Hi Folks,

I'm currently writing some music for a pantomime. All your comments have been very useful in the past so I thought I'd ask again. I wondered what peoples views on music for panto are? Do you think it is important to have a live band playing all music or have it pre recorded? I'm struggling to find a piece of software that will replicate a Band nicely as we don't have room for a band in our theatre and I don't know what to do?

Many Thanks
Merry Christmas
Harry

Not many people on the board today - other seasonal occupations, I assume - so I'll start the ball rolling (or, possibly, rambling)...

Advantages of a live band include:-
- musical texture (you get a better sound out of a live instrument than you do from a recording, particularly if the recording is from "digital instruments")
- the ability to match tempo with your singers - if a singer races, a good band will keep pace, if a singer skips a section, a good band will cope, if the song is interrupted by laughter, a live band can pause
- you can cue a live band from the stage - count four and they'll come in at your pace, which is an impossibility for a recorded source

Disadvantages of a live band include:-
- the difficulty in finding musicians (and getting them to your rehearsals)
- you may have to pay musicians. (I'm not saying that you shouldn't; if they are professional musicians then it's their living and it's appropriate to pay a fee. I'm just saying that some theatre groups may not be able to afford it)
- not all musicians are good musicians (so sometimes a band may sound worse and provide something else to go wrong)

Advantages of recording include
- sharing copies amongst your cast for learning the songs
- rehearsing with the orchestration
- you can use a wider variety of orchestration than you can manage with a live band (because it's not worth bringing in a live full string section for the second half of one song, and you can never find a harpist when you want one)
- in some theatres, it may be easier to balance recorded sound than it is to balance live musicians (particularly if you don't have a pit)

Disadvantages of recording include
- lack of variation in "musical colour" (this is particularly true if you record from a basic midi system; at its worst, midi makes everything sound like a fairground organ)
- lack of control (other than volume) during the live performance


Okay, that's the overview, now what sort of "piece of software" are you looking for? Are you trying to play the live software through a computer sound card? (If so, I don't recommend it!) If your source is Midi, then play it through a decent sound card, and convert it to a wav file and burn it to an audio CD. My in-house musician recommends the midi instrument sounds on the latest release of Logic Studio on his Apple Mac (though the woodwind has a long breathy attack!)

I'd rather see a pantomime accompanied by piano and drums than by even the best possible recorded music. Not particularly for the musical set pieces (which in panto should be short and mainly up-tempo), but for the comedy effects, chases, prat-falls; all the things that differentiate Pantomime from other forms of musical theatre.

I use Midi files played through a Yahama Keyboard,
and also now a Roland SD-20 Sound Modual thing...

It sounds fantastic...

The only draw back is we can't "do it on the fly"
perhaps and play around with the MD on stage.

We use recorded as there is no room for a band
as such. The cast know the song within weeks
as they take home recordings.

Obviously you have to beware of copyright laws
relating to this and pay the right fees.

You'd have MADE room for a band if there was no hi-tech alternative, or if you'd really wanted to.

That's a bit of a sweeping statement without seeing the venue!

Hahahahahahah ....

Well, what else would you have done? A pantomime with no music?

Well it has been one! Or at least a reliance on technical music! As other have said it does rely on the size of venue and the budget of the show!

We have always used live music for our pantos - in the olden days it was just a piano, these days we have a keyboard player who not only plays music for the songs but also underscores the action when needed. With most modern keyboards you can easily replicate the sound of a whole band, so space should not be an issue with the provision of live music. As has been mentioned earlier, the flexibility that live music gives you can be a godsend - plus I think that most audiences like to see where the sound is coming from...

I think recorded music is fine for a pantomime...so, a few things might be a little out of time...BIG DEAL! If you choose this option don't whatever you do use a sound card or a synth. A simple software program like REASON will give you much more realistic results. If you have the cash GIGA studio is the dogs, all the music for Lord of the Rings was recorded with it...you can't tell it from a real orchestra. Nick might delete this post because he'll say I'm advertising again. No NICK, I don't work for Tascam, or Angelwings Productions, or Streamline...all of which youve accused me of advertising.

He's such a little sergeant major

No problem with this post and keep posting!

Not sure how you think I accused you of advertising all those things, the only thing I have come across recently was a web design program that someone was pushing.

As to deletion, it is almost always instigated by another poster who them messages the moderators.

We'd still be using lime to light us if there was no hi-tech alternative - and we certainly wouldn't be allowing women on stage, but thankfully things have moved on!

We have a very good sound tech when we've done panto and have had all the whoops, bangs, whizzs and flashes pre-recorded too (our last panto had 103 sound cues and on the first night our guy missed one - god bless him!) We use prerecorded because we can't afford a musician, we don't know anyone who would do it out of the goodness of their heart. When we need songs cutting down we get in touch with a chap who is happy to record backing tracks, other than that we use cdg discs and pay the prs. Like has been said, it's so much easier for the cast to learn the songs and I don't think an audience these days is too bothered about where the music is coming from. If their thinking about that when watching a panto then you're using the wrong script!

(On saying that - if a good keyboardist & drummer came along who begged me to work for free - I'd use them!)

>(On saying that - if a good keyboardist & drummer came along who begged me to work for free - I'd use them!)


So despite your ingenious arguments, you don't REALLY believe canned music is better. Good :-)

Just picked up on this (first day since Friday before Christmas with no visitors - yipee!!!), so am saying what a lot of others have said but....

you cant beat live music for a panto, for all the reasons already given. We use backing tracks for most rehearsals and then have the occasional one with live music until the final week when it is live all the time. You can develop so many extra bits and peices, like the "boom, boom" from the drum, the sinister tinkle of piano music when something bad is about to happen - yes you can use sound effects for these but it's not the same. The musicians will also "ad lib" depending on what ad libs come from the cast or the audience - all so much more spontaneous.

Some years we have 2 guitars but this year we are making do with piano/keyboards (same player) drums and bass guitar and they are great!

Each has their pros and cons - prerecorded is easier for us - plus we don't have another ego in the company to deal with when there's no musician! (I worked on a panto with another company - their keyboardist dropped out two weeks prior to the run - do you know how difficult it is to find any musicians who aren't working at Xmas time! - there's another con for the live music side of the argument! It's usually easy to get by and struggle along if a cast member falls ill - anyone can fill in (to a degree) but what if your muso takes to their bed!

Anyway - just as your argument said if we didn't have hi-tech gadgets we'd all use musicians, mine is 'if musicians weren't so damn expensive I'd use them - but they are, so I don't'

Besides, like I say, a live musician records some of our tracks for us. What's the difference in him recording it and being there? It sounds the same! Our Giant for Jack and the Beanstalk was all prerecorded - that had the added bonus of at least one of the characters getting their lines right every night!