The amalgamation of acoustic and digital audio techniques for the creation of adaptable sound output for musical theatre

Abstract

There are many facets that influence the quality of a musical theatre production. The visual appeal is created from the décor, costumes and lighting, whereas the plot, pace, and relationship a listener develops with the characters are fundamental to the performance quality. However, one often overlooked factor is the impact of sound quality. The perception of sound quality is subjective but is greatly impacted by the environment in which the listener finds themselves. If the projection of the music is underwhelming in depth and expression, or the balance of the dynamics and timbre are badly mixed, this can jeopardise the production’s success, regardless of the quality of the composition or the visual aspects. The production budget for a musical performance can be prohibitive. As a result, prerecorded music is often used as an alternative substitute to live musicians. However, the subjective authenticity of a musical may be jeopardized by the exclusion of live musicians and create additional challenges and performance limitations. One such challenge is the environment in which music will be played. Recorded music is usually created in a single format such as compact disc or for broadcasting, and the cost of recording be can just as expensive as a live performance, especially on large scale works. Time and budget constraints may impact the sound quality. In addition to this, the varying acoustic properties of potential venues may emphasise sonic gaps and flaws contributing to a listener’s negative perception of the sound quality, resulting in a compromised experience of the performance as a whole. This mixed method dissertation offers a systematic explanation to potentially resolve these challenges and limitations by conceptualising established knowledge of sound, audio and acoustics to formulate a framework for adaptive sound. These concepts are put into practice by creating a specifically designed audio recording that is experimented with in multiple theatre scenarios to successfully achieve optimal adaptation of the sound for the theatre environment.