Meyer Sound News : Meyer Sound Matrix3 & Loudspeakers Create Bold Soundscapes for Atlanta: The Musical

Meyer Sound Matrix3 & Loudspeakers Create Bold Soundscapes for Atlanta: The Musical

"In the battle scenes, they wanted gunshots coming from specific locations, not just ambient sounds. The Matrix3 system is so completely integrated with the console that it actually makes it easy to accomplish those difficult moves."

- Brian Hsieh
Sound Designer, Atlanta: The Musical

Created by actor and film director Adrian Pasdar and Grammy-winning songwriter Marcus Hummon, Atlanta: The Musical, is an audacious mixture of Shakespeare, Civil War legends, and surreal comedy. The fantastical plot was played out at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles to a lively score written by Hummon, blending soulful gospel with folk and bluegrass styles. Mixing, processing and signal distribution duties for the adventurous mix of audio material were accomplished with a Meyer Sound system of self-powered loudspeakers, CueConsole control surface and Matrix3 audio show control system.

"The variety of sound effects and musical material presented some interesting challenges," says sound designer Brian Hsieh. "We had singers and acoustic music in an intimate space, ranging from soft ballads to high-energy R&B style gospel numbers."

Hsieh specified a complete Matrix3 system that included three processors, equipped with Wild Tracks hard disk playback for audio in/out, playback, processing and signal distribution. The CueConsole at FOH position provided a modular collection of control surfaces for the Matrix3 system, offering optimal sound quality and flexibility.

"The Meyer Sound system greatly simplified the whole process because I was able to do all the processing, matrixing and routing within one system," remarks Hsieh. "The only outboard gear was a couple reverb units. And I could have something ready to go within minutes of the time the director first asked for it."

Provided by Hollywood-based Jon Sound, Inc., the main music system for the 525-seat theater was comprised of a L/R pair of CQ-1 loudspeakers providing for the main floor, with UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers covering the balcony seating.

According to Hsieh, the directors were particular about the nature and location of sounds. "In the battle scenes, they wanted gunshots coming from specific locations, not just ambient sounds," says Hsieh. "The Matrix3 system is so completely integrated with the console that it actually makes it easy to accomplish those difficult moves."

Hsieh cites one instance in which the powerful capabilities of Matrix3 system helped solve a difficult challenge. "In one scene, a character climbs up on a ridge and sings to quiet the guns. It's a gradual, multi-layered fade-out, partly cued by the operator and partly by wait times, with different fade times for different parts of the house. You just can't do that with any other system."

April, 2008