UK - Technology collective Tin Drum asked Manchester-based audio specialists, tube uk, to assist with the delivery of a sound system - speakers together with a playback / racking control system - for an innovative series of immersive mixed reality performance concerts, Kagami, featuring the music of the late artist, composer and audio producer, Ryuichi Sakamoto.
The in-the-round shows were originally staged during the 2023 Manchester International Festival (MIF23), at the Old Granada Studios, also with tube as audio supplier.
Tin Drum next moved the show to the Roundhouse in London for a high-profile showcase and again asked tube uk to supply the audio equipment, including speakers and collaborating closely with their sound designer, Rob Parkinson.
tube’s Melvyn Coote and John Redfern were delighted to tackle such an interesting mission, “We relish the challenges and fun of making any project that’s inventive, off beat or non-standard work and come alive” stated Melvyn, “and this was no exception.”
Kagami will now tour worldwide for the next two-three years with the same audio control set up as delivered to the initial UK productions by tube.
Audiences wear compact Magic Leap 2 AR headsets, start off in a circle and can see a virtual Sakamoto playing the piano in the centre area, together with dimensional art synched to the music. As the piece unfolds, they can explore the space while hearing the spatial audio and experiencing the surrounding atmosphere through the speaker array rigged in the venue.
“It is a technically challenging scenario requiring a lot of thought and some experimentation” commented Rob, who is using d&b’s S100 Soundscape in a more idiosyncratic way, to create a layer of sonic atmosphere that helps transport the audience into another world – visually and sonically - where Sakamoto is playing.
In March 2023 just a couple of days after Sakamoto’s passing, audio engineer and designer Kazuyuki ' zAk' Matsumura, who has been integral to Sakamoto’s live sound / recorded works for over a decade and had a close relationship with the artist, reached out to d&b in Japan to establish the feasibility of the project using d&b Soundscape.
zAk’s original sound design for the piece stems from Sakamoto’s famous piano concert series, Playing the Piano which was both performed live and streamed. He wanted to realise this once again without the presence of the artist, and so paid extra attention to how the audience might experience the body of the piano as if it was there right in front of them.
A system mock-up was set up in d&b’s Yokohama demo room, and then again at their partner Soundscape’s studio in Tokyo, where a quarter of the circle making up the full system for audio preproduction was emulated to translate zAk’s aural concepts into audio.
zAk was pleased with the results and with the precision of localization offered by the different delay modes for each sound object, and very impressed with En-Space, the room emulation modelling that allowed him to add delicate adjustment to his mix.
This particular sold-out show was premiered at The Shed in New York and was a great success, so it was decided to use the same base sound design again for the Kagami shows.
The main challenge for Kagami from the general audio side was to design a safe network system for playback that would run without the engineers present. Dante enabled DS100 was again convenient as it could cater for numerous design changes explained Ayumi Hanano from d&b audiotechnik in Japan.
For the Roundhouse shows, tube uk supplied 29 x d&b E-Series speakers – E5s, E6s and E8s – with circular deployment in the venue’s main space, with V-10P and Y10P downfills in the centre, plus two flown V-SUBS.
Ten additional speakers (two d&b Y7P’s and nine d&b E8’s) were rigged in an induction space showing a pre-performance film comprising a mix of Sakamoto images and video footage.
The main room speakers were carefully positioned and rigged in five circles in the Roundhouse roof and used to create a rich and enveloping concert hall in which to stage the performance.
The number and types of speakers and amplifiers will vary as Kagami tours around the world depending on the region and venue, so Soundscape effectively recreates the original object-based spatial mix in the new venues, and Rob will lead the production redesign each time it moves.
For the Roundhouse, tube also supplied their first Yamaha DM7 digital mixing console which was new, and much appreciated by Rob as he added his own elements to the multitracked mix. “A wonderful little desk with a small footprint, super powerful and well thought out with lots of great features including being Dante enabled and able to establish a direct connection with DS100,” concluded Rob.
