ABSTRACT
This is where the designer gets busy. From this point on the designer will be around most of the time. The designer’s job is to help shape the sound of the show into what the director and music supervisor want. His job is to work with the mixer on EQ’ing the system and the mics so they sound natural. His job is to build sound cues, or have them built. It is not uncommon for the designer to have someone on his team build the sound cues or even have them built by someone not at the theatre. A designer on a musical is constantly looking for why things don’t sound natural and is trying to fix it. He is working a couple of steps ahead of everyone else to ensure things go smoothly. A designer might realize that a scene sounds bad because two actors are just too close to each other and he can ask the director to position them slightly differently to make the scene sound better. He can work with the dresser of the lead actors to find a good mic placement they can help maintain. He can look ahead to figure out how to deal with the problem a hat will bring.
