AVID AT THE CONTROLS
LIVE EVENT WAR OF THE WORLDS
“The War Of The Worlds pre-production is produced in Pro Tools|HD. Once complete, the Pro Tools sessions are taken to rehearsals and provide the timecode source for all systems syncs”
GAËTAN SCHURRER Music engineer
Gaëtan Schurrer is the pre-production music engineer for the stage version of Jeff Wayne’s musical War Of The Worlds. He started his career working in a keyboard shop but was offered a programmer position by Trevor Horn in his team at ZTT records. Going freelance shortly thereafter, Schurrer was approached by Jeff Wayne to work in his studio, originally as his synthesizer and sequencing programmer.
In 2004 Schurrer rebuilt the entire War of The Worlds recording and remixed it in 5.1 surround sound with Gary Langan. “The original album was remixed in 5.1 surround sound in Pro Tools|HD and re-released in 2005 in the SuperAudioCD format exclusively,” he says. “Mixing in 5.1 in Pro Tools allowed a level of creativity that had been unattainable before, and the resultant mixes speak for themselves.”
Schurrer then single-handedly adapted the work for its first touring production in 2006. The 30th anniversary tour kicked off in 2009 and has been so successful that it now stretches stretches well into 2011 with dates across Europe. As the show has developed, so Schurrer has incorporated Avid’s Pro Tools into more and more of the production. Now it’s seemingly used at every step of the way. It is there at the start of the process, to help control elements during the show and then to record the finished results. “The whole War Of The Worlds pre- production phase is produced in Pro Tools|HD,” says Schurrer. “Once complete, the Pro Tools sessions are taken to rehearsals, as these form the backbone of the show, providing the timecode source for all systems syncs (video projection, holographic head projection, light show, pyrotechnics
AVID WINS THE LIVE AUDIO
and backing tracks). Once fine tuned, the material is transferred from the Pro Tools|HD rig to hard disk recorder playback units with failsafe backups running in sync for the shows.” “During the shows,” he continues,
“The Pro Tools main rig is usually set up as a recorder for archival purposes, and an auxiliary Pro Tools rig runs in sync to provide the Big Bar Counter we video-distribute across the stage for all the musicians to follow. The Avid VENUE D-Show console and sidecart are used at front of house to mix the backing tracks, live band and orchestra.” Schurrer has been working with Pro
Tools for the best part of a decade on the show and now has the ultimate live set-up including Avid’s VENUE console. “Pro Tools’ integration with VENUE in our live shows has proven very beneficial,” he says.
WAR ON THIS HUGE PRODUCTION • One of Pro Tools’ main roles here is as timecode source to sync all the major components of the live performance • Pro Tools’ plug-ins help provide many effects for the show, which requires a vast range of sonic incidentals
create STO R I E S
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