Cries From the Pit
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The problem is “front fill” speakers. They’re hung on the lip of the stage so audience members in the front can hear the singers and actors even over the sound of the orchestra. But trombonist and former TMA national president Art Linsner (who’s now playing for The Lion King, where it hasn’t been an issue) says they have an escalating effect: “When those front fill speakers get turned up, you unavoidably start playing louder so you can hear yourself over them. Then they turn the speakers up again. After the performance your ears are ringing–and the next day they’re still ringing.” This upward spiral of sound can lead to hearing loss for the musicians; Linsner says it’s contributed to his own tinnitus.
Linsner started worrying about the problem seven or eight years ago, when big shows like Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon were playing at the Auditorium Theatre. Sound design for musical theater was changing, influenced by explosive movie sound tracks and rock ‘n’ roll scores, and musicians were suddenly subject to the vagaries of the soundman. Even in a venue like the acoustically impeccable Auditorium, the engineers don’t want live sound coming out of the pit, Linsner says. It takes time for it to travel and bounce off the walls, and then it arrives late, competing with the more immediate sound from the speakers. So the technicians deaden the instruments, isolate them from each other as much as possible, and leave the mix–and the volume–to the potentate of the soundboard.
