The Tony Award-winning Old Globe (San Diego, Calif.) is hosting hit play Sammy, based on the life of Sammy Davis Jr. Sound design was handled by John Shivers and David Patridge, with gear provided by Masque Sound. The duo took advantage of the theater’s Yamaha PM5D digital audio consoles, citing the ability to cascade the inputs from a MY16-AT card to bus the sound effects system into the P.A. Effects were programmed using QLab Version 2 that was used as a master cue list to recall scenes in the PM5D. QLab’s audio was routed over optical from an RME Fireface 800 to the PM5D’s card slot, cascaded to the buses and, in turn, routed to various speakers.
Patridge says that a Yamaha DM1000 was paired with two AD8HR external preamp units to serve as a submix for drums and percussion, as the sound design for Sammy exceeded the inputs available on the PM5D. “We like the higher-quality microphone preamps available via the AD8HR and the ability to pair them with Yamaha’s product line of digital consoles using MY slots, and serial control of preamp functionality is very convenient.”
Old Globe engineer Erik Carstensen handled FOH mixing duties, and this is the second project he has mixed for Shivers and Patridge. “Erik combines a good deal of industry experience as a sound engineer with a calm and good-natured demeanor?an excellent combination for a venue that could easily produce 15 different works in a season,” Patridge says.
Adds Carstensen, “I find that changing and storing EQ and dynamics settings, for example, is achieved quickly — vital in the production process where audio usually doesn’t get a lot of time to get it right. On top of that, using the PM5D with our DME64N has been very reliable, show after show.”