ASD WINTER SCHOOL JANUARY 24TH TO 28TH, 2017

The Association of Sound Designers present a week of theatre sound seminars. These seminars are open and free to all students and tutors regardless of where you study or what you study, as well as all members of the ASD, AMPS and the IPS. You can register for individual sessions, individual days or the whole event.

The Winter School is being held at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with their kind support.

ASD members may benefit from our travel assistance scheme and receive money towards the cost of travelling to this event.

TUESDAY 24TH JANUARY 2017

11.45AM - 1.30PM
RECORDING SOUND EFFECTS

Legendary sound designer John Leonard goes through some of the tools and techniques to record sound effects for theatre, focusing on the practical problems of recording in the real world. As well as looking at conventional stereo techniques, John will demo parabolic microphones, ambisonics and surround sound recording techniques.

John Leonard started work in theatre sound almost 40 years ago, during which time he has provided soundtracks for theatres all over the world. He has written an acclaimed guide to theatre sound and is the recipient of Drama Desk and LDI Sound Designer Of The Year awards and is a Fellow of The Guildhall School of Music & Drama and an Honorary Fellow of The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.

2.15PM - 3.45PM
FOLEY SOUND

Foley artist Tom Espiner shows some of the tips of the trade, from simple solutions to create naturalistic effects, to more abstract foley techniques. He will be joined by sound designer Gareth Fry to examine best methods of recording, amplifying and processing live and recorded fx.

Tom Espiner is a performer, director, writer and Foley artist. He has created the foley for a variety of BBC natural history films, as well as live onstage for Complicite's The Magic Flute at the ENO.

4PM - 5.30PM
QLAB

Sound designer Sebastian Frost leads this seminar demonstrating a number of hints and tips that can aid the programming of Figure 53's QLab software.

5.45PM - 7PM
PANEL DISCUSSION: HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR SOUNDS?

Sound designer Carolyn Downing, Sebastian Frost, Gareth Fry and John Leonard discuss the various ways of making sounds, and what to use when. The discussion will follow on from today's workshops examining the merits of recording, foley, using library sound effects and synthesising your own.

Carolyn Downing is an Olivier award winning sound designer working in a variety of fields. Carolyn’s work in theatre includes Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Booth Theater, NYC & Donmar); The Twits (Leicester Curve/Rose Kingston); As You Like It, Our Country’s Good, The Motherf***er With The Hat, Dara, Protest Song, Double Feature (National Theatre); Chimerica (Almeida & SFP, Olivier Award-Best Sound Design 2014); Carmen Disruption, Blood Wedding (Almeida); Teddy Ferrara, Fathers and Sons, Lower Ninth, Dimetos, Absurdia (Donmar); King John, The Gods Weep, The Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Days of Significance (RSC). Exhibitions include So You Say You Want A Revolution? (V&A); Exhibitionism: The Rolling Stones (Saatchi Gallery); Collider (Science Museum); Louis Vuitton: Series 3. Carolyn has also created sound design elements for Louis Vuitton: Spring/Summer 2015, Fall 2015 & Spring/Summer 2016 Ready To Wear Collection shows at The Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris.

Sebastian Frost's sound designs have been heard in plays, musicals and opera in London's West End and on Broadway, and from Cape Town to Sydney. Several of those productions have won the Olivier Awards for Best Musical/Best New Musical, and in 2008 he received the first ever Best Sound Design for a Musical Tony Award nomination for Sunday In The Park With George.

Gareth Fry is a double Olivier award winning sound designer, whose recent work includes Complicite's The Encounter on Broadway, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the West End. He is also chair of the Association of Sound Designers.

7.30PM
SOCIAL EVENT: DRINKS AT THE PUB!

No registration required. Details will be announced on the day.

WEDNESDAY 25TH JANUARY, 2017

10AM - 11.45AM
AN INTRODUCTION TO SYNTHESIS USING CYCLING 74'S MAX

Sound Designer Sarah Angliss leads this introduction to using Max software to create your own designed sounds.

