d&b Soundscape ensures perfect delivery for Orpheus and Eurydice at Edinburgh International Festival.
Cameron Crosby’s sound design for Orpheus and Eurydice at Edinburgh International Festival used d&b Soundscape, plus its new Create.Control interface, to achieve seamless vocal localisation. The result was a discreet solution that preserved operatic tradition while providing naturalistic coverage for every seat in the house . . .
Setting the Scene
As a highlight of Scotland’s cultural calendar, attracting artists and audiences from across the world, Edinburgh International Festival has the highest standards for live sound. In August, the International Festival again drew on the benefits of technology from d&b audiotechnik, supplied by the Festival’s rental partner, Glasgow-based FE Live.
This year saw significant debuts for Edinburgh International Festival and d&b, including one of the first UK deployments of the new CCL (Compact Cardioid Line Array) system, in Usher Hall. But another highlight, a dynamic staging of Gluck’s opera, Orpheus & Eurydice, saw another notable first – the combined use of d&b Soundscape along with the first application of its new software, Create.Control.
Presented by Edinburgh International Festival and Opera Australia, Opera Queensland’s Production of Orpheus and Eurydice in Association with Circa Opera Australia, is an ‘aerial opera’ featuring the acrobatic talents, with leading opera singers lestyn Davies and Samantha Clarke, accompanied by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The show’s sound designer, Cameron Crosby, has long experience with d&b Soundscape, so was well-equipped to bring its extraordinary benefits to this production.
Setting Objectives
Crosby well understands opera’s sensitivity to ‘amplification’, but here, at the large, 3,000-capacity Edinburgh Playhouse, there was no other option.
Andrew Kirkby, Head of Sound for Edinburgh International Festival, says, “The opera world is understandably guarded about amplification, but we made it a requirement, mainly as an insurance policy: we can always turn a speaker down, but if there's no speaker there to begin with, we can't turn it up.”
Although the use of Soundscape was not confirmed until relatively late in the process, Crosby’s design was ready. He says, “From the very beginning I designed the system to work with Soundscape, but I knew it could be used without, if needed.”
A key part of the preparation phase was making sure everyone was comfortable with the concept of Soundscape’s object-based mixing. “I spent a lot of time ensuring the production team and the performers understood what we were trying to do,” he says. “I always describe it as ‘clarification, not amplification’. That helps to reassure performers that we're not taking anything away from them.”
The Solution
Crosby designed a discreet, multi-level delay system drawing largely on compact loudspeakers from d&b’s E-Series. E8 cabinets provided front-fill, with E5s plus V-Subs for the Stalls, and a combination of E4s and E5s for the Circle, with T10 as Circle side-fills and further E4s as pocket fills. For the Balcony level, Y10P cabinets on the advance truss were complemented by T-Subs.
For the orchestra, two E12s were angled up to enhance the natural reflections from the pit, while the stage was served by Y7Ps overhead, with E8s providing proscenium foldback. Audio was routed via a Dante network with four DS10s into D40 and D80 amplifiers.
The Soundscape system worked flawlessly, with the new Create.Control interface providing a spatial canvas. Commenting on Create.Control, Kirkby says, “It gave a number of advantages, especially visually. It brings in the venue data from ArrayCalc, and a full view shows exactly where things are.”
The integration of a Zactrack automated tracking system helped to implement Soundscape in what was a very tight production schedule.
Conclusion
With another Soundscape success to his name, Crosby comments, “When Soundscape is combined with tracking, it is what I – and I imagine most sound engineers – have always wanted. It allows us to lock the aural image of the performers to the visual image. In a classical environment like opera, to keep the image with Soundscape is fabulous.”
Of the performance of the d&b loudspeaker system itself, Crosby says, “For me, d&b has always sounded natural. Sometimes, I have to use alternatives – but given a choice, d&b is what I would work with.”
The compact form of the speakers is also an important plus, Crosby believes. “When trying to deliver a system that’s as naturalistic as possible, there is an advantage to smaller boxes, because people assume there's nothing there. Even industry regulars can assume there's nothing there!”
Kirkby agrees. “It was so successful that most were unaware it was amplified. One said to me, ‘I know we've paid for this, but I’m going to need a lot of convincing that it was actually on!’”
He concludes, “Our goal was not to make it louder, but to make it truer. Using Soundscape with Zactrack and Cameron’s layered delay design, the sound breathed with the performers. For the audience, the technology was invisible – they simply felt closer to the story.”
