The public's appetite for it has shown no signs of diminishing. Despite having played across the world and having spawned an entire genre of dance shows and with production values far more akin to rock'n'roll than anything that had gone before in the dance genre, Riverdance continues to delight audiences in many countries.
Sound design for all Riverdance productions is by Mick O'Gorman and his sound design company MOSCO, with Yamaha PM5Ds a fundamental part of his design.
It is a complex show to mix and necessitates two Yamaha PM5D-RHs to handle FOH duties, each with additional inputs to provide up to 72 channels. A d&b Q series line array provides the FOH sound, configured as LCR with time-aligned fills and delays. Foldback for the dancers is provided by sidefills and speakers flown from the lighting truss, while the live musicians use in-ear monitors.
"The shows make extensive use of sound effects and voiceovers, with such elements of the show using timecode," says O'Gorman. "We use the timecode from the sound effects playback to trigger mix and effects changes in the PM5Ds.
"Riverdance has always been at the forefront of console automation, in the areas of muting, routing and level starts," he continues. "We have been using Yamaha digital consoles since the mid 1990s. Initially we started out with the ProMix01, graduating to the O1V and then the O1V96.
"For other theatre productions we have been using an LS9-32 and, when analogue consoles are used, we have regularly used Yamaha multi-effects units. So we have a long association with Yamaha and the equipment provides exactly what we need."
(Jim Evans)
