Mic Check!

Jay Ashworth

Well-Known Member
I'm never more amazed, working theatre, than when actors show up to Mic Check totally unprepared to, you know, do a mic check... except when *every single actor* in a Mic Check is unprepared, even though they have ostensibly just watched a bunch of their cow-orkers do the same exact thing, and they still don't know what to do.

I'm also a copywriter, and ostensible graphic artist.

Wherefore:
 

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[ I believe I left that generic enough to apply to most use cases; feel free to steal it if you are inclined. ]

[ And it appears that I should point out that most of the stuff in the houses I work in is non-paid, or at least mixed, non-Equity; whether it *should* be a lower set of standards or not, it is. This affects the way you approach things, sometimes pretty sharply. ]
 
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Great idea.
 
Coming from professional, commercial theater where Actors aren't called until half-hour I have never fully understood what is gained doing a mic check with actors before every show especially so with the ubiquity of digital consoles. I've seen in a few different forums the common complaint that daily show mic checks are problematic. Why not just do a check-out of all the mics with the A2 at hour before half and then toss the mics out once you've verified they work? If the A2 can't listen backstage, get all the cast to get backstage at places and have the A1 PFL things to verify there were no mishaps with makeup or hairspray to break the elements.

In commercial theater world, we do a mic check on tours when we change a venue and on sit-down shows just a quick once-over if we have put-ins. Same half-hour rule on the tours, and the cast and orchestra have a list of everything we're going to hit which gives you about 60-90 seconds per actor. For me it's typically a few sentences of show dialogue at level and then a few bars of a song with some dynamics at show level and because we have per-arranged what's going to happen it all flows pretty seamlessly.
 
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After opening night, I don't have the cast re-check mics unless we have substitute actors for a particular performance. I have the A2 check them onstage, wiggle the mic wire, connector, and element while speaking, to find any intermittents or elements that sound 'off'.

Other than that, your doc is spot, on, Jay.
 
Spot on doc but even in our community theatre when I get lucky enough to run sound, I forego mic check except that first tech with mics.
I find our hobbyist performers never do lines at performance level and everyone is always running late out of hair/make-up so it just burns warmup time or worse, holds the house opening. Also, we run with no A2 and very rarely anyone on stage that knows enough to be helpful so it's me at the board yelling and no one to debug any issues.
I just power up and have their mics ready and have instruction that they be on 1 hour before curtain if I'm not personally micing them. During warmups or preshow huddles I'm making sure all are on and the levels look good and looking into those that look iffy. In all I feel less stress and I think the performers like not taking up that time.
 
Two reasons:

Depending on the mics and packs you're using, things can go wrong *while you are micing up the actor*; if you don't check, you won't know. That said, yes, it's mostly just a signal check on non-tech nights; 15-30 seconds per person. But that's why I usually don't just have the A2 do it while handing out the packs.

And if you open Mic 1 on the first line, and nothing happens... whose fault is that?

If this is too overwrought for some people's environments, more power to you. The house managers at both the theatres I regularly work at thought it was good for our environments. And the stage manager on our current run of In The Heights thought it looked fine to her, even though her actors, yesterday, were the best prepared I've seen in a while in our neck of the woods (non-Equity paid and mixed casts, 150-450 seat houses and derigs).

And yes, I will sometimes 'background' check them, either while they're being mic'd, or after, without doing a formal mic check...
 
Coming from professional, commercial theater where Actors aren't called until half-hour I have never fully understood what is gained doing a mic check with actors before every show especially so with the ubiquity of digital consoles. I've seen in a few different forums the common complaint that daily show mic checks are problematic. Why not just do a check-out of all the mics with the A2 at hour before half and then toss the mics out once you've verified they work? If the A2 can't listen backstage, get all the cast to get backstage at places and have the A1 PFL things to verify there were no mishaps with makeup or hairspray to break the elements.

In commercial theater world, we do a mic check on tours when we change a venue and on sit-down shows just a quick once-over if we have put-ins. Same half-hour rule on the tours, and the cast and orchestra have a list of everything we're going to hit which gives you about 60-90 seconds per actor. For me it's typically a few sentences of show dialogue at level and then a few bars of a song with some dynamics at show level and because we have per-arranged what's going to happen it all flows pretty seamlessly.
Yup, there are *much* higher and more stringent expectations of paid professional casts, driving how you execute the processes.

As I say above, more power to you on that.

