Photo above: SUNSET BLVD. recently opened on Broadway (photo credit: Marc Brenner)
Once again, Norma Desmond is “ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille,” only this time it’s taking place on Broadway in New York City. The revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical directed by two-time Tony Award nominee and multiple Olivier Award winner Jamie Lloyd, SUNSET BLVD. very recently debuted at the St. James Theatre on October 20, with Olivier Award winner and Grammy Award nominee Nicole Scherzinger in the lead role. This follows 16 weeks at the Savoy Theatre in London’s West End district, from September 2023 through this past January, where it won rave reviews and the coveted Olivier Award for Best Sound Design. The winner of that award, Adam Fisher, is now reprising his role in New York, where he’s brought a secret weapon: the Fourier Audio transform.engine, a Dante-connected server designed to run VST3-native software plugins in a live environment, bringing premium studio software to live sound applications—or, in this case, Hollywood-level audio capabilities to Broadway.
Cuelists
Paired with a DiGiCo Quantum7T front-of-house console supplied by equipment provider Masque Sound, SUNSET BLVD. is Fisher’s third time around using the transform.engine’s ability to let him access any and all plugins he needs in real time, with incredibly low latency. “I first used it on Kiss Me, Kate in April of this year in the West End, and then on the regional production of Oliver!, which is about to go into the West End,” says Fisher. “But this is the first time we’ve had the latest v1.2 software with the new Cuelists function, which has been long awaited, and it’s been fantastic!”
He says he’d been looking for the kind of functionality the transform.engine brings with it, after years of using other types of plugin hosts that were either limited to certain brands or didn’t have the processing power needed. The transform.engine has both capabilities. “As soon as it became available for Kiss Me, Kate, I was like, ‘Can we get a couple?’” he laughs. “’Even if it has the software’s first version, we’ll happily use that!’ But what was great about having v1.2 meant that we could then granularly look at recalling different presets per chain instead of per scene, the way other manufacturers do. Now, it’s more like how we used to work on reverb units, recalling different presets at different times, and it makes editing of those presets so much easier. So Cuelists and the way that Fourier Audio has implemented them has been really good for us. I can just say that I want that preset in that show cue. I can set up different presets that I know work, and then recall those individual presets at any point, instantly.”
Theater Workflow
Fisher says the transform.engine has changed the way audio processing can function in theater because, as he explains, rapid changes in scene tonality and emotion mean the sound has to keep up. “The effects change quite a lot during a show: you go from one song to another and you may want a longer or shorter reverb, or different kind of hall or chamber,” he says. “And rather than having to change it manually, or change it in a scene, to be able to go straight into that signal chain and change that parameter straight away, as you can with transform.engine, makes life so much easier.”
“And you can do so much more detail on the fly, scene by scene, or even just do it manually,” he continues. “Previously, we were having to set up individual chains for different presets, so we were changing the routing from the console, ending up with so many more chains that had different kinds of reverb settings. As a result, we were then limited to the amount of I/O we had, which was 32 channels for a stereo show. Cuelists change all that: the way that they set up, it’s so simple, compared to other competitors that are trying to paint your house through your letterbox, so to speak. The new software has been a huge leap for us, hitting exactly the right balance between functionality and simplicity.”
Sound Design
Fisher further appreciates that he is able to use the entire range of his go-to processing toolbox. These include TC Electronic VSS4 reverbs and their System 6000 Native bundle of plugins, LiquidSonics’ Seventh Heaven reverbs, and McDSP’s FutzBox. That latter plugin underscores how the Fourier Audio device has become an integral part of Fisher’s sound design for the show. Some of the key dialog takes place over the phone, and the FutzBox emulates that tinny speech sound very effectively. “We used to have to use EQ for that effect, but the FutzBox has taken it over, and in the transform.engine, it’s easy to tweak it as needed,” he says.
With FOH mix positions generally having very limited space in the theaters, “It’s good to reduce the amount of outboard gear that we have as much as possible,” Fisher adds. “Being able to put it all in one box like the transform.engine is so advantageous. I can access my entire palette of sound, and you know, some plugins will fall off the list and some will get added. You get your new favorites, don’t you? So it’s nice to be able to just add those in rather than have to really think about it. I know that then, when we do the show, I can pretty much do anything I want to. The transform.engine has truly changed the way that I work for the better—much better.”
Like its previous West End debut, the new Broadway run of SUNSET BLVD. also benefits from the contributions of associate sound designer Josh Hummel and UK production mixer and programmer Laurie Kirkby. For details on the current NYC run, visit www.sunsetblvdbroadway.com.
