HUNGER
An original play by Ben Yoganathan. Premiering at the Terra Firma 2022 Festival
Sound Designer
Working closely with the director, a local composer, and performers, this show set out to create and enhance tension on the stage. Finn worked to immerse and move audiences into the changing scenes and feelings in the scenes. This is accomplished through an extensive library of sound effects and jazz composition. Using a robust system design with over 14 speakers, Finn was able to immerse and create motion in the sound to engage audiences and move this dynamic performance. Finn led the audience up the story curve by guiding the audience through the escalating sensations of the performers, finally culminating in an explosion of sensation.
System Design and Drafting
Beginning the system design process, I set out to create an immersive design where I could immerse audiences in sound from all directions. When securing a venue, I began to design originally with the intention of using smaller speakers with 8-ich to 10-inch drivers for a smaller profile to allow me to get more positions. Unfortunately, my design had to be adjusted based on suppliers inventories which are how we landed on the design you see in front of you. With all the speakers being individually controlled, I was able to place sound effects and music very precisely to direct attention and immerse audiences.
When thinking about the logistics and the acoustics of the space, my concept for a larger number of output devices was further reinforced. When dealing with smaller spaces like this, with reflective surfaces, I prefer to use many speakers spread across the space and run them at a lower level to reduce the amount of clutter in the acoustic space. I also try to reduce the amount of audible low-end and depend on the low-end that you feel for effects or specific moments. This helps reduce the amount of low and buildup in mud that will come into the mix.
Distribution and power were also a concern when moving into the space as there were few details that the festival organizers could provide about the location. Unfortunately, as this was out of my team and the production’s hands, I just ordered gear with contingency in mind; extra cables, some battery-powered speakers and a request for power that meets the amps acquirements. I also made the side fills to be on tripods and completely wireless as I knew they would be surrounded by audiences and like would be struck between shows. Therefore, I elected to use battery-powered speakers and wireless transmitters and receivers, which tend to work well for this application. I also implemented some battery-powered Bluetooth speakers for practical sound effects such as phone rings etc.
Show file and Sound FX design
Beginning from my first reading of the script, I formed and refined my concepts for this peace. Around the third reading or so, the director, composer and I had found placements for the musical moments and what they should sound like. These decisions, of course, were reimagined and changed through the rehearsal and tech process.
With the composer working on writing and recording the music, I could move my focus to developing, finding, and making the sounds that I would need. I started by creating an audible set or sound scrape in my mind, then picked out the individual sounds, volume, location etc. of the sounds. This was then used to populate my content sheet. I then was able to go through the script in a few more passes to develop scene-specific sounds and FX to adjust the soundscape to match the tone of the scene and/or the sense that was about to happen or just happened. This was done by either tweaking or affecting the existing soundscapes, or one aspect, or completely different sounds, compositions, changes in layering or stand-alone FXs. This all when into my content sheet along with some contingencies, backups, and tools. Once this was compiled, acquiring or making the sounds was only limited by time and budget.
Once all the sounds were gathered, I began to arrange the sound in Qlab, where I took advantage of timeline groups primarily to create sound cues. This configuration allows me to create custom sound scapes more easily on sight without baking, allowing me more flexibility on sight. I also ruffed in sound placement based on my patch information and mostly worked out time, spacing, etc. This non-baked workflow, I believe, allowed me to make my cue perfectly fit the space, but this did me that I have over seven hundred sound elements in my Qlab file. As I was running this on a reliable computer, I did not use preloads, but I might consider this for a remount to increase reliability on less powerful computers.
Finally, the last step was to add and level the music into a mix of sound effects. Then once in the space, I must adjust the patch based on the changes made during the installation and adjust the sounds to the space, room, performers, system, etc.
Soundtracks are not included due to file size limitations and to prevent copyright abuse. If interested in experiencing the show file with the audio tracks, please contact Finn.