"While the theatre was working on replacing its business systems, I set about drawing up a scheme for a dedicated sound computer, which would enable us to produce sound effects for shows," explained Nick. "I then spoke to Andy Huffer at Marquee Audio about designing a hard disk recording system based around the industry-standard Logic Audio software package." The Shepperton-based suppliers built a powerful PC for the Lyric to meet Nick Manning’s specification for a 1GHz, Pentium III CPU, with 256Mb RAM and external SCSI hard drive. The audio is interfaced via a Soundscape Mixstreme sound card, with some effects plug-in tools.
Marquee also supplied a Fatar Studio Logic master MIDI keyboard and a USB card which allows their Akai 6000 sampler (supplied by Marquee a year ago), to interface with the computer. The aim was to enhance the Lyric’s facility for creating sound effects - and this, along with the BBC Sound Effects Library which the theatre has also acquired, will be available for hire.