ABSTRACT

Sound reinforcement is used to amplify the sound people hear from a stage whenever it isn't loud enough all on its own. Usually that means the singers and orchestra for a musical, but increasingly it is used for a straight play as well. The process is somewhat complex since the acoustical sounds of the various actors and orchestral instruments must be transformed into electrical impulses, transmitted to a central location, mixed, processed, amplified, and transmitted to a set of speakers that in turn transform the electronic signal back into acoustical sound. Mixing sound requires a great deal of focus to listen to the sound of the show and tweak the individual channels to get an artistically satisfying result. A sound mixing console takes all of the inputs from different microphones, as well as playback devices, and blends them together into a unified output that is heard by the audience.