Audiences
Soar with World's Largest Stage Production of "Aireus"
October 1997 article by Jeanne Quinn
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Fifteen minutes before show time...The world's most impressive theatre
stage sits before you and a packed house, illuminated with colors of
passion and intensity, setting the mood for what is sure to he one of
the most provocative, electrifying fantasy presentations ever...
The buzz of the crowd hushes to nothingness. The energy level of the
room piques in anticipation of the first sound, the first motion.
Quietly, fog fills the stage, dancing around fuchsia and purple shafts
of light. You feel the reverberant rumble of thunder under your feet,
the celestial voice of wind and chimes completely surrounds you like an
ethereal breeze, a climactic orchestral build resonates from the six
channel surround sound system, welcoming the entrance of the opening
act...
Imagination takes flight...
The ultimate in hard-core choreography, and an incredibly written and
mastered score stamps the production of Aireus', an extraordinary new
creation portraying the artistry and fantasy of man in flight. 'Aireus'
made its debut performance on March 22nd at the beautiful Reno Hilton
and is expected to run for three years. The show was originated by
seasoned producers Breck Wall & Patrick Maes - and directed, staged and
costumed by renowned Emmy Award-winning choreographer, Michael Darrin.
The soundtrack creation and original score composition was engineered
exclusively by IQS's owner, Bob Lentini. The entire production is run
each night from a SAWPlus system, playing 11 stereo tracks of music and
effects live-mixed down to 6 channels of surround audio through a
Frontier Designs PCI audio card. A second SAWPlus system adds stereo
music tags and extra effects through a Digital Audio Labs CardD.
The mounting of Aireus was an intense collaboration of talent and
ingenuity. Each facet of the production is equally amazing, from the
brilliant choreography, to the powerful sound design, to. the technical
skill behind the stage controlling all the flying apparatus, the huge
set pieces, and the massive stage props, not to mention the incredible
hard work and devotion put forth by each of the cast members enduring
extended rehearsals and extremely tough, physically demanding maneuvers
and routines. All in all, the show is an awesome feat of stamina,
showmanship and pure unbridled genius.
The entire sound design for Aireus was single-handedly fashioned and
controlled using the award-winning SAWPlus digital hard disk editing
software. About 60% of the production numbers were created from segments
of CD recordings, which were masterfully spliced and edited together to
create the basic musical flow that Darrin had in mind for those
particular segments of the show. The remaining 40% of the musical
numbers were composed and created directly for Aireus by Bob Lentini and
Brenda Leonard. These basic tracks were used by Darrin in Reno, to begin
construction of the choreography and staging of the show. Lentini
continued to work in Vegas, sweetening and adding sound effects to bring
to life the idea of surround sound in the theatre.
Before the idea of computerized sound editing was ever realized, once
the production scores were mastered, choreographers were at the mercy of
the musical arrangement to structure their visions. Changes that were
desired later, during the mounting of the show, were at best extremely
time consuming and expensive. Musicians might have to be recalled into
the studio to re-cut the music and/or the show tapes would have to be
completely re-mastered to include the changes. Times and technology have
certainly changed. Using SAWPlus, Lentini gave complete control to
Darrin by performing on-site editing and re-arranging of the musical
productions to fit the daily changes that came about during the final
days before opening.
"I arrived in Reno ten days before opening with all basic EDL's and
soundfiles archived to CD-ROM. I copied these files into the two
computer systems, built for the Hilton by IQS, and began the final task
of surround effects sweetening.
"SAWPlus made the sound design incredibly easy and even added
capabilities that were not possible with conventional audio gear. A
particular case in point was being able to leak the basic stereo music
tracks around to the sides of the room, creating a more dimensional and
spacious effect, by placing Region copies on another track and shifting
the copies to create just the right amount of delay for each musical
number needed to keep the front and sides synchronized in such a huge
theatre.
"With random calls being made to 'add twenty seconds here' and 'cut nine
seconds there', serious splicing, cutting and rearranging of the score
took place during those ten days. The exciting thing about the SAWPlus
involvement was the fact that the actual Show Master EDL was the place
where all the changes took place. All 11 stereo tracks were easily
shiftable, adjustable, re-mixable, etc., right in the theatre, without
the need to go back into the production studio.
"Another exciting thing about working on-site was that I was able to
watch the run-throughs and create sound effects and panning motion to
precisely fit the production as it took shape before me. The results
were definitely enhanced by being able to build the final mix this way.
"One of the most interesting events involving SAWPlus happened during
the final run-through, about 4 hours before opening. It was discovered
that striking the massive trapeze rigging of the Flying Cranes, the star
act of the show, would require an extra 2 minutes of time during the
finale music. Michael and I collaborated and I was able to construct 2
minutes and 20 seconds more time in the finale by extending some of the
percussion break section and adding extra drum effects that I brought
with me as separate soundfile data. Michael re-staged the dancers and
the show opened without a hitch."
'Aireus' relies heavily on IQS technology to bring high quality audio
and show automation to the theatre without the high cost normally
associated with this type of undertaking. SAMM, another IQS product used
in the production, also adds the ability to automate mixing levels
external to the SAWPlus system, and to send lighting cues and
miscellaneous stage equipment control data to help automate complex show
sequences. This product controls a Yamaha ProMix-01 mixing board that is
responsible for routing some of the many channels of audio making up the
complete sound heard in the 'Aireus' production.
SAWPlus was effectively used to create, blend and automate the motion of
many outstanding special sound effects to create an elevating feeling of
continuous motion in the room. During a beautiful fly adage ballet
piece, dancers perform behind a live rain curtain with effectual
lighting and fog to intensify the mood. SAWPlus nailed down the intro to
this number with thunder, lighting and euphoric surround wind and chimes
effects, to which Lentini later added dramatic harp glisses during the
captivating moments when the dancers magically "fly" through the air.
Both visual and audio effects for this number are truly stunning and hit
the heart foursquare.
The incredible surround sound implemented by Lentini definitely added a
powerful dimension to the show. The usual flat, boring sound from the
front of the stage was completely enhanced by finding constant surround
elements for every number, such as wind and chimes, thunder, and rocket
flares to fill the theatre with an engaging fullness and depth of sound
appreciated by even the most extreme audio novices in the audience.
'Aireus' has proven to be one of the many feathers in IQS's cap, and a
definite stripe for the veteran SAWPlus audio software.
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