Over 130 sound effects are used in the show, and the score is one of the most popular of the modern Disney features. It was important to both Beckley and musical supervisor Gareth Williams that every part of the complex arrangements was present and audible, even during moments of underscored dialogue. This, along with the need to maintain the attention of a young audience, led Beckley to opt for a sound that was clearly amplified, rather than simply reinforced.
Beckley explained that the great paradox with an amplified show is the need to exercise more control over the acoustic elements in the first place - essentially to make things quieter before making them louder. For this reason the 'live' instruments in the orchestra (wind, brass, percussion) all sat behind part-absorbent acoustic baffles, which cut down the acoustic sound dramatically. All of the keyboards and the double bass were DI'd; valve DIs were used to give more warmth and musicality. All of the players had a Formula Sound Que18 personal mixer and a set of headphones which allowed them to personalize their mix. Grado SR80 hi-fi headphones were chosen by Beckley for their transparent response.
Finally, in order to give the electronic instruments an amount of acoustic presence in the pit, eight Genelec 1029 personal monitors were strategically placed to give the band a 'sound of their own' and help maintain their focus. Microphones were a mixture of Neumann and Hebden Sound - again, transparency the key factor in this choice, according to Beckley. The entire system was supplied by Orbital Sound.
All of this is delivered to the audience through a wide choice of loudspeakers, all of them chosen principally for their musical response. Beckley says: "The biggest presence is Funktion-One - basically because they make the smoothest, most natural sounding loudspeakers I have ever heard. The new Resolution 1 is a triumph - it's so smooth it's practically invisible, and the fact that it weighs under 19kg almost defies belief, to be honest! The AX88 centre cluster is a further development of an idea by sound designer Jem Kitchen - it does an excellent job of keeping the image firmly in the centre. For this tour we've refined the rigging quite a bit - two people can put the whole cluster up in about five minutes. These two elements form the backbone of the system, and work really well together. I'm really pleased with the amount of level we can put through the system without ever losing the image location or introducing any driver distortion. I reckon the fact that there are no compression drivers on the proscenium is the principle reason for this."
Beckley continues: "We also use Funktion-One F118 subs: it's the classic Andrews/Newsham folded horn design, and is yet to be surpassed in my humble opinion! Low end is so often missing from theatre mixes, but it's very important to me, and the 118s are the key to the smooth musical bass and really fast dynamic impact that we create. Quite a lot of industry people have commented on how good the low end is, so hopefully we'll be seeing purple subs on a few other shows soon!"
Amplifiers are exclusively MC2 Audio's E- Series and the FOH console is a Midas Heritage with a stretch. The other principle part of the design is the cable infrastructure which ensures a minimum of connections at every point. In most cases a loudspeaker connects directly to an amplifier and a microphone connects directly to a multicore which goes straight to the console; there are no patchbays or Socapex.
Beckley concludes: "We have a system that can deliver moments of exceptional subtlety and dexterity, and moments of extreme impact and power, all with the same effortless grace. The wh
