Fort Worth Opera’s world premier production of JFK was rather simple on the surface regarding sound. It is only after reviewing my notes and files in order to support the next production of it in Montreal that I realize how much sound design was actually involved.  There is only one sound cue in the show played from Qlab. The more involved sound design work I performed had to do with creating the virtual instrument platform for the production. A mixture of stock Mainstage 3 sounds, a native Mainstage sample library and a native Kontakt sound library running in Kontakt Player (free).  One of the virtual instrument sounds used is a pipe organ and unlike the rest of the virtual instruments that source from the pit via speakers near the keyboardist, the pipe organ is directed to the house sound system as well so it’s bigger than life. What this means is that not only does the virtual instrument platform need to have multiple outputs, there needs to be a sound system to send it to. At Bass Performance Hall, they had a recently installed announcement system which worked perfectly. Prior to it’s installation, I’m not sure what we would of done. Sometimes, sound designers have to rely on less than ideal sound systems because of aesthetic decisions. Fortunately the announcement system is of high quality and permanently installed out of sight so it didn’t even need to be discussed other than setting a level. Details to follow