Hey, Anthony Murano here with Cirque du Soleil. As a live sound engineer here on the show my
responsibilities are to take care of the mix for the live band and all the elements of the sound system.
I've been with the company for about five years now and I've toured with
their big top shows Lucia Volta and was a part of the news Creation in Orlando Drawn to Life
the band for a typical search show is about five to seven members
and they can either play on stage or backstage in a pit
they'll have moments where they get up and walk around and use wireless DPA microphones while playing on stage
some shows the band is all in the same room and others can be fit into four different locations
it's also very common to have each musician play multiple instruments during the show
to keep everyone on the same track they play to a click coming from Ableton
as well as having instrument stems to help supplement the live band out front
Cirque shows are highly dynamic and the mix has to reflect that some songs are
big and powerful like a rock show, others are really intimate like a solo singer on stage
A Cirque show is a combination of concert and theatrical style mixing at moments you're
calm and you're focusing on the balance of the music and others you are required to
have extreme focus for example taking 70 individual sound cues during a clown act
you really have to be in tune with that artist because you are an extension of that performance
the sound team is usually made up of three to five sound technicians that
rotate between mixing 100 channels of audio out front for the 2600 audience members every show
or they'll be in the monitor Booth managing all the audio for the band and mixing their in-ears
we also have to handle the 30 plus wireless microphones and
IEMS backstage during the performance as well as help wire up performers and the band
The music is very whimsical and atmospheric world beat music style it brings a lot of musical
instruments from around the world and cultural influences that really makes mixing that's hard
Cirque quite unique. Some microphones we can even hide inside costumes so they're barely visible
on a big top 10 show we transfer city to city every six to ten weeks. We need to make sure that
the show and the system is packed up correctly and efficiently loaded into the truck then we
get to the next city and unpack the truck and set everything up again
this process takes about two weeks.
Every Cirque show uses a different sound system and different sound
system components which challenges us to know the different workflows and system architectures
we will typically deploy about 50 to 60 point source speakers in a 5.1 configuration
which is left right center rear left rear right and LFE
during load in we will hang all the speakers on the main four masts of the Big Top
a tech will harness up and climb about 50 to 70 feet up and have our local crew hoist up the speakers
individually while we handle the connections and the rigging
once the speakers are hung
and cabled I will perform a system check with the system processor software to make sure every line
coming from the amplifier racks is going to its intended speaker
after the seating is installed
I'll use a custom 3D printed laser mount on each speaker to help me align to each seat
we use the surround sound systems that are behind the audience pointing back at the stage to help
localize the sound effects and to be able to pan and move instruments through parts of the entire system
working at Cirque du Soleil is such a rewarding experience from mixing on big complex systems to
working with casts from 17 different nationalities speak nine different languages it's unlike
anything I've been able to do in my whole career in sound I hope you've enjoyed thanks for watching