„Tabaluga und das verschenkte Glück““ on Tour 2003/2004: FoH sound engineer Bernd Buthe reports on the planning, rehearsals and shows for the mega production.
"The preparations for “Tabaluga und das verschenkte Glück” began in the summer of 2001 with a meeting in Munich at which director Rufus Beck presented the story, the artists and the guests. Among others, the guests included Sissi Perlinger, Tobias Künzel, Udo Lindenberg, Rolf Stahlhofen…Arktos was later played by Horst Hoenig.
The audio department was informed of the positions of the three side stages and the centre stage for the first time approx. three months later. If at all feasible, the PA system was to be direction-based. This meant that a decision would have to be made about how best to do this. I decided to realise three PA system arrangements.
Since the Maffay band was playing on the main stage, a powerful PA system was installed to the left and right of the stage. Depending on the hall, the system consisted of up to 2 x 12 x i4 and i4b from Clair Brothers.
4 columns with 6 x i4 loudspeakers were hung around the centre stage. With this system, it was possible to realise a 270° surround sound system.
16 x P2s from Clair Brothers were used over the side stages. This made it possible to have a 360o effects PA system.
Since it was established on the basis of various tests and meetings with the director that microphone sound could not be used in the mask, it was decided that Tabaluga would not speak himself but that all Tabaluga's lines would be played back. The singers, the band and all the other characters would sing, play and speak live. All the noises, Tabaluga's voice and the sound effects would be played back over a Protools system. In parallel with the audio tracks, MIDI program changes were "played back" and they automatically switched the FoH PM1D to the right scene and the right PA system situation.
In the end, I had to manage almost 80 input channels in addition to all the playback equipment.
In selecting the FoH mixer, 3 makes were considered: 1. Harison LPC-D, 2. Yamaha PM1D, 3. Digico D5 live. My decision to use the Yamaha PM1D was mainly influenced by its reliability, service, new software, easy MIDI connectivity to the playback equipment and the design of the CS1D. I was able to set all the mixing consoles up beside one another and to spend a week comparing and testing them.
In practice, the decision to take the Yamaha PM1D on tour proved to be the right one.
In the monitoring department, each of the two engineers worked with a PM1D.
The entire Yamaha PM1D setup included the following components:
02 x Yamaha PM1D Audio-Rent Clair-Brothers execution rack (photo)
03 x Yamaha CS1D.
When the sound design was completed, the material for the tour was organised and packed up. We needed two articulated lorries to transport – among other things - 52 line array boxes, 36 bass loudspeaker boxes, 68 boxes for close and effects PA systems, 36 motors for suspending the PA system……..
Rehearsals began in the Marlene Dietrich Hall in Babelsberg in September 2003. During the rehearsals, a complete show was put together and all the crews were networked and synchronised.
Once the equipment had been set up in a separate hall, the sound department began to carry out the first monitoring sound checks with the band. The band consisted of a drummer, a bass player, two keyboard players, three guitarists, two chorus singers and Peter Maffay. All the songs were rehearsed and all the monitoring settings were stored in two PM1Ds. All the musicians used wireless in-ear monitoring. The conventional monitors were just used for backup and as a PA system for the dancers. 35 of the 50 transmission lines were also installed in this hall and tested for compatibility and function.
Meanwhile, the dancers and soloists were rehearsing in the big Marlene Dietrich hall. At this point, the show was choreographed scene by scene to a play-back which had been prepared beforehand.
On 01 October 2003, the back line and the monitoring along with all the transmission lines were set up in the big rehearsal hall. Rehearsals with the band, the dancers and the soloists could now begin. All the lines were now spoken live, the band also played all the music pieces live. On 09 October, we held the first full dress rehearsal in the rehearsal hall during the day. All the adjustments required were programmed over night. 18-hour working days were the norm during this period.
Then the move to the Berlin Arena began. All the equipment, the stage, the costumes and props were loaded into the 15 articulated lorries and assembled on 11 October. There were two further days of rehearsals in order to adapt the show to the actual size of the hall. The individual crews had to change and modify the programming to match the size of the hall.
For me, this meant reprogramming every song setting for the relevant scene to match the different acoustics of a large hall.
And then, at 3 p.m. on 17 October 2003, the premiere of Tabaluga opened at the Arena.
On 14 December we played the last show of 2003 in Dortmund. The tour was extended because of the enormous demand. In March 2004, the second half began in the Festhalle in Frankfurt and ended in May in Berlin. A total of 86 performances were held.
In every city, I recorded all the shows and then selected the best performance and archived it. When rehearsals for the second half of "Tabaluga und das verschenkte Glück" started in Frankfurt in 2004, I backed up the settings from Frankfurt 2003 to the PM1D and rehearsals could commence. After almost 25 years of analogue technology, this was a wonderful experience. The decision to use the Yamaha PM1D was definitely the right one and looking back, I would still make the same decision.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest thanks to Jürgen Wilhelm and the entire Yamaha team for their excellent and successful collaboration."
Bernd Buthe
