UK audiences are enjoying two energetic new touring musicals, as Happy Days, A New Musical and Tonight's The Night - The Rod Stewart Musical recently took to the road.

Among the substantial touring rigs provided by Orbital Sound for the shows are two versatile Yamaha CL5 mixing consoles, providing sound designers Ben Harrison and Rory Madden respectively with highly flexible control over the shows' demanding sound requirements.

Ben Harrison is a long-term Yamaha user, specifying a CL console for the first time on last year's production of Piaf at the Leicester Curve. He was so impressed that choosing a CL5 for Happy Days A New Musical was a straightforward decision.

"This show has a much higher channel count than Piaf and it's important for the operator to see and access more faders on the surface for a show of this size, so the CL5 was the perfect choice. As well as the original Happy Days theme, there are over 20 original songs in the show. Nearly all are delivered with high energy by the company and have a real feel of the era about them. Making sure we could achieve the impact of volume along with hearing the storytelling lyrics clearly is an important part of the design. I chose DPA 4066 headsets for the company to tighten up the vocal sound, but with close miking comes the need for more dynamic control, which the CL5 has in abundance. The onboard dynamic EQ comes into play heavily during the loudest sections of the show, whilst the reverbs and delays allow me to create the authentic effects of the era."

Commenting on Tonight's the Night, associate sound designer Jon Sealey who is operating the show, had this to say:
"The advantages of both a console and multicore, which are much easier to handle, are obvious, especially on an intensive tour where there is just six hours for the get in and soundcheck. The CL5 is just a two man lift, even in its flightcase, which means less time lumping gear around and more time doing sound. It also meant that we can have a smaller mix position and hand seats back to the promoter, which is always popular.

"The audience come expecting it to be loud and upfront, like a live gig, but at the same time the director wants it to be quite natural. It's a very dynamic show and we have to find the balance between making the dialogue come across naturally, ensuring that the audience can hear the words over six excellent musicians, while delivering the excitement of the songs and building up to a concert feel at the end of the production. The system has been fantastic. The CL5 is very user friendly, it's really nice to stand at and operate. Even the i/o units really help the logistics, there are a lot of electronics in a small space and the advantage to us of using Cat5 cable is massive. We just switch the system on and it works first time, every time, which is exactly what you need on a tour like this."