{"id":1717,"date":"2018-09-20T08:15:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T08:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/?p=1717"},"modified":"2022-01-23T19:16:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T19:16:14","slug":"sound-design-founders-of-the-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/sound-design-founders-of-the-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Sound Design Founders of the Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. The Theatre’s Contribution to Sound Design<\/strong><\/h4>\n

As with any human discipline or industry, sound design as a practice and art form developed collectively over time, spurred on by the contributions of many and the striking visions and passion of leaders in the field. Below are two major contributors to the world of sound design as we know it today: Dan Dugan and Charlie Richmond. Both arose within the theatre world and created solutions to problems they faced – resulting in internationally respected products that we use today. Much of the major building blocks and tools used in sound design, live and in the studio, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, \u00a0and in this era these two sound founders began to make waves.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Dan Dugan<\/h4>\n

\"\"Dan Dugan, an American inventor, audio engineer, and sound recordist was born March 20, 1943. As a young man, 24, he began working in theater sound for the San Diego National Shakespeare Festival and the American conservatory. In 1968 the term “Sound Designer” was created to explain Dugan’s efforts. His first major contribution to sound design, aside from giving a reason for the term “sound designer” to exist, is specifically relevant to live performance – the “automatic microphone mixer,” known as the automixer, such below through several generations of production.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"As a sound pioneer, Dan Dugan realized early in his career that he needed to work for and by himself to solve the problems he encountered – new problems were occurring in real time. As reported by Sound and Video Contractor in “AV Industry Icons” 2006, Dugan states: \u201cI realized I had to work for myself \u2026 so I built my own studio. It was one of those gigs in ’68 or ’69 that sparked the invention of the automatic mic mixer.\u201d It was the frustration with feedback and noise problems that arise from using multiple microphones in a singular live setting, such as a theatre stage, that gave rise to his experimentations to improve live sound and the ability to design sound without sonic flaws. The two most important problems to solve specifically were one, reducing the amplified noise contributed by multiple microphones that pick up ambient noise<\/a> and, two, eliminating the feedback created with multiple actors\/microphones moving around stage into different positions and the cross signaling of their outputs going into each other’s inputs – ie “feedback<\/a>“<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"In the video below, Dugan explains the problems he encountered working on the live production of Hair, in which there were 16 area mics, 10 mics in the band, 9 hand mics, and one wireless mic – all operated by one person on a manual mixer.<\/span><\/p>\n