Sound Engineer

Overview
A sound engineer is responsible for setting up all the speakers and mics that are needed in a production, and in general ensuring that sounds can make their way from Pam, the computer, to the audience in the black box.

How Its Done
In brief, the way sounds make their way from Pam to the black box is by going from Pam, through Dante to the board, and from the board to the patch bay, and from the patch bay out to the black box where speakers can be connected.

Pam
Pam is the name of our sound computer (named after the Archer character) where the Sound Designer will have a Q-Lab file where all the sounds for a show will be compiled to be played during the run of the show. A specific Q-Lab file that is important is the "Sound Test" file which has various songs and sounds for testing the speakers.

Dante
Dante is how we connect things like Pam to the board or certain mics. It is a network that is controlled by Pam and is distributed to other devices by an Ethernet cable which goes from Pam to the patch bay into the Dante switch, which then can be sent to other devices like the board. Dante worked on things called "slots" which can be seen in the Dante Controller on Pam, and each slot is analogous to a physical slot on the sound board, either sending or receiving sound based on what it is set to do in the controller drop down grid.

The Board
The sound board is a Yamaha LS9-32 and is how all the sounds that go to the black box are managed. For sound to come into the board it must go through either a physical input on the back of the board, or through a digital Dante slot. From there it must be set to go through a channel, which then sends to a mix, and out to the patch bay

Channels
Channels are what act as inputs for the sound board. To access theses you press the "1-32" Button under "Layers" and then select a channel. Then you can set the input to be either a slot or physical input. If its a physical input its important to remember to adjust the gain and maybe phantom power if needed. On the channel screen you will also be able to see what mixes this channel is being sent to.

Mixes
Mixes act as the boards outputs. All channels should send to at least one mix,and each mix will correspond to a single speaker. These will usually correspond 1 to 1 with the Omnis, which are XLR outputs on the back of the board which will send to the sub-outs in the booth to go to the patch bay.

Scenes
Scenes are how you can store patches in the board by going to scene memory. Here you can create a new scene from a copy of an old one, or from scratch. ''' IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO STORE YOUR SCENES EVERY TIME YOU CHANGE THINGS, BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T IT CAN AND WILL GET ACCIDENTALLY MESSED UP CAUSING YOU TO HAVE TO REDO IT!!! '''

The Patch Bay
The patch bay is where whats going on in the booth can make its way to the proper place in the black box. You will be sending your sub-outs from the booth to the amps. The amps have a separate left and a right, so you can put 2 sub outs into amp 1 and so on. From the amps you send to somewhere in the black box, either the floor, grid, or ceiling.

The Grid
The grid is what sends to the boxes which are on the girders. So girder box 1 has the speakON outputs 1 and 2, top and bottom respectively, and so on.

Floor and Ceiling
The floor and ceiling boxes are both numbered the same way, starting at the top plug of the North box, to the bottom plug, and so on in a counterclockwise manner.

Permanent Speakers/Mics
Speakers such as the lobby speakers, building speakers, dead-hang, shotgun mic, and God mic all are set up the same for every show, and have specific plugs and amps that are labeled, so as long as you go off of a previous patch those should already be set up

The Snake
If you are unlucky enough to need the snake, used for having the board in the black box during a show, it has a specific plug at the top of the ladder in the black box which sends to the ports at the bottom of the rack in the patch bay.

Comms
A Sound Engineer is also responsible for running comms for the rehearsals the show during Tech Week. To do so turn on the little computer in the booth and use Unity on the iPhones to sign in to each position.

Equipment

 * The Board: LS9-32
 * Pam: Some type of iMac
 * Normal Speakers: Use speakON connections
 * Powered Speakers: Don't use speakON connections