Sarah Angliss is a prolific musician who also works in theatre, creating distinctive sounds that blur the boundaries between sound design and musical composition. Sarah’s work reflects her lifelong fascination with ancient music, faded variety acts and defunct machines. Though her music, performance and writing, she explores the uncanny properties of technology, revealing resonances between European folklore and early notions of electricity and sound.

12NOON - 1.30PM
APPROACHING THE MUSIC IN MUSICAL THEATRE

Sound designer Richard Brooker leads this session, sharing his expert approach to musical theatre sound design, including the techniques of amplifying a band/orchestra, dealing with their monitoring requirements, dealing with the cast’s monitoring of the band; Miking & mixing approaches; the relationship between the music dept and the sound dept; the overall sound of a musical; and working with the Operator. The session will end with a Q&A.

Richard Brooker's credits as sound designer include: Dreamgirls – West End, Funny Girl - Menier Chocolate Factory, West End & UK Tour, Sweet Charity - Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Sister Act - Leicester Curve & UK tour, Xanadu - Southwark Playhouse, Close To You: Bacharach Reimagined - West End & Menier Chocolate Factory, The Last Tango – West End & UK tour, Annie - UK Tour, Bend It Like Beckham – Phoenix Theatre London, Love Me Tender – UK tour, The Little Shop of Horrors – Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Made In Dagenham – West End, Dance Til Dawn – West End & UK tour, The Bodyguard – West End, UK tour, Germany, US Tour, Seoul/Korea & Canada, Therese Raquin–The Park Theatre, Water Babies–Leicester Curve, Sweeney Todd – West Yorkshire Playhouse/Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Fiddler On The Roof – UK tour, Avenue Q – Korea.

2.30PM - 4PM
A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC

Matthew Scott leads a whirlwind tour through the history of music.

Matthew is a freelance composer and musician. He has written music for many plays including premieres by Alan Bennett, Richard Bean, John Mortimer, Harold Pinter, David Edgar, Mark Ravenhill, Howard Barker and Julian Mitchell. His work in television includes Medics, In Suspicious Circumstances, Middlemarch, Trevor’s World of Sport, Drop the Dead Donkey (International Emmy and BAFTA Awards), Sex ‘n’ Death, Lord of Misrule, Eleven Men Against Eleven, King Leek, Crossing the Floor (International Emmy and BAFTA nominations), Bedtime, The Mrs Bradley Mysteries, Underworld (British Comedy Award). Films include, The Landgirls, The Feast of July and King Girl (RTS Best Soundtrack nomination).

PANEL DISCUSSION: THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN SOUND DESIGNER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR AND COMPOSER >A panel discussion: sound designers, composers and musical directors discuss where our roles overlap and interact, and approaches to working together. The panel includes sound designers Donato Wharton, Adrienne Quartly, Richard Brooker and composers Paul Clark and Matthew Scott.

Donato Wharton lives and works in London as a musician and sound designer. Donato is also Lecturer in Sound for Theatre and Performance at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, leading Central’s Theatre Sound course. Recent theatre sound design includes De Meiden (The Maids) (Toneelgroep Amsterdam), Reisende auf einem Bein (Traveling on One Leg), (Glückliche Tage (Happy Days), The Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema (Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Germany, all above dir: Katie Mitchell) and Playing Cards 2: Hearts (Robert Lepage/Ex machina – Co-design with JS Côté). He has toured extensively as the Sound Manager for Robert Lepage/Ex machina’s shows The Blue Dragon, and Playing Cards 2: Hearts. Donato’s music has been published on the Manchester/Berlin-based City Centre Offices label and on the Cardiff-based Serein label, and has been used in radio features, television programs, and theatre productions internationally. His latest release is A Lightless Volume of Water, published on Serein in 2016.

Adrienne Quartly trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama: I'm a creative sound designer/composer for theatre who enjoys collaborating with the whole team. I'm trained in music, previously worked in radio, and love working with all aspects of sound and music, from the challenges of a musical to creating more contemporary soundscapes for plays. I've designed shows that shown worldwide, including New York, Berlin, Cologne, and Hong Kong. Closer to home I have had shows on the West End, and worked with companies such as Improbable Theatre, National theatre of Scotland, The Young Vic, and the RSC. I often collaborate with Told by an Idiot and Eclipse Theatre.

