快猫短视频

SOUND engineers working on a musical which opens in London this week have
recreated the distinctive acoustics of New York鈥檚 Carnegie Hall in 1938.

The musical Fosse celebrates the work of choreographer Bob Fosse,
whose song-and-dance routines became famous on Broadway and in Hollywood. But
the real challenge was to recreate a finale that includes Sing, Sing,
Sing, as performed in a well-known recording by Benny Goodman and his band
at Carnegie Hall in January 1938. That recording was made using mics slung high
in the echoey hall, connected to a lo-fi disc recorder across the street.

Sound designer Jonathan Deans and musical director Gordon Lowry Harrell have
used modern technology to mimic the way the recording sounds, but live in hi-fi
stereo. The 1938 piano solo, played by Jess Stacy on a concert grand, sounds
distant and mystic. The effect will be achieved in London by a synthesiser whose
sound is fed to powerful loudspeakers around the theatre. Gene Krupa鈥檚 1938 drum
solo is reproduced on a massive drum kit high at centre stage. Most of the drum
sound reaches the audience directly, but some is picked up by microphones at the
front of the stage that capture the sound of tap dancing. Because sound from the
mics and direct sound arrive at slightly different times, the audience hears a
subtle mix of instant and aftersound, which simulates the natural echoes heard
in Carnegie Hall.

To complete the effect, all microphone signals are fed through several
solid-state digital delay circuits, so that everyone in the theatre will hear
the band at the back of the stage, the pit orchestra at the front and the
dancers in between blend to create one big wash of pre-war nostalgia.