April 24-26, 2019, I designed a sound system and supervised sound for Between Schematics, choreographed and performed by Olana Flynn.
The sound design, created by Olana, consisted of multiple channels of audio playback from QLab, and live inputs from a collection of looping and effect pedals and a microphone. She created soundscapes by effecting and looping audio from the mic, and playing back fixed media audio. My role was providing the sound and audio infrastructure for her to realize her vision.
Some of the aesthetic ideas that Olana was working with were layering, overexposure, “punkness”, and the concept of a pressure cooker. These were manifest in the material of the sound design by “overlayering” loops, using mic handling noise, clicks, and bumps as source material, and messy, visible audio circuitry. I sought to enhance these in the system design by enveloping the audience in sound from all directions, having full low-end, and multiple discrete channels for Olana to layer sound in the space.
The system included 8 full range powered loudspeakers and two powered subwoofers arrayed around the two audience seating areas. Audio was programmed and played back from a mobile QLab show control cart I designed and built. We also used QLab live audio inputs for the audio from the onstage looping setup.
