DISCO WONDERLAND

Orchestra plus disco. Groovy!

Adding 50 Sydney Symphony Orchestra musicians to a band of four with seven vocalists at the iconic 5,000 seat Hordern Pavilion for a disco show – what’s not to like? Old people like this writer flocked up in gaudy gear. The lights went down, and the machine struck up.

Conducted by the charismatic Vanessa Scammell, whose diamante-riddled pants sparkled under Peter Rubie’s lights, the opener ‘I will survive’ swelled rather than launched as acclaimed orchestral live sound guy Des O’Neill wrangled 95 channels on a Yamaha Rivage PM10 console.

Seated near centre midway the sound was full, and the strings managed to sit in the correct place while a regular drum kit and rhythm section cozied into the ensemble. The absence of an electric bass was notable, but covered by the two double basses. A slight but present kick drum kept the ‘Night at Studio 54’ theme real.

O’Neill didn’t fault or waver, his mix slowly crept up as he filled the dry acoustic, with monitor engineer Steven Coyle feeding the stage with an appropriate array of feeds, to Aviom personal mixers for the rhythm section and a mix of sidefill and a wedge for Scammell.

The spill off the back of the K2 PA would have made an interesting acoustic environment for the (usually) un-mic’ed orchestra.

“One of the key challenges with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is the pace at which they work”, O’Neill told CX. “Their rehearsals are dedicated entirely to playing through the material, leaving little time for traditional sound checks where each section is fine-tuned individually. Instead, as soon as they start playing, I dive straight into mixing, setting gains, shaping the initial EQ, and balancing levels on the fly.”

O’Neill has collaborated with major orchestras worldwide, including leading Australian orchestras, delivering high-profile concerts with added artists such as Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Tory Amos, The Cat Empire, Ben Folds, and Birds of Tokyo. That’s a long way from his early start in studio sound back in 1999.

Seven vocalists entered and moved around the stage with standouts Paulini and Timomatic joining several others who occasionally struggled with a huge one-off show that could never have enough rehearsal time. One embarrassingly forgot the lyrics to an entire song, making up some new innovative ones, but the orchestra never missed a beat.

Peter Rubie’s lights were beautiful, with the mandatory mirror ball (not ‘disco ball’ as too often described) clusters cleverly arranged and cued. As required, all performers were frontally lit at all times, a simple but essential task that can be forgotten in the rush to use every feature of every light. This was lighting that was classy, pretty, and in harmony with the performance.

Over two halves, the show spanned a little over two hours covering 18 classics. Work flow at front of house was nuts for O’Neill. “I begin by grouping the orchestra inputs into section-based stereo stems. Strings, Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, and so on. These mixed stems were then sent to the monitor engineer, significantly reducing the number of channels he needed to handle. This approach allows the monitor engineer to focus on the rhythm section and the in-ear mixes for the vocalists, ensuring that everyone on stage has what they need to perform at their best. While most of my processing happens on the input channel, mixing to stems also gives me additional flexibility in shaping the overall balance of each section if needed.”

“The FOH mix was incredibly dynamic, requiring constant adjustments. With significant variation in the arrangements from song to song, along with vocalists coming on and off stage throughout the show, having a structured workflow was essential. Custom fader layers and scene programming were key tools in managing these transitions smoothly, ensuring that every section and soloist was where they needed to be in the mix at the right time.”

“I used Yamaha Rivage consoles, which handled the fast-paced workflow with ease. The onboard processing is excellent, eliminating the need for external gear and keeping everything streamlined in a single mixing environment. When working under tight time constraints, having a responsive, intuitive console makes all the difference.”

Day after the show, O’Neill flew off to London to continue his specialist audio work with orchestras in Europe and China.

*Julius Christophe Grafton is the founding publisher of CX