We pulled small clips from famous classical pieces for scene transitions. Unfortunately, I am not sure about the copyright status of the recordings so I cannot post them here.
The show takes place in 1700s Italy. The director wanted to put on a very traditional show in the comedia style. As such there was not a ton of sounds needed. Most of the work was finding pieces of music for scene transitions.
From the start we wanted to keep it based in classical and baroque styles. We played with the idea of using classical renditions of popular music and using them as a bit of foreshadowing. We were also playing with the idea of selecting music based on the characters in the scene(i.e. scenes with younger people had classical version of modern music), but we decided that it did not read as well as we liked. Ultimately we decided to keep it very traditional and just use all classical/baroque music.
On the sound effect front, I did have to build several door knocking effects. I went around knocking on various walls and doors around the set and theater. I used a small USB audio interface and a Shure SM58 to record the sounds. I believe the final one used was a clip of me knocking on one of the set doors built for the show.
I also have recordings of various characters that have been processed for effect, but they contain parts of the script. To avoid copyright issues I cannot post them here.
For this show we had a live band, so there was not a lot of canned sounds that were needed as the band provided a lot of them live. We did record the lines for the the captain of the guard and the knight of the mirrors. We also had a few sounds for the box that Don Quixote enters the space with being lowered into the space at the top of the show.
The knight of the mirrors lines were recorded because he has a large helmet during his scene and we wanted an interesting effect. I used a Shure SM58 and a small audio interface to record him. I then used a pitch changer, reverb, and equalizer to make the voice sound very alien and surreal.
The captain of the guard was recorded with the same small audio interface, but this time I used an AKG C414 as we knew we wanted to do very little processing and capture the performance.
The sound effects were recorded with varous gear. There are a few iterations based on what hardware we were using on the box at the time. For the first run we had and electric winch lowering the box. We remountd the show to prepare it to travel to the KCACTF Region 8 festival and we used lights and sounds to sell the fact that the box had fallen. We did this because the destination venue did not have the ability to support our rigging system.
There are a few sounds that are from a radio sequence that I can't post as they contain parts of the script. They were processed to sound like an old radio as the play was set in the 30s.
Sound samples coming soon.
This show was the first show that I have designed where there were a variety of sounds and music throughout the piece. We decided early on that we were not going to create ambiance. Instead, we decided to keep it to what was explicitly called for in the script and only adding things that would support the narrative. The play was set in 1935-1938, so that narrowed the kinds of sound and music that could be played. I made the radios sound old, the cars noisy, and any music that was played during or before the show was period.
One pivotal scene in the beginning of the play takes place in a family parlor around a large old radio. Luckily we had one in storage that was donated a wile back. Oiginally we were going to try to put a speaker in it and create our own wireless audio link. However, after the director heard it through the mains during rehearsal, she liked it and did not feel that we had to go through the trouble of converting the radio to play sounds. As much as I would have enjoied the project to get wireless audio to that speaker, it added a long list of potential faults. In the long run, this was such a technically involved show that I am glad that we tried to keep everything simple where we could.
The radio scene has complimentary audio, too. Originally we were thinking about doing it live and creating a sort of "sub-space" on stage for the character to be with an old style microphone. Ultimately we elected to pre-recrd it. Luckily we did as, it would have added another quick change in a show that was already running with minimum time quick changes. I recorded the actor with a variety of microphones so I did not have to try to get him back in the studio. I used an AKG C414, Electrovoice EV20 (actually a broadcasting mic), and a Shure SM57. I ended up liking the EV20 the most as it gave me the best processed effect. I was going for the old tube radio sound, so I added a peak at around 2.5kHz and severly attenuated the highs and lows. This gave a good muted effect that, coupled with a static loop, created a convincing old radio sound.
For the music that we played, we wanted to bring our audience into the world of the play when they were taking their seat and during intermission. I pulled a lot of 30s Jazz and Swing as those were very popular at the time.