Avenue Q has taken the West End by storm with its cheeky mix of clever puppetry, social satire, adult comedy and catchy songs. Sound designer Mark Menard, from New York-based Acme Sound Partners, oversaw the transfer of the show from Broadway and, as always, chose to use DPA miniature microphones on his production.

“At Acme we have used DPA since the company first appeared, and the DPA 4061 miniature omnidirectional microphones appear on all of our shows, simply because they are the best on the market,” says Menard. All 10 Avenue Q cast members – who appear operating a variety of puppets or simply as actors - are fitted with DPA 4061s.

The two main actors are double-miked because aside from operating the ‘Princeton’ and ‘Kate’ lead puppets they also operate other characters from time to time. “There’s no time to change – they literally have a few seconds to go into the wing and be fitted with another puppet,” explains sound engineer Laurie Kirkby (below). “DPAs are generally reliable, easy to swap over, easy to replace, and they just sound better than anything else on the market.”

For one song, "You Can Be Loud As The Hell You Want", the ‘Gary’ character wears a headworn DPA 4065 headband mic. This was chosen because the closer proximity of the capsule provides extra gain during this particularly loud song, while the omni cartridge is acoustically identical to the 4061s used on all other actors.

DPA mics are also used for the band, which is located inside a specially-constructed box situated upstage at the Noel Coward Theatre. A DPA 4021 compact cardioid is mounted over each set of strings of the upright piano, DPA 4061s are used on banjo and sax, and a DPA 4041 large diaphragm mic on double bass.

So consistent are the sound characteristics of DPA miniatures that designers such as Menard are issuing guidelines to their relevant member of crew, in this case number two sound engineer Hyder Khalil, who can then implement the precise miking of cast members. “It is the combination of the quality of DPA as well as the consistency of our crew that makes it all work,” says Menard.