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Yamaha PM5D Digital Mixer Hits the Road With ChicagoTheres an old joke among Broadway sound designers and engineers: How do you change out a house console during a tour? Answer: Very carefully.Chicago front of house engineer Mary McFadden and the PM5D. Actually, its not an old theater production joke. Its not even funny. But it is true. Ask Mary McFadden. McFadden, front of house engineer for the touring company of the Tony award-winning musical Chicago, oversees audio for a concert-style production. Theres no pit orchestra the bandstand is the set, onstage, and the bandstand is the only scenery. In early 2004, McFadden, the shows sound system designer, and Scott Lehrer, decided to change out an analog FOH console for a digital desk, a Yamaha PM5D. The touring shows production package grew out of a system redesign when Chicago moved from Broadways 1,587-seat Schubert Theater to the smaller Ambassador. At that time, a Yamaha DM2000 sidecar was added into the system, replacing an analog board, and joined to a smaller mainframe analog desk to shrink the mix position footprint in the smaller venue. The touring system replicated the new Broadway package, with a difference. Lehrer added a Yamaha DME32 digital mix engine. Scott added the DME32 to take advantage of its delay matrix component, says McFadden. Our original intent was to delay every group individually in each speaker to create a coherent sound image. We realized that there was no way I could use a delay matrix in each city given the time constraints of a 16-hour load-in. But what we were able to do with the DME was develop a method of imaging based on the vocal groups. We delay each instrument group, and try to get the arrival times to coincide with what is coming off the stage. At this point, McFadden has a system anchored by the two digital products that tours North America for nearly two years without a problem, something that McFadden considers pretty remarkable. However, the analog FOH console proved to be the weak link in the signal chain, and is plagued by constant repairs. By late 2004, Lehrer and McFadden decided to replace it. FOH Engineer McFadden Gears Up for Show But before heading out, McFadden pulled all the wiring out of the failing analog console, stuffed it into a duffle bag, and had it shipped to Vegas. Yamaha shipped a PM5D to Production Resource Group in Vegas, where she set up the board in an office and began programming the show, replicating it in about a week. McFadden completed programming the PM5D and it was shipped to San Jose to join the tour in Jan. 2005. Leher flew out and approved the programming. A few days later, after a two-hour sound check, the result: a perfect show. Im dealing with a smaller number of control faders than I had with my old analog desk, she says, but I forgot to look at my hands during the show because I was so excited by the way it sounded. It was colorful, smooth, and had no great change in frequency response irrespective of gain, which has never been my experience until now. A lack of phasing in the chorus was especially noticeable. McFaddens show package signal chain has eight instrument groups come analog out of the DM2000 orchestra sidecar into the PM5D. The eight groups come in as channels, and she uses the 5D effects returns as four of these inputs. Actor radios, reverbs and sound effects are added in the main console. A total of 16 analog group outs of from the PM5D go into in the DME32 and are then matrixed into speaker outputs. The outputs from the DME32 are analog because the swap-out for the original analog desk occurred during a two-hour sound check. The DME32 would only clock with the 5D if it ran at 48k, says McFadden. We chose to keep it all analog and run the 5D at 96k. The consoles onboard DSP has allowed her to empty her outboard compression rack. Im moving the show in North America once a week, she says. The PM5D has been on at least 30 one-weekers, and has gone to Taiwan and Japan and back to the States twice. Its seen some pretty rough handling, and not one thing has ever malfunctioned on it. I have a level of confidence in this gear that I would have for a show that doesn't move. Every time I turn it on, I fully expect it to work 100 percent, and that has not been my experience with touring analog gear. Aside from reliability and durability, McFadden is clearly knocked out by the way her show sounds, as are the musical directors, stage managers, and local promoters. We were in Madison, Wisconsin at the new Overture Center, she says, and the house sound man there told me the theatre got tons of compliments on the sound of the show, and zero complaints. Its like that pretty much everywhere we go.
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