Mixing technique for lavs in a musical

[superuser2]

So I'm curious, for those of you who've mixed musical theater where most of the actors with major parts have wireless lavaliers, what techniques do you use when mixing? If there are a lot of mic swaps and a lot of people on stage, how do you figure out who's who quickly enough to react? Do you typically mark every line in the script with a mic number and only raise the fader for their lines, or what?

If this question has been asked before, please point me towards any other threads or other reading.

 

[calkew5]

My two cents:

I use a heavily marked script for a while before running the production becomes second nature and the script isn't needed. The way I was taught was to set all the mic channels at a pretty good conversational level and then mute/unmute when the actor enters or exits the stage. During songs I'll bump as needed. I don't know if everyone does this.

 

[NUSound]

Get a digital board? Haha, probably not an option, but it would make your life sooo easy.

It really depends on how many changes/ons offs you really have. I don't of any 'right' way to do it.

Here are a couple of things I've done in the past, all of which involved a clearly labeled script:

1. All channels muted, unmute as needed.

2. All channels muted via mute groups. Used mute-safe to turn them on for solos, and unmuted the groups when for ensembles.

3. All faders fully down, brought them up as needed. I like this simply because I like having my hand ready for fast adjustment to get the levels right, but you can only do this if you aren't running monitors from FOH.

I currently run an M7CL for the group I work with and have over 200 scenes. Each one is configured with who is on/who is off/level adjustments/DCA assignments (ex. the soloist is always moved to DCA 5). I have a user-defined-key that advances the scenes, so most of my job involves hitting that button at the right time... very little other work to do. Possibly consider renting an LS9 for the week?

 

[gpforet]

You'v e got to plan. During rehearsals, find out who needs pack for each scene. I keep my main actors on the same packs thru-out the show even if they're not in every scene.

Map it out, make a grid on a table or case top, and as the actors leave the stage, those who will be giving up packs should know to haul ass to that spot (usually in the wings). You'll need two radio wranglers, one to take packs and place them in their spot on the grid you've laid out, and one to take the packs, staple them to the actor's back (just kidding), and using comms let the FOH engineer know they are ready to go.

The FOH engineer should already have his channels marked for the CHARACTER name and in the case of two actors sharing a pack, both CHARACTER'S names should be labeled on the tape.

You script should be marked according to channel numbers so you can quickly hit the mutes without having to remember who's who.

I NEVER label the console with an actor's name. ALWAYS the CHARACTER. That way I can quickly regain composure by going back to the script.

Comms between the FOH engineer, and the radio wrangler attaching packs are VITAL to this working.

Levels are very forgiving and placing a comp on the subgroup for the actors will help with transient spikes.

DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT. This is not something that can be done on the fly without the audience hearing late cues, improper levels, etc.

Good luck, swapping packs during a live performance is one on the more exciting things about mixing musical theatre on a budget.

Oh, and a digital console will not really help here. Even with snapshots, it's all in the planning.

So I'm curious, for those of you who've mixed musical theater where most of the actors with major parts have wireless lavaliers, what techniques do you use when mixing? If there are a lot of mic swaps and a lot of people on stage, how do you figure out who's who quickly enough to react? Do you typically mark every line in the script with a mic number and only raise the fader for their lines, or what?

If this question has been asked before, please point me towards any other threads or other reading.

 

[SHARYNF]

Make sure to mark the PACKS with the Character or Characters same as the channel on the board.

Scene recall makes things MUCH easier (why I really like Digital Mixers)

But alternative is start all muted, then unmute as you follow the script

Sharyn

 

[bishopthomas]

I like to go through the script and highlight all lines that are on a mic. Each character gets a different color, but if I run out of colors I just make sure to use a variety on each page. This helps to look at it and immediately know what lines are on a mic, which mic it is, and how long they are speaking. No more pink highlighter, the fader gets pulled down and/or muted. I try to get the principles on their own mics, but if they have to share then it becomes tricky to swap and keep up with. I label the channels on the console and body packs with the character(s)' name. I also like to label the wireless receiver so that I can see very easily if someone has been stupid enough to mute their mic or the battery has died. I always tape over switches or lock the body packs and fresh batteries for every show, but somehow actors manage to hit the switch or the maybe the batteries were duds.

