It's still one of the largest touring productions in the UK, with a company of over 50 actors and musicians and a reduced sized orchestra supplemented with an RTMS (Real Time Music Solutions) 'virtual orchestra' - a keyboard-driven sequencer and Giga Sampler system - playing the missing orchestra parts to ensure that full aural impact is kept intact.
Autograph Sound Recording provides a complete sound system, designed by Nick Lidster (pictured), which comprises proven legacy Meyer Sound loudspeakers, a DiGiCo D5T digital mixing console system, MC2 amplification and digital signal processing from XTA. "We have 16 inputs into the D5T that come from the RTMS alone," explains Lidster. "It can play anything from a French horn to percussion and gives us the ability to performa show of this size in smaller venues."
The production is touring with a loudspeaker system consisting of Meyer Sound MSL-2s, UPA-2Cs, and MSL-3s for the main proscenium system. "The Meyer system is effectively a kit," says Lidster. "I know I've got enough boxes to fully cover the auditorium of any venue. Sight lines in the UK can be awkward at best andI find that the MSL-2 is ideal for this type of musical theatre. As well as being a good quality, clean sounding loudspeaker, the 60 by 40 degree coverage means that they are very forgiving of where they are hung. I find them a very useful tool and in conjunction with the MC2 MC1250 amps we're using, they sound absolutely awesome. The MC1250s are a good, conventionally based, powerful amp that works so well I'd have one on my stereo at home."
XTA DP226 and 224s control the loudspeaker system, the audio signal runs to them digitally from D5 Madi racks. Lidster likes both their sound quality and the AudioCore interface. "We've got the Audiocore computer connected to a remote Tablet via a radio link and proxy software - I can operate the Audiocore computer and set EQ and delay from anywhere in the auditorium," he says. "I like the way Audiocore works. It's simple and reliable and does what it needs to do well. We needed a stand-alone EQ system to be able to walk around and listen to different parts of the auditorium and make adjustments quickly during the show."
The Miss Saigon touring DiGiCo system - a D5T, D5RE Que editor and D5TC - can be set up in any physical configuration. "There is an obvious 'footprint' shape which suits it best," adds Lidster. "But flexibility is important in the UK and being able to vary how the desks are laid out in each venue means it fits well into any space. We have three Madi racks on the tour, One in the orchestra pit, one on stage for the Sennheiser radio rack and amplifiers, and of course one for the FOH mixers local rack with digital and analogue cards [for mics, sound effects, digital replay and TC Electronic S6000 reverb effects etc] all running on an Opticore loop. It's pretty much a standard Autograph musical installation."
What is unusual, however, is Lidster's use of the console's dynamic fader automation to control the mixes for the helicopter sound effect sequences; also, the D5T contact closure system is used to set off fireworks during the show. "We were able to experiment a little with the D5T on this show," says Lidster. "As we know the Miss Saigon production well, it allowed us to programme the show quite quickly and then try out some of the extra features in a more adventurous way than we
