Doctor Dolittle, The Musical began a busy 28-city national tour on August 2 at Pittsburgh’s Benedum Center for the Performing Arts. CueConsole’s modular architecture provides the production with a mobile and compact FOH digital console, making transport and setup of the digital mixing desk easier for a tour that will encounter very short load-in times during its 11-month run.
According to Doctor Dolittle’s sound designer, Duncan Edwards, one advantage of CueConsole is having wireless control of the system. "I was able to sit right next to the director and adjust cues or tweak effects as soon as he directed it," says Edwards. "This is huge, because the director felt connected to his sound designer, and I was able to be right there in the middle of discussions about scene changes, make the adjustments, and have him hear it instantly." Edwards was also appreciative of the ability to move around the theatre space with his laptop, adjusting the mix accordingly.
The FOH mixing system for Doctor Dolittle consists of six LCS LX-300 digital audio engines with eighty mike/line inputs and 56 analog outputs. A CueConsole mixing surface controls the LX-300s via an Ethernet connection. Doctor Dolittle’s front-of-house CueConsole is configured using three Fader modules, two Meters+ modules and one Transporter module.
In addition, the production achieves sound effects playback with Wild Tracks, the 24 track integrated hardware and software option for the LX-300. Wild Tracks uses two external 36GB rackmount hard drives and provides SafetyNet redundancy and automatic backup, as well as instant playback of individual tracks when cued.
