Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1998 - 58

have multi-track, multi-channel output playback from a single hardware device. Some theatres combine a multi-track output device with standard twotrack devices so that special cues with multi-tracklmulti-channel needs go on
the multi-track, and the rest of the cues go on the two-tracks, where they are
a little easier to deal \vith because of the two-track's capability to automatically cue to the next cue. Cloning (backup) of files is simply a matter of backing up the data to another hard disk (fixed or removable) through computer
standard SCSI outputs.

ASYNCHRONOUS

~IULTI-TRA('K

liARD DISK

For years theatre sound designers have wondered why the computer sound
industry could not add a simple feature to computer audio workstations that
would make them ideal for use as playback devices in theatre. That feature is
the ability to trigger cues asynchronously, i.e., to allow the user to configure,
on a cue by cue basis, the outputs of the system to meet the needs of a given
cue sequence. For example, in one scene, a sound designer might require
one eight-track to start playing, and then, while that cue was playing, trigger a
four-track cue. However, in the next cueing sequence, the designer might
need to be able to trigger three four-track decks independently. After years of
patient and often frustrated waiting, asynchronous playback devices have finally appeared on the market.
They are, of course, by far the most sophisticated devices available for
theatre sound score playback They allow the user to configure their audio
playback system from a single computer monitor, for the number of decks
required, the number of tracks allocated to each deck (within the limits of
the system), and the number of output channels to which the tracks are
routed, on a cue by cue basis. If there were ever a product whose time has
come for theatre sound score playback, this is it. Generally speaking, these
systems can handle just about any playback situation that can be thrown at
them, and include many features designed to simplify and organize even the
most complex cueing situations.
Perhaps the only downside to these systems is that they are computer
based, and, rightly so or no~ many theatre practitioners remain wary of incorporating computers into live performances.
Three such systems are now available that are specifically designed for
sound playback for live performance. These are SFX from Stage Research,
Inc., the AudioBox from Richmond Sound Design Ud., and the LD-88 Digital
Mixer \vith Wildtracks option from Level Control Systems. All three systems
were demonstrated at the usm conference in Long Beach.
SFX, from Stage Research, Inc. Carlton Guc, from Stage Research,
Inc., demonstrated the SFX system, and made the foUO\ving comments: "SFX
is a Wmdows-based (NTlWmdows 95) platform that allows us to create our
sound effects on the computer, edit them, put them in a computer, and play
them from the computer. It has the ability to do all of the things that linear
sound devices do-you hit the go button, it plays, stops, the next effect loads
up and the next effect is ready to go. The operator just needs to hit the go button to continue from there. On one side of the screen are cue slatU5 boxes,
you can have as many as you want-you can have one, you can have ten. In
those boxes, it kind of gives us a status of what's happening, you can fast forward a sound, re\vind it. If I have a music cue that's ten minutes long and I
need to get to the middle of i~ I can easily get to it to continue teching the
show. Other important features include individual cue notes, so any cue you
click on you can put notes in the system so you know what they are. Probably
the best feature in the system allows the operator to scale the size of the "GO"
button. In a different work space, you can layer effects, scale volume, assign
outputs, and, through the automation part of SFX, automatically add cues at
56

SUM

MER

TO 8< T

predetemlined start times in tlle sequence. In another kind of show, you can
have multiple cue lists operating simultaneously, which allows you to independently cue sounds from any playlist similar to operating a multi-deck
show. You can then create a master cue list that talks to the other cues lists, so
that all of your cues appear in the proper order together in a single cue list.
All of this is through a Windows interface, so it's drag and drop. The nice
thing about a computer system also is the amount of time and money that you
want to put into it, getting high end cards, low end cards, it's very expandable."
AudioBox, from Richmond Sound Design Ltd. Ken BeU, from
Richmond Sound Design Ltd., demonstrated the AudioBox nex1, and included the foUO\ving description: "When we started out to create tlle
AudioBox, we wanted to do something different than just a playback S) tern.
We wanted to create \vithin one box the equivalent of a rack full of equipment, that could respond to live control. We wanted to have the playback engine, we wanted to have a routing/mixing matrix, we wanted to add delay and
processing, so that one box could store the contents and distribute them to
the various zones of a themed venue \vithout a whole bunch of equipment
needed to do this. Inside the AudioBox, there is a 16 X16 crosspoint matrix.
Each crosspoint can be specified for level and the tinle, so you can fade up,
and fade down, and specify both of those paranleters via MIDI command.
There is five seconds of total delay, and 80 bands of equalization assignable
amongst the 16 inputs and the 16 outputs. The inputs are divided up between
eight auxiliary analog inputs, to which you would connect front of house
mikes, or preshow music sources, and eight streaming audio tracks from the
on-board hard drive. Each of the tracks is independent, and can be started
and stopped separately. With an on-board hard drive of 1.2 gigs, which is
about as small as you can get nowadays, that's just over three hours of recording time. We've been asked about compression, but \vith the cost of media plummeting, this is not an issue. The system ships \vith 'AB Edit/AB Show'
for Wmdows 95. 'AB Control,' a compositional, spatial program for the
Macintosh, and 'Show Man' for Windows NT, are optional."
LD-88 Digital Mixer with Wildtracks option from Level Control Systems. Finally, Richard Zvonar, from Level Control Systems, demonstrated the LD-88 Digital Mixer \vith Wildtracks option and made these
comments: "Level Control Systems makes a digital matrix mixer, tlle LD-88,
which is the core component of our modular Super lova system. Each LD-88
mixer has eight inputs and eight outputs, and there is a digital multichannel
bus (128 channels) that allows you to interconnect up to sixteen of these to
get 128 ins and outs. The audio inputs and outputs use 20-bit conveners and
internally the data format is 32-bit floating point at 48 kHz.
"Our WildTracks playback system consists of a SCSI interface card
which hooks up to an ex1ernal hard drive and gives you s~1een tracks of audio playback without sacrificing any of the inputs. Each one of those tracks
can be triggered individually, and they all have RAM buffering to provide instant start. You can group the tracks for playback in arbitrary wa} , to define
an assortment of virtual playback devices on the fly. You could start out \vith
sixteen mono players, then switch to four four-tracks, a three and a five, or
whatever you want.
"SuperNova is programmed using our CueStation software, which runs
on PowerMac and Intel hardware under the Be operating system. The LD-88
has an embedded automation system, so once a show is programmed, everything is operated from \vithin tlle mixer itself. That actually allows you to remove tlle computer, if you want, and just hook up a go button, and run cues.
''We use a cue-based structure, \vith multiple cue lists. Each cue list
contains cues, each cue contains subcues, and the subcues are used to set up
such things as bus assignments, input fader levels \vith timed fades and pan,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1998