As far as mixing the show, I prefer to leave the channels on and pull down the fader as they exit. This way my fingers are always on faders and I don't have to worry about repositioning my hands. It's all about muscle memory. When a mic is completely done (toward the end of the show) I'll mute the channel so I know I never have to touch that fader again. If I am mixing monitors or sending a record feed out I may use a post fade aux, or I may have to use the mute buttons for their intended purpose.

The key for me is keeping up with the script and practicing. Toward the end of rehearsal week I usually know the lines as well as (or better than in some cases) the actors. I know the dynamics and can exactly how much I'm going to pull back for screams and bump for whispers. Without proper rehearsals (I've done shows where I don't even see a script or meet the client until opening night, did I mention I'm a freelance engineer?) it's even more crucial to have and follow a script, while also trying to keep up with the action on the stage. Oh yeah, com is for A2's, I need my ears to tell my brain what to do.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

.....and using comms let the FOH engineer know they are ready to go.

<snip>

Comms between the FOH engineer, and the radio wrangler attaching packs are VITAL to this working.

How does the FOH engineer mix the show properly if they're on comms listening to find out if actors have had pack swaps? Every show I've ever done where we've had to switch packs between people, the engineer trusts the radio wranglers to switch the packs at the appropriate time and is off comms in order to mix the show better...the wrangler is able to get them on comms if necessary (comms pack placed so signal light is visible) but that's only for emergencies.

Planning and organization is key to pack-switching successfully; a lot of engineers I work with prefer to use a spreadsheet with pack numbers across the top and scene numbers down the side, then you just fill in actor names in the appropriate scene and pack cells - that way you can easily see firstly the tracking of each pack, and secondly who the packs are allocated to in each scene. I always think it's best to leave packs on leads even if they're not in every scene; ideally each actor will only ever use one pack - they may not have it for the whole show, and that pack may be shared amongst three or four actors, but if you can keep actor A on pack 5 for all his lines it will make things a whole lot easier to keep track of.

 

[SHARYNF]

IMO people typically have more problem tracking NUMBERS than names of the CHARACTER. If you have to have multiple characters share a belt pack then just show the multiple names on both the channel strip and the pack I have seen situations where the packs are color coded, but it gets hard to keep track of colors with 16 plus packs. If you use character names than you can just highlight the name in the script.


FOH on Coms can be a real problem but I have seen successful use of Instant Messaging that allows the foh to get a VISUAL indication of a problem, and still have all ears on the audience space.

Sharyn

 

[TimmyP1955]

Good luck, swapping packs during a live performance is one on the more exciting things about mixing musical theatre on a budget.

Oh, and a digital console will not really help here. Even with snapshots, it's all in the planning.

When a mic/pack/receiver is used for multiple characters, we route the receiver to multiple channels - 1 for each character. Thus when the scene is recalled, the character is on his own dedicated channel. (Of course one can do this on an analog console as well, it just takes a few wyes.)

 

[SHARYNF]

I can see why on an analog board with a lot of channels you might want to do this so that you could retain the individual setting on level and eq etc for the different characters but on a Digital board, with scene recall you would just store the different setting on the same channel for the different characters.

Most of the lower end digital boards don't have the flexibility to have routing on the input source

What board are you using/

Sharyn

 

[gpforet]

Comms for FOH is a mixed bag. I wear in-ears, and a single sided headset for comms, my left ear keeps the in-ear in all the time, with the comm headset on top. During the performance, I'll take my right ear monitor out from time to time to get a different perspective.

My in-ears are fed from house mics which are used both for video sends, and as a source to feed to the musical director. I've abandoned using headphones for soloing channels and have been quite happy with in-ears. I'm using the M-Audio IE-30 which give me 20+ db of isolation. Even with that, I can hear the comms in my left ear.

Oh, and I do understand that being able to recall channel eq settings as the pack move between actors is indeed an advantage of digital desks.

How does the FOH engineer mix the show properly if they're on comms listening to find out if actors have had pack swaps? Every show I've ever done where we've had to switch packs between people, the engineer trusts the radio wranglers to switch the packs at the appropriate time and is off comms in order to mix the show better...the wrangler is able to get them on comms if necessary (comms pack placed so signal light is visible) but that's only for emergencies.

