The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra's December 2017 concert filled with the premiere of Libby Meyer's "Lakescape."
This was a particularly challenging show due to the amount of unique elements required in the music that was performed. A wind machine, water drums, piano string plucks, off-stage vocalists, wine glasses, and flute players breathing were all required to be recorded and amplified throughout the theater. To aid in the amplification of the special effects (such as the water drums - colanders swishing water around in trash cans - and the solo vocalist - singing from one of the Rozsa Theater's lighting "box booms"), I designed a "reverb system" that the recording engineer (Michael Chopp) and I installed in the theater.
The reverb system consisted of 9 EAW MK5164e speakers, 2 EAW JF60z speakers, 1 BLU-806 DSP, and 1 MacPro (to process the reverb and additional effects). All of the microphones were routed through the Rozsa Theater's FOH console before being sent to the "reverb computer" (MacPro) over Dante to be processed and distributed to the 11 additional speakers. This created an effect that was as unique as the instruments the system was amplifying. It allowed the audience to be fully encompassed in the sound of wind and waves as the performers onstage controlled the effects (rather than having playback sent through all of the speakers).
The stereo pair was originally hung from the Rozsa Theater's lighting cloud, but the shadow of the cables was a distraction on the movie screen.
We moved the stereo pair, and added a surround microphone to capture all of the effects that were playing through our additional sound system.
The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra rehearsed three separate times throughout the week leading up to the Saturday night concert.
Two of the rehearsals consisted of partial and out-of-order run-throughs of the three pieces the orchestra was going to be playing. It wasn't until the third and final rehearsal (about 10 hours before the actual concert) that the recording engineer (Michael Chopp) and myself were able to hear the pieces in their entirety.
The Rozsa FOH position typically consists of the Yamaha CL5, a video switcher (with corresponding preview monitor), and the theater's ION lighting console.
I added a two more computers to the location: one computer running Audio Architect (that I left open constantly so I could make changes to the focus of the reverb in the theater) and one computer running Mainstage (that I also left open constantly to make tweaks to the dozen preset reverbs I could send any input through).