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to a recording engineer and began to produce some of the world’s best-loved albums from a number of high profile artists. It wasn’t until just over 10 years later, in 1982, when Martin began to work in theatre. Martin worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the studio side, and it’s no coincidence that it was he who invited Martin to work on his first theatre production, Song & Dance in London. After taking up the position, Martin went on to earn himself a credible reputation amongst his fellow theatre enthusiasts. He worked on many famous productions including Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Sunset Boulevard. Martin went back to the studio side in the early ‘90s, when he set up his own recording studio, Red Kite Studio in the charming Welsh countryside. Martin’s work has inspired Hendrik during his career, so much so that when the Palladium Theater asked him to supply a sound design, which the theatre would purchase specifically for the production of Rebecca, he opted to base his design around the A-B system Martin developed in 1988.
Sound Coordinator of Stage Entertainment Germany, Michel Weber, is responsible for budget, communication, installation and all sound relating issues during the process of specifying audio equipment for a specific production. Michel said: “The designer does the sound design, he specifies the system, the amps, console and the positions of the speakers.”
The system design for Rebecca started with APG inviting Hendrik to Paris to hear its new line array system. He had worked with APG products in the past so he was aware of their capabilities, Hendrik listened to the Uniline and loved it. He said: “I’ve always been inter- ested to see what line arrays could do [in theatre], as they give you directivity. It’s the opposite of a coaxial system. I wanted to achieve that nice focus on stage, but until the Uniline system came around line arrays didn’t match with the coaxial system. You would hear two different systems. The Uniline is very direct, and it matched very well with the coaxial speakers. It brings different dimensions and a depth of sound.”
The Uniline system is flown above the stage in a central cluster and it comprises 24 APG UL210 cabinets in two hangs of 12, plus four APG TB215S subwoofers, two on each outer edge. The left hang represents the A system, while the right hang is the B system and together they create the A-B system. Hendrik explained further: “The advantage of the A-B system is when people are on stage for example, singing to each other, they don’t have phasing. If you have
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just one system, and people talk to each other, you will get some phasing. Basically, both microphones not only hear that voice, they also hear the opposite voice as well. So when you feed both micro- phones into one source you get phasing because of the time delay. “Now, with the A-B system, you can put one person in one system and the other person in another system so they are totally separate. With a lot of microphones plugged into one system it can sometimes get a little bit mushy and I guess the A-B system kind of cleans that up a bit.”
In addition to the APG Uniline array, Hendrik specified eight APG SMX15 as proscenium speakers, which are hidden behind a speaker gauze because Hendrik doesn’t like the look of speakers. The speaker gauze was created by stretching special speaker cloth over a frame. The cloth is transparent enough for the sound to pass through, but at the same time thick enough so the speaker can’t be seen. Hendrik said of the SMX15’s: “I started using coaxial speakers because I think they work very well in theatre, very dimensional and they sound very natural. The SMX15’s are actually very close to being a studio monitor, so whatever you put in there is what’s coming out.
“I think in theatre it’s very very nice if you don’t have colourations, and the dispersion of the speakers engage the room. I like that people sit in the room and don’t feel that the sound is coming from the speaker. I like that they sit in the sound, not even really thinking about sound, that in fact they are just trying to follow the story.” Completing the APG speaker line-up are five APG DS15S coaxial speakers for sound effects, six APG TB118S effect subwoofers in cardioid configuration, plus an impressive 146 APG MX1’s, the smallest speaker in the APG range. Michel said: “APG was a very good partner for us. They understood our problem of choosing the somewhat unknown Uniline system, but guaranteed maximum sup- port and taking part of our ‘risk’. Personally I have a very positive feeling about APG, and that made it easier to go for it.” There are five MX1’s per side on stage to add depth, some are used as front fills, others are mounted on the wall for surround sound, and the remainder have been installed under the balcony for delays. Hendrik said: “We have a lot of surround speakers on the wall. They are used for sound effects and ambiant sounds to make it sound as natural as possible. We’re using Cadac D16’s as a matrix to feed those sound effects into all the speakers.”
The Cadac theme continues at FOH, which has three Cadac J-
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