the rehearsal
process.
The first order of business is to record the sound cues
into the script. This is done by drawing a line that begins at
the exact point in the script where the cue starts, and ends in
either margin. ext to the line in the margin print the cue
number and the name of the cue:

Pericles: I give to you. who best can justi~,--

020 Gong 1

At the firsr read through, have an assistant time the script. To
do this, start the Stop watch at zero at the beginning of each

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