Contrasting with the postmodernity of its theme, the recent stage interpretation of Nixon in China for the Teatro Real in Madrid offered traditional production following the operatic principle of ‘clarification not amplification’. Sound designer Cameron Crosby used high-resolution object-based immersive audio for the task, matching Out Board’s TiMax SoundHub spatial audio with vocal tracking from TiMax TrackerD4 to achieve locational audio for the principal performers in real-time.
Discussing the project and the specification in detail with Out Board’s Robin Whittaker, Teatro Real Head of Audio Visual, Fernando Valiente Uceda, confirmed that use of the capabilities and benefits of an end-to-end TiMax system was a positive choice.
TiMax SoundHub formed the spatial core of the sound system, controlled by both the TiMax TrackerD4 and Cue triggers from a DiGiCo SD10 mixing console, with outputs to the loudspeaker system comprised of four main areas, including an orchestra pit system, front stage fill that covered the majority of the auditorium, line arrays directed at the upper balconies and a small number of delays to in fill side seating.
As well as the tracking of the principal singers on the stage, Crosby employed TiMax to integrate audio from the chorus in non- tracked locations both onstage and off, to mix harmoniously with the audio from the moving performers. His aim was to keep the gain structure of the loudspeaker mix to a minimum to ‘…create a soundscape that is able to blend the natural sound coming from the singers with the aural content coming from the loudspeakers. This is the point of using object-based audio so that the reinforced voice enhances the natural voices’.
The fluency of the end-to-end TiMax system meant that ‘the end result was precisely what we had planned, with seamless aural imaging of the sound combining with the direct natural sound from the singers’.
However, Crosby was surprised by the ease of workflow he experienced using TiMax TrackerD4 with TiMax SoundHub. ‘TiMax TrackerD4 provided a dynamic X-Y and Z location for each singer, so that TiMax SoundHub was able to continuously reposition each perceived location to accurately match the actual position of the singers,’ he says. ‘This meant there was never an image shift between the direct and enhanced voices.
‘One of the most powerful features in TiMax TrackerD4 is the ability to restrict the changing of X-Y-Z output when a performer is relatively still. This function reduces any potential delay jittering when a performer moves only slightly.
‘On TiMax SoundHub itself, there are further areas of really well thought-out functionality, and it’s all accessible via clear graphical representations for the level and delay matrices in PanSpace and the TimeLine. For example, the ability to not only adjust the delay settings for tracked and non-tracked sources separately. but to do so easily. Also, the ability to individually adjust the equalisation and delay settings for the outputs: it’s so simple and accessible.’
More: www.outboard.co.uk
