Dear Evan Hansen brought an aesthetic focus on social anxiety to Broadway and West End stages, vividly and musically. In doing so, the theatrical production received considerable critical acclaim, nominated for nine Tony Awards and winning six, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Actor for Ben Platt, not to mention its list of Olivier and Grammy Awards. It also underscored musical theatre’s increasingly complex sonic environment, more dependent than ever on processing and effects that allow sound to support and reinforce the story and the emotions onstage.
That’s why the arrival of Fourier Audio’s transform.engine, and especially its recent v1.2 software enhancement, which adds features like Cuelists that can snapshot the entire state of all currently loaded plugins and MIDI control to fire Cues, is so meaningful for theatrical applications.
“Finally, a proper bona fide solution to plug-ins on a DiGiCo console,” said Tom Marshall, the sound designer for the current UK touring edition of Dear Evan Hansen, now during its 29-city run. “I put the transform.engine on my list as soon as I knew it was out there and working and as soon as I knew that the v1.2 update for the MIDI program changes were on its way as well, It was a no-brainer. I was like, ‘right, let’s do this.’ It’s time to use something new and specifically for the job at hand.”
The only concern that Marshall faced, as he was hitting the road with a DiGiCo Quantum338 console, supplied by Stage Sound Services Ltd, was how to fully integrate his array of plugin processors while keeping latency to a minimum. The transform.engine, especially its new capabilities like the Cuelists feature, have streamlined the entire front-of-house workflow, operated by colleagues Olly Smith, the show’s head of sound, and deputy head of sound Craig Flint.
“Structurally, I use it for inserts on channels and groups and for all of my effects processors, too,” said Marshall. “Having the Cuelists function was vital because I need to recall different parameters and settings at the push of a button, especially reverbs and effects, as if they were standalone units, just send them program changes to recall snapshots. I don’t do anything more clever than that. But it’s the ability to do just that, easily and reliably, which is the key for me.”
The Fourier Audio device offered Marshall a way to “keep it all neat and clean,” as he puts it, for his array of plugins. These include Liquid Sonics Seventh Heaven Professional, Waves F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ, CLA Drums and the Abbey Road TG Mastering chain.
“The beauty of the whole thing is it enables me to put everything in one place. Up until now, I was using several different platforms to host outboard plugins, as well as various internal desk processors, and it all felt rather cumbersome. It was just getting to the point where I really needed a tool that could take care of everything in one box and integrate neatly with the DiGiCo. And so, when the transform.engine was launched, I thought, ‘finally, this solves everything straight away and you’re not limited to manufacturer-specific plugins – a real game-changer for theatre sound!”
For more information on the current UK tour of Dear Evan Hansen, visit www.evanontour.com. Stage Sound Services can be found online at www.stagesoundservices.co.uk.
