A Practical Theatrical Sound Console * by Charles Richmond The requirements for a sound control console for the legitimate theatre are unique and in many ways the reverse of those of a recording board. A stock unit is described which solves most of these requirements simply and economically, allowing a single operator to effectively adjust over 100 controls simultaneously without the need for computer automation interfacing. We personally prefer to think of the theatre sound console as the opposite of a mixing console. A mixer takes multiple sources and combines them into a few, producing a composite result. The theatre sound unit takes this composite, from tape or live form, and distributes the sound back into the environment in a desired pattern, often attempting to simulate the live sound arrangement from which the composite signal was originally derived. Within the last five years most of the discussions about theatre sound systems have centered on either required capabilities from a user's standpoint or design criteria from an engineer's outlook, but both ways have resulted in remarkably similar basic concepts: real-time programmable distribution systems. Until now these systems have been custom-built or hypothetical. This paper concerns a standardized unit . * Reprinted from the Journal of the AudiO Engll1eeflng $oclery(Jan/Feb 1975, Vol. 23. No 1, pp 36-40). USITT /Fall, 1979 Theatre Design & Technology 21