Sylvester Stallone celebrated his life’s successes with the “Rocky” film series. “Rocky – The Musical”, based upon the film, is now doing the same. The show has been playing in the Hamburger Operettenhaus for the past year. According to the New York Times, it is convincing because it combines the intimate and the epic. The acoustics play an important role, too. Meyer Sound knows what it takes.
At the Prolight and Sound the manufacturers from Montabaur in Rheinland-Palatinate delighted everyone with their premium products and newest developments. For Barack Obama’s visit in Berlin in July 2013, only speakers from Meyer Sound were used. Peter Maffay trusted the audio specialists’ solutions for his tour in Spring 2013.
For “Rocky – The Musical” a specially developed configuration comes into use, which is based on Meyer Sound’s Constellation Acoustic System. “As an acoustic enhancement system, even the slightest addition seems to ‘lift the sound off the page’ by giving more depth and excitement to the room,” says sound designer Peter Hylenski. Constellation not only plays a technical role in bettering the room acoustic, but also an artistic role, which is adapted to specific scenes in the story.
Four DVRAS modules generate early reflections and complex reverberation for four zones. For example when Rocky trains on the slabs of beef in the walk-in refrigerator, or in the final fight scene, where, with a long pre-delay, an arena feeling is created. Forty-two unidirectional and omni directional microphones record the ambient sounds in order to play the variable acoustics. “It’s exciting and theatrical, yet it sounds incredibly real,” Hylenski also says.
Their success proves him right. In March 2014 “Rocky” will celebrate, as the first in Germany developed production, its premiere on Broadway.
Picture sources: Holger Kersting