But "that's fine, sonny, but this here's the fleet" works in both direction. :)
 
Oh, been around that little circle so many times. We'd lose a mic in the middle of a number. They'd yell at me and tell me to yell at the cast and make sure they all did mic check. Me; not the SM, not anyone with pull. The cast would amble out, half of them holding the mic on with a finger because they hadn't finished make-up, and the "really important stars" would stay in their dressing rooms because they were above it all. They'd all be passive-aggressive dragging their feet and it would burn up all the time I needed to actually fix things. And I'd never find an issue, because of course I test the units every night before they go out, AND I PFL the lot of them before curtain AND before key entrances.

So all the repairs I was doing would go on lunch, home, and other unpaid hours. And I'd keep the cheap mics working for another week and everyone would say "Isn't it so good we were smart enough to tell you that you needed to do a mic check?"

Until one of the chorus snagged the cord during a quick-change (that they weren't given enough time to do, or a dresser, because yelling at people to just do it right was so effective, right?) And sometimes my "too important for this petty bullshit" stars would leave the mic in the dressing room, skip warm-ups, hang out in back out of RF range and show up five seconds before their entrance when all I can do then is look at the dead channel and sigh.

(Oh, and don't EVEN try to tell the powers that be that this person skipped mic check. "HE/SHE is a Very Professional Actor and would always do everything they are supposed to. How dare you even suggest otherwise!")

Oddly enough, that's not even the worst. The worst is when you DO get the director or MD running mic check for you. They get the entire cast to line up and sing -- without warming up, without a pianist so they are singing so off pitch they are out of their range (the ones that aren't "trying something new because I can't do it on stage.") And idiot Director/Music demands my operator trim the gain on each and every one, throwing out the settings that worked when they were singing the show in front of an audience in favor for tuning everything to whatever they are doing in this ludicrous check.

There are situations where mic check works. When it works, I will ask for it, I will do it. There are also too many situations where certain higher-ups are doing Cargo Cult sound; they heard the word, they think they know what it is and they think it is the magic bullet that keeps that pirate radio station from firing up out of the blue at 8:13 on a Friday night with 20,000 butts in seats to hear that lovely, lovely whoosh as three mics drop signal.
 
Oh, been around that little circle so many times. We'd lose a mic in the middle of a number. They'd yell at me and tell me to yell at the cast and make sure they all did mic check. Me; not the SM, not anyone with pull. The cast would amble out, half of them holding the mic on with a finger because they hadn't finished make-up, and the "really important stars" would stay in their dressing rooms because they were above it all. They'd all be passive-aggressive dragging their feet and it would burn up all the time I needed to actually fix things. And I'd never find an issue, because of course I test the units every night before they go out, AND I PFL the lot of them before curtain AND before key entrances.

So all the repairs I was doing would go on lunch, home, and other unpaid hours. And I'd keep the cheap mics working for another week and everyone would say "Isn't it so good we were smart enough to tell you that you needed to do a mic check?"

Until one of the chorus snagged the cord during a quick-change (that they weren't given enough time to do, or a dresser, because yelling at people to just do it right was so effective, right?) And sometimes my "too important for this petty bullshit" stars would leave the mic in the dressing room, skip warm-ups, hang out in back out of RF range and show up five seconds before their entrance when all I can do then is look at the dead channel and sigh.

(Oh, and don't EVEN try to tell the powers that be that this person skipped mic check. "HE/SHE is a Very Professional Actor and would always do everything they are supposed to. How dare you even suggest otherwise!")

Oddly enough, that's not even the worst. The worst is when you DO get the director or MD running mic check for you. They get the entire cast to line up and sing -- without warming up, without a pianist so they are singing so off pitch they are out of their range (the ones that aren't "trying something new because I can't do it on stage.") And idiot Director/Music demands my operator trim the gain on each and every one, throwing out the settings that worked when they were singing the show in front of an audience in favor for tuning everything to whatever they are doing in this ludicrous check.

There are situations where mic check works. When it works, I will ask for it, I will do it. There are also too many situations where certain higher-ups are doing Cargo Cult sound; they heard the word, they think they know what it is and they think it is the magic bullet that keeps that pirate radio station from firing up out of the blue at 8:13 on a Friday night with 20,000 butts in seats to hear that lovely, lovely whoosh as three mics drop signal.
You've got to love it when when you add a little extra gain for a solo and it instantly feeds back because it's lying on their dressing room table directly in front of their dressing room monitor which is turned up for good measure.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
I think what made the biggest difference for me, in my theatrical career, was to make the distinction between a wireless "line check" and a mic check.
Sometimes, specifically with chorus, you'd have one actor who'd play a few different roles. If they picked up the wrong mic from the shoe bag holder in the dressing room, you'd catch that at mic check, but not if an A2 held the tray of mics and checked they all worked at once.
Also, if the A1 was respectful and fast, the cast cares less that they have to do it. You don't really need anything beyond a real song to know if you're good.
Hopefully you're not making adjustments at mic check. You're just listening to see if an element is bad (muffled, tinny, crackles) and to make sure the correct actor is wearing the correct microphone. It's also a time when the A2 can be onstage when an actor who commonly gets their mic in the wrong place to get a little training. This has been more common for me with casts who don't wear wigs as the wig mistress is well versed on dozens of years of correctly placing a mic.
 