Planning and organization is key to pack-switching successfully; a lot of engineers I work with prefer to use a spreadsheet with pack numbers across the top and scene numbers down the side, then you just fill in actor names in the appropriate scene and pack cells - that way you can easily see firstly the tracking of each pack, and secondly who the packs are allocated to in each scene. I always think it's best to leave packs on leads even if they're not in every scene; ideally each actor will only ever use one pack - they may not have it for the whole show, and that pack may be shared amongst three or four actors, but if you can keep actor A on pack 5 for all his lines it will make things a whole lot easier to keep track of.

 

[TimmyP1955]

I can see why on an analog board with a lot of channels you might want to do this so that you could retain the individual setting on level and eq etc for the different characters but on a Digital board, with scene recall you would just store the different setting on the same channel for the different characters.

Most of the lower end digital boards don't have the flexibility to have routing on the input source

What board are you using/

Sharyn

You are right of course. But we prefer to use a separate channel. One reason is that if we have Metz, Beverly, and Banjo sharing a mic (as we recently did), and we later decide that another character needs the mic more than Beverly does, we don't have to do quite as much work to change the scenes - we can just turn Beverly's channel off. If we later decide to have Beverly share someone else's mic, the scene's with Beverly are still good - we just change the input patch and turn Beverly's channel back on. (We run everything on the channels recall-safe except for the faders, unless we find a need for scene specific EQ changes. Thus if someone needs say an EQ change in the middle of the show (because the mic shifted position, their voice is getting weak, etc.) we don't have to write that EQ change into every scene. (We are using an LS9.)

 

[SHARYNF]

Interesting approach. Not sure I would recommend it for someone not very familiar with the entire setup, and also where you have a lot less wireless than channels on the board. Could get very confusing especially in a more "amateur" type of situation.

I would have thought that simply defining additional alternate scenes based in where Beverly's mic is would have been a lot less confusing

But everyone has their own way of doing things
Sharyn

 

[jkowtko]

* Line-by-line fading is important if you want the cleanest possible sound out of the show. This means turning each fader up as the actors says or sings his/her line, then turning it down when someone else is talking or singing. To do this, you have to number each line in the script with the fader number and, until you memorize the play, will have to place the script in front of you and follow it.
- I've never seen mutes used in a play in place of fading. I've seen channels muted for actors who are not in a particular scene ... however muting is primarily needed to control noise floor. If you use muting instead of fading you risk "chopping" the sound, and you muck up your control surface with faders all over the place ... hard to find the ones that are being used at any given point in time.

* If your board has the capability, VCA (DCAs in digital boards) are very useful because they can reduce a set of 20+ wireless down to a manageable bank of 8-12 faders. Between your two hands you have 8 fingers that could be working at the same time on faders that are positioned pretty close to each other. A VCA board with scene snapshots can place whatever channels are needed on those VCA faders for each scene, so your main work is on those faders and nothing else. Your script would be numbered for the VCA.

* However if you don't have VCA/DCA capability, then you're at the mercy of how well you lay out the channels, and it is up to you to try to group channels together when relevant so that you can work them in an optimal manner.

* Once trick I've been using is to use masking tape to "group" adjacent faders. So, for example, my group of Chicago background singers this past weekend, I taped the four faders together so I could operate them all with one finger. lay the tape out across the top half of the faders, then fold over the top edge of the faders. You get a fairly stiff "bar" of tape. Makes a huge difference when I am juggling several other individual faders at the same time. I've taped as many as five faders together for specific scenes. When I do this I make fine adjustments to individual channels within the group using the channel input trim. And when the scene requiring grouping is over, I pull the tape off and stick it out of the way somewhere so I can use it again.