Richard Brooker's credits as sound designer include: Dreamgirls – West End, Funny Girl - Menier Chocolate Factory, West End & UK Tour, Sweet Charity - Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Sister Act - Leicester Curve & UK tour, Xanadu - Southwark Playhouse, Close To You: Bacharach Reimagined - West End & Menier Chocolate Factory, The Last Tango – West End & UK tour, Annie - UK Tour, Bend It Like Beckham – Phoenix Theatre London, Love Me Tender – UK tour, The Little Shop of Horrors – Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Made In Dagenham – West End, Dance Til Dawn – West End & UK tour, The Bodyguard – West End, UK tour, Germany, US Tour, Seoul/Korea & Canada, Therese Raquin–The Park Theatre, Water Babies–Leicester Curve, Sweeney Todd – West Yorkshire Playhouse/Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Fiddler On The Roof – UK tour, Avenue Q – Korea.

Paul Clark is co-artistic director of performance company Clod Ensemble in London & has written original music for all the company's productions to date, including Under Glass, An Anatomie in Four Quarters & Zero (all Sadler's Wells), Silver Swan (Tate Modern Turbine Hall, V&A Raphael Room, Royal Opera House) Red Ladies (Southbank Centre, ICA & Museo Serralves, Portugal) and Must (with Peggy Shaw, Public Theater, New York). He has also written many unclassifiable music-based stage works, including The Weather Man (Opera North) and liebeslied/my suicides (ICA/Genesis Foundation) and Here All Night (Lincoln Center, New York, Brighton Festival). He has written dozens of scores for theatre, from the fringe to the National Theatre in the UK and internationally across Europe and USA in especially with productions by Katie Mit 6.45PM
SOCIAL EVENT: DRINKS AT THE PUB!

No registration required. Details will be announced on the day.

THURSDAY 26TH JANUARY, 2017

10AM - 11.30
PIN THE MIC ON THE ACTOR

Radio mic expert Zoe Milton leads this practical demonstration of wireless mic dressing - how to hide them, dress them, colour them.

Long hair, short hair, glasses, hats, wigs, completely nude. Over the ear, under the ear, in the hair, on the cheek. Hip, groin, small of the back. Micropore, Transpor, Tegaderm, Hapla band, Zinc Oxide.

This seminar will look at the many different options for mounting a mic and transmitter on an actor, and the different sonic characteristics of each.

Zoe Milton is a freelance sound engineer who is happiest hiding mics for performance. She started out in 1999 and since then has mixed shows in the West End and at the National Theatre. This year as well as being the Administrator for the ASD, Zoe worked on the Opera of the Unknown Woman, hid microphones for the broadcast and live streaming of performances at Glyndebourne Festival, Aix en Provence Festival and the Theatro Real in Madrid. Most recently Zoe has worked on the CBeebies Christmas performance of The Nutcracker.

11.45AM - 1.15PM
FLOAT MICS IN THE THEATRE - USEFUL TOOL OR HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE?

Ten years ago, sound designer Tom Lishman was asked to work on a production of South Pacific. There was just one catch: no radio mics were allowed, and the balance between orchestra and singers had to be achieved using just float mics.

Here Tom discusses his approach to that production and some of the things he learned along the way. He looks briefly at the history and development of ambient miking in theatre, and examines whether 21st century advances in loudspeaker technology have opened up new possibilities with these techniques.

2PM - 3.30PM
CREATING A SOUND WITH MIC POSITIONING AND DELAY

Sound designer Yvonne Gilbert leads this seminar on the different types of radio mic'ing - why lapel mounting often doesn't work in theatre, the difference between over the ear, forehead, boom, headset mic positions (and the impact on the potential to do vocal foldback), and setting up a sound system for reinforcement, And most crucially how all of this can define the sound of the show.

