Recently reopened on New York City’s Off-Broadway circuit, Here Lies Love tells Imelda Marcos’ story in song with lyrics by Talking Heads founder David Byrne and music by Byrne and DJ Norman Cook.
The show was born as a music recording, with performances from Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos and Allison Moorer, but in theatre the cast is mobile and uses a complex sound system to keep the audio in phase and in focus. Holding it together is a DiGiCo SD10T mixing console supplied by Masque Sound. ‘This is really an incredible production, visually, but the sound is every bit as amazing,’ says Cody Spencer, who serves as co-sound designer on the show, along with ML Dogg.
Spencer describes a multi-speaker sound system that spotlights sound around the performance space, keeping it with actors as they move from stages at either end of the room, yet evenly distributed across the audience. The audio is comprised of music stems used as backing for the vocals (taken from the original album that was pre-mixed by Fatboy Slim) and some vivid sound effects that inject nearly 110dB of realism into the show, including an imagined version of the helicopter that whisked Marcos and her husband away from the Philippine capital as their reign came crashing down.
Working in conjunction with QLab 3 live show control software and DiGiCo’s UB Madi USB-to-Madi converter, which can add up to 48 channels of Madi-format digital I/O to a Mac or PC via USB, the SD10T allows Spencer to insert time delay functionality within the crosspoint matrix of the console’s router. This essentially lets the sound system be constantly adapted to the show’s performance as the actors change position through the space but without changing the overall level of the system.
‘Imagine standing directly between two speakers in a room that are at the same volume, and you add delay to one speaker,’ he says, referring to the Precedence or Haas Effect. ‘The speaker without the delay is perceived as being louder even through the volume level on both speakers remains the same. Imagine that taking place across dozens of speakers as actors are moving all over the space, but you have the ability to add delay exactly where and when you need it. That’s what the SD10T brings to this show. The versatility and flexibility of the console’s matrix is the main reason we chose it. I can’t think of another console that has that kind of capability without having to use external processing.’
Spencer also reports that the show’s FOH mixer, Craig Freeman, uses the SD10T’s ability to move any of its metering to its large overview screens. Due to the nature of the production, Freeman has to mix the show from what would be the monitor position in any other theater in order to keep track of levels visually. Onboard processing includes 16 Dynamic EQ processors, all of which can be assigned to any of the input or output channels, plus 16 assignable multiband compressors and 16 assignable DiGiTuBes, DiGiCo’s tube emulation software, which Spencer says has become critical to the show’s sound quality, taking the edge off the brightness of the AIFF files the music tracks use. ‘DiGiTuBes really warms the tracks up,’ he says.
Spencer says that the console offers him an unprecedented level of control:‘I also have to credit Zac Jac Duax at Group One for his help. He really got us comfortable with the console quickly. DiGiCo brought us a great console with excellent support. That’s what you want behind you on opening night and every night.’
The DiGiCo console is one of three recently purchased by the New Jersey-based company, the other two being used on Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony in L, and the touring production of the ABBA-soundtracked musical Mamma Mia! Here Lies Love, meanwhile, has received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, an Obie Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics, and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music, Lighting Design and Projection Design.
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