drama sound

Pro Audio Asylum

Pro studio recording equipment and music production/industry.

The community were I reside is fortunate to have a few theatrical troupes that perform at least yearly at various venues. Over the years I have become the soundman for some of them. The productions vary in technical complexity from 1 open mic for improv to musicals w/full orchestra, 10 rf mics flying thru the air under elaborate costumes, pzms, recorded & live sound fx, etc. The latest venue was an old but decent 1100 seat theater w/ an 80â€™ high domed ceiling and a solid 4â€™h x 60â€™w x 40â€™d wooden stage for a community theatre (no budget) production of Sweeny Todd w/ about 20 actor/singers. For most performances the audience fills less than half the seats. The sound system for this one consisted of L & R JBL MR822s on stands, slightly downstage from the thrust on the main floor paralleled to 2 more halfway back into the seats powered by Hafler Pro2400 pwr amp. The monitor for the conductor of the 8 pc.orchestra which was set up on the floor in front of the stage (no pit) consisted of a small (10w/6â€) powered spkr on a mic stand fed by one of the post sends of a Mackie 3204 mixer. His mix consisted of all the rf mics. An identical pwrd spkr fed by a pre send (always on) was hidden on the upper level of the bi-level set to supply keybd sound to the singers up there. A 12â€ 2-way JBL wedge fed by switchable pre-post send & powered by one side of another Hafler 2400 was placed in each wing to supply keybd sound to the stage and to occasionally communicate w/ stage from the mix position via the V.O.G. mic.
The mixer was fed by 3x Shure SM-91 boundary mics on the lip of the stage (panned u L, C, u R) & 9x Shure WL-93 omni lavs w/ Samson & Shure UHF belt pack xmitters on the principal actors (all panned C). Most of the actors clipped the mics to costumes in the chest area but the female lead wore hers in her wig over one ear and another actor clipped his to glasses frame. There was a Shure SM-58 in one of the wings for offstage vocal reinforcements and a Discman to play some soundfx. 2x Realistic pzms on stands were placed in the orchestra mainly for recording and panned u L/R. The instrumentation consisted of trumpet, French horn, clarinet & bassoon to the left of the conductor, electronic keybd (Clavinova) in the middle, electric bass and all manner of percussion from tymps to triangle (2 musicians) on the right.
Four channels of cheap DOD compression were inserted on the rf mic channels whose actors were determined to have the widest dynamic range (from a whisper to a scream). Mixer main outs went thru an Ashley 2/3 octave GEQ and a BBE processor was inserted in the main inserts. The system was rung out for 2 or 3 problem freqs. Monitor EQ was accomplished w/tone controls on the pwrd spkrs. None was required for the keys stage sound.
During performance only rf mic channels in use were opened. The Shure 91â€™s were gained up for the chorus numbers.
Problems I am interested in receiving advice on are: 1.How to avoid the comb filtering effect when more than one rf mic is open on stage? 2.How to get more gain from the whole system especially when the Shure SM-91s are gained up? 3.How to isolate the SM-91s from the orchestra sounds? 4.How much would others charge for rental and operation of a system like this? What about rehearsal time? 5. Anything else to get the most out of a set up like this.

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Michael Percy Audio

Topic - drama sound - et-av 03:10:48 02/08/02 (0)

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