Yvonne Gilbert is a sound designer with over 20 years experience in theatre sound. After having mixed musicals in the West End for many years, Yvonne joined the National Theatre where she worked as a Sound Manager for seven years. Since leaving the National Yvonne has been the sound designer for many Plays and Musicals such as Ghost, American Idiot, Carousel, Legally Blonde, Rent, Brideshead Revisited, Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet among others for companies such as York Theatre Royal, English Touring Theatre, The Royal Academy of Music, The National Theatre and The Welsh National Youth Theatre.

3.45PM - 4.45PM
PANEL DISCUSSION: HOW TO DO VOCAL REINFORCEMENT

Yvonne Gilbert, Tom Lishman and Zoe Milton join Gareth Fry to discuss their approached to the different types of vocal reinforcement and amplification, which to use when and the psychology of performers wearing mic's.

6PM
SOCIAL EVENT: ALL SOUND STUDENTS SOCIAL EVENT @ RADA BAR

An opportunity for students and recent graduates of all sound courses to meet for drinks and to get to know each other. This event is organised by Isobel Newbury, founder of the All Sound Students Facebook group, a community group connecting students studying sound or recently graduated. Izzie is also the student representative to the ASD board. Head to the RADA Bar on Malet Street [google map] from 7pm.

No registration required.

FRIDAY 27TH JANUARY, 2017

10AM - 11.45AM
AN INTRODUCTION TO ACOUSTICS

An introduction to the principles of acoustics, and the factors affecting the intelligibility of a sound system: reverb time, signal to noise ratio, and direct to reverberant ratio. Run by AMS Acoustic's Tony Stacey this seminar will be aimed at the complete beginner!

12NOON - 1.30PM
COMPUTER SIMULATION OF SPEAKERS IN VENUES

d&b audiotechnik's Steve Jones looks at the ways computers can be used to simulate how loudspeakers will sound in a theatre, looking at the various ways this can be done and the benefits of doing so.

2.30PM - 4.15PM
AFTER THE MIXER: MATRIX, DELAY AND EQ SYSTEMS

Sound designer Gareth Fry looks at the various systems you can add after a mixing desk to make a better sounding sound system. This session will focus on technologies like Yamaha DME's and Outboard TiMax

Gareth Fry is a double Olivier award winning sound designer, whose recent work includes Complicite's The Encounter on Broadway, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the West End. He is also chair of the Association of Sound Designers.

4.30PM - 6PM
AN INTRODUCTION TO SMAART

Steve Badham introduces SMAART, a popular software package that uses microphones to analyse a sound system to help set it up for optimum performance.

SMAART is the leading multi-channel acoustic analysis software from Rational Acoustics. Steve Badham will be discussing the intelligent application of such software, along with some system measurement basics, as well pitfalls to avoid.

Steve Badham is a systems engineer and designer with over 20 years’ experience in technical sales and support roles with major global professional audio manufacturers. Steve is also a corporate member of the Institute of Acoustics, having obtained a diploma in acoustics and noise control from Salford University.

6.45PM
SOCIAL EVENT: PUB QUIZ

Dominic Bilkey hosts a evening of people attempting to answer questions whilst getting increasingly less sober in an attempt to win prizes!

SATURDAY 28TH JANUARY, 2017

10AM - 11.30AM
THE FUTURE OF SOUND DESIGN

A look at the technologies that will likely under pin the future of theatre sound design, from object based mixing to gesture based control. Led by Gareth Fry.

11.45AM - 1PM
PANEL DISCUSSION: WORKING WITH DIRECTORS

A panel discussion discussing the best ways to work with theatre directors, how to present your ideas, and how to communicate effectively to keep your collaboration on track.

Featuring director Catherine Alexander and sound designers Paul Arditti, Donato Wharton and Gareth Fry 1.15PM - 2.30PM
PANEL: GETTING EDUCATED, GETTING WORK

An open discussion about sound education and how well it can prepare you for the infinite possibilities of working in the industry. This discussion aims to constructively discuss the bridge between education and employment. The panel includes tutors Donato Wharton and Zoe Milton, as well as sound designer and recent graduate James Nicholson, and Orbital Sound's managing director Chris Hedlam.

2.30PM FINISH