So, my two suggestions are --
1) fade line-by-line if you can
2) reduce the number of faders needing simultaneous operation at any given time

 

[HSSBO94]

In my script, i take a bunch of little sticky notes that are colored.
I take a yellow one with the character name, this means "warning" mic up in like 45 seconds
pink means mic up / ride fader (actor will say something in 5 seconds)
blue means mic out for rest of number. another pink is required to get the mic back up

if a mic is used twice in a number but with time in between the two times, I try to take the mic down and will use a yellow warning for the second time the mic goes back up, but not a pink.

after production week I am off my script and spend almost no time looking at it.

as far as levels i just do what sounds like a good balance. Our mics have annoying things that control the gain on the pack so I can't trust the levels to be all the same (I try to check them during the sound check but they can get bumped. gaff taping over doesn't help especially if the actor decides they should be louder)

 

[leistico]

Most of the advice here is pretty sound. I'm running "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" right now on a spaghetti-string-thin budget, i.e. I'm running 18 channels of wireless (10 ours plus 8 borrowed) on a 20 channel Mackie analog board, 2 direct outs and a choir mic running from the pit (winds and strings) plus computer SFX into a Phonic board going into the "Tape In" on the Mackie. This to 2 Mackie powered speakers and the auxes to monitors onstage (pit and FX) and backstage/pit (vocals). It works for our space.

I also run the show uncalled (the SM nods at me and I run the preshow announcement, the light op nods at me to warn when we're coming back from intermission). I mark the script with fader numbers and FX cues a line or two before they're needed, also marking outs and full resets (everyone out, these two back up, etc).

The mute buttons on the Mackie are so small and small throw, I run it all on faders. I label each fader with the actor(s) names because of a lot of multiple characters, and I know all the actors, otherwise it's good to go with character names. Also, I put tape up the sides of the faders and mark a "-" where they sing solo, a "D" for their dialogue level, and a "..." for when I'm mixing the whole ensemble, usually -15 to -20 for that many open mics at once. Most of those marks come from a full rehearsal with the music director next to me deciding what blend sounds the best to her (I also started putting a small S, A, T or B next to the names on the board, because the music director would ask for more soprano or tenor so often it was easier to use that.)

And if an actor tried to reset the gain on a pack I'd already set, "well, darn the luck, something must have gotten reset on the pack and I just couldn't get your big solo number up over the level of the pit. Ya looked good doing pantomime, though!"

The important thing I tell all the actors about how I work is "if you're onstage, your mic is open. If you're just coming on or have just left, it might be open for a second or two. Otherwise, yes, you can go to the bathroom without having it broadcast. The packs are locked on, so don't worry about accidentally turning them off or changing channels. They're costume pieces now. The little wire running up your back, taped to your neck and your cheek is a costume piece. Don't fiddle with it. Forget it, and do your thing, while I do mine."

 

[superuser2]

Wow. Excellent advice.

We run a 24-channel analog Mackie board, and it's served us well. I have no complaints as I've never been exposed to anything better, and as far as I know replacing it is out of the question, so no digital for me, at least not in high school. ;-) I like the idea of having a channel for each character, what kind of hardware would you need to have a receiver running to multiple channels?

IM between backstage and the booth sounds like a REALLY good idea. Provided somebody could lend another personal laptop, I could easily set up an ad-hoc WiFi network and a Jabber server on my Mac to make this happen. In my next show, I'm pretty sure I will.

I didn't mix line-by-line in my last show, but from what I'm hearing and what I've seen, I think I will for the next. It's kind of a given for me that I work exclusively with character's names, and mic swaps are all planned and practiced with index cards during full run-throughs even before tech week. Muting has always made me kind of nervous because it's the kind of thing I could very easily forget, and I like the visual feedback of looking at the faders....

What would be the pros and cons of working with numbers written next to each line vs. character names on the board? I think in my last show there were a couple of places where the same character used 2 different mics, so that wouldn't be practical, but if I could work around that I would.

 

[SHARYNF]

There are a number of options for the split, you could probably get away with just a y cable or you could look at something like this

Amazon.com: ART SplitCom Pro 2 Way Mic Splitter / Combiner: Musical Instruments

I would try the y cable first. If you place it at the console, you probably will not have any problems

Most people seem to remember names etc better than numbers and in the middle of a show a lot of folks will typically know the characters name OR if the cast is easy to recognize the cast member.

If by numbers you are referring to the levels, then you could use numbers but typically it is more difficult to read, and a quick level indicator like the recommended sticker might be easier.

Sharyn