Sound Design: A Process

 Case Study

Check out this video from the National Theatre featuring sound designer and composer Alma Kelliher where she talks about her design philosophy and process.

Designing Sound for Theatre Links to an external site.

(Length 6:55) from the National Theatre on YouTube

 Establishing the World

1. Read the script. The script is the first and foremost resource a designer has for the show. Most designers suggest reading the script the first time as "an audience member." Try and avoid the impulse to start planning or taking notes just yet. The goal for the first-read is to come away with an impression of the show and an emotional response to it.
2. Meet with the Director and the other designers. Talk about the show, what you liked, what you have questions about, and discuss the director's plans and visions for the show.
3. Do audio research. This can be audio effects, music, music styles, soundscapes, or whatever else that speaks to the show, the historical period, or the location for you as the designer. Your research should focus on various scenes, locations, moods, or themes. Grab a little bit of everything or collect a lot of variety. If it sounds like the show to you, it is fair game.
4. Share your research with the rest of the team. Preferably through nice speakers or headphones. You never know what sound or piece of music might spark either your imagination or those of your collaborators. 
5. Read the script again and take notes. This time, put on your designer hat. Examine the action of each scene, the dialogue, the lyrics and style of music (if a musical), and jot down reactions or specific needs for each scene (such as the number of performers onstage, needed sound effects, etc.)
6. Decide on a path forward. Get on the same page with the director and the rest of the creative team of how you all would like to approach the show and what you want to focus on.

 Designing

Taking all of their conversations with the director and other members of the creative team into account, the sound designer will start to design the show as soon as they can. As a part of their design process, sound designers may perform a multitude of tasks, including:

• creating sound effects, atmospherics, audio textures or ambiences (also known as soundscapes)
• selecting, editing, remixing, or writing/composing/creating music
• advising how to best hear the performers
• advising on sound specific adjustments to the theatre or set design
• and culminating in designing a sound system specific to the production and the venue

While designing, the sound designer has to remember that they have two primary jobs at once:

• to deliver clear, evocative sound for each section of the audience
• support the work of the orchestra, cast, and director

Their job is not just creating the sound effects, music, or soundscape. It is overseeing everything sound-related in the production. They need to make sure the orchestra can hear what they need to play appropriately, that the cast can hear appropriately to sing and dance, and that the audience can clearly and stylistically hear every word, note, and effect to understand the story. As a result, the sound designer is often highly collaborative with the director, music director, and composer during the pre-production process.

This also involves making specific choices in the types of speakers, microphones, mixer, and monitors, as well as their placements relative to each other and throughout the venue. Everything from the shape and size of the venue to the style of the music and show informs these decisions. Large venues have different needs than small venues, and a traditional orchestral score will require different choices than a pop-rock score.

The paperwork

To communicate their ideas and system setup to the sound engineer and the entire sound department, the sound designer will create a speaker plot and a system flow diagram.

The speaker plot shows every speaker for the show: their type, characteristics, position, and purpose throughout the entire venue. Most theatre audio systems rely on the idea of zones, or breaking down the theatre venue and the audience seating into areas so that the sound can be tailored specifically to each location within the house. In a large proscenium theatre (like the ones on Broadway) you might have zones for the orchestra seating, mezzanine, balcony, and under balcony, each requiring different speakers and subsystems in order to deliver the same sounding show to that zone.

The system flow diagram is a linear chart that shows each piece of gear required to create the working sound system and all of the ways that it is routed and connected together.

Example speaker plot: Glass Menagerie speaker plot.pdf Download Glass Menagerie speaker plot.pdf

Example system flow diagram: TheatreUCF - MS Line Diagram 9-19-19.pdf Download TheatreUCF - MS Line Diagram 9-19-19.pdf

Rehearsals, Build and Technical Rehearsals

This point in the process is where the sound designer's true work begins.

Rehearsals

Especially if the show is particularly sound heavy, the sound designer should try to be in rehearsals with the actors, music director, composer, and director as much as possible. The actors may need to hear a particular effect, note, or even specific instrument in order to achieve a particular moment. The soundscape or underscoring might need to specifically crafted based on some blocking or to support a moment that they are having trouble landing in the rehearsal room. Bonus points if the sound designer can be setup to play back and modify their rough sound effects, soundscapes, or original music in the rehearsal room during rehearsal.

Build

During the hang and setup of the speakers and sound system, the sound designer is often interacting with the crew remotely - answering questions, solving problems, and making adjustments via email, texts, and phone calls as the crew gets the sound ready for the designer's arrival at the theatre. A sound designer is hardly ever hanging or cabling the equipment themselves, with the exception of small, low-budget shows.

Designer Run

Once the show is close to going into technical rehearsals, the director and stage manager will schedule a designer run for all of the designers to come to the rehearsal studio and watch the show from beginning to end. The sound designer will especially make sure they are in attendance.

During this run-through of the show, the sound designer will annotate their copy of the script with placements for and notes about sound cues and mic pickups. These placement and cue decisions can be influenced by everything from the blocking and choreography, to the music, to who is speaking at a given moment, to even things like how long a scene change needs to be.

They will also spend some time in the hours or days after this run finessing their script to get these placements and pickups fully notated and show ready. Any sound effect cue placements will also be communicated to the stage manager for calling.

Ring Out

While all the sound equipment has at this point been hung, cabled, and are ready for the designer to use, they are not yet ready to start cuing with. To be able to reach that point, the sound designer and technicians will get together for a work session called the ring out.

During this time, the sound designer will work through the entire system with the technicians to test, tune, and point each speaker in order for it to do the job that they drafted it to do, and they will make any adjustments that are needed based on what they are hearing in the space. Since sound plots can often contain tens or even hundreds of individual speakers and mics, this call can take many hours or even days to accomplish. But by the end of this call, all the sound equipment will be focused correctly and tuned to the unique acoustical properties of the venue.

Technical Rehearsals

Like with the other designers, the technical rehearsals are the sound designer's opportunity to make adjustments to their design for the show.

In professional theatre, it is rare for the sound designer to also be the one mixing or running the show. That is the job of the Sound Engineer (also called the A1).

The sound designer partners with the sound engineer to make adjustments to the equalization, volume, and mixing of the show. The designer will also make cue adjustments like changing or modifying effects, soundscapes, or underscore-like music. They will also work with the stage manager on the placement of cues, and with the actors on their microphone placement (if the actors are in body mics).

By the end of tech, the show is fully in the hands of the sound engineer, the rest of the sound team, and the stage manager.