Oh, been around that little circle so many times. We'd lose a mic in the middle of a number. They'd yell at me and tell me to yell at the cast and make sure they all did mic check. Me; not the SM, not anyone with pull. The cast would amble out, half of them holding the mic on with a finger because they hadn't finished make-up, and the "really important stars" would stay in their dressing rooms because they were above it all. They'd all be passive-aggressive dragging their feet and it would burn up all the time I needed to actually fix things. And I'd never find an issue, because of course I test the units every night before they go out, AND I PFL the lot of them before curtain AND before key entrances.

So all the repairs I was doing would go on lunch, home, and other unpaid hours. And I'd keep the cheap mics working for another week and everyone would say "Isn't it so good we were smart enough to tell you that you needed to do a mic check?"

Until one of the chorus snagged the cord during a quick-change (that they weren't given enough time to do, or a dresser, because yelling at people to just do it right was so effective, right?) And sometimes my "too important for this petty bullshit" stars would leave the mic in the dressing room, skip warm-ups, hang out in back out of RF range and show up five seconds before their entrance when all I can do then is look at the dead channel and sigh.

(Oh, and don't EVEN try to tell the powers that be that this person skipped mic check. "HE/SHE is a Very Professional Actor and would always do everything they are supposed to. How dare you even suggest otherwise!")

Oddly enough, that's not even the worst. The worst is when you DO get the director or MD running mic check for you. They get the entire cast to line up and sing -- without warming up, without a pianist so they are singing so off pitch they are out of their range (the ones that aren't "trying something new because I can't do it on stage.") And idiot Director/Music demands my operator trim the gain on each and every one, throwing out the settings that worked when they were singing the show in front of an audience in favor for tuning everything to whatever they are doing in this ludicrous check.

There are situations where mic check works. When it works, I will ask for it, I will do it. There are also too many situations where certain higher-ups are doing Cargo Cult sound; they heard the word, they think they know what it is and they think it is the magic bullet that keeps that pirate radio station from firing up out of the blue at 8:13 on a Friday night with 20,000 butts in seats to hear that lovely, lovely whoosh as three mics drop signal.
you sound a tad peeved, my friend ...
 
The last point in Mac's comment above is pretty important, I have been reminded during this current run of Heights: a quarter inch in mic positioning on the actor can blow your levels and EQ all the way to hell.

Luckily, as Aaron notes, they're gonna do warmups and maybe a full number, and that lets you catch most of the rest. I guess I'm lucky: I've always had an A2 in our environment.

And a large part of my goal in making this poster is exactly positioning/advertising: getting the actors in the mindset that we're trying to make them sound their best, and this is how we do that.
 
Nice list.

I kinda feel blessed at the venue I normally do 2-3 musicals each year.

My A2/MP (MicroPort controller) makes sure all MP are ready prior to the cast arriving for makeup etc.
They all get mounted between makeup and costume.
20 min before doors, all of the cast meetup on the stage for warmup, and at that time I listen into every single one of them.

On our youth musicals we always end the warmup with usually the finale or another tune everyone sings.

During the show our MP keeps an eye on all mics, and we have a text chat running in the Wavetools system, giving fast silent comms between FoH and MP.
(and a Cleacom Intercom for when we need voice comms ;) )
 
If I am lucky enough to have an A2, I like to do a basic line check and intermittent test with the A2 before the actors are fit, to identify intermittent issues with cables or bad elements, etc. If I can get to a point with a show where I trust the mic installations, I try to avoid doing an actor mic check every subsequent show after the first couple, but consistency has been an issue in the past with mic installations, especially with costumes. I've occasionally had the situation where an actor added more mic tape after they received their installation and that strained the cable and caused noise with head movement.

An actor once insisted to me that I need to do actor mic checks before each and every show because actor levels change from night to night. Well, I don't disagree that certain actor conditions can be different from night to night, but my experience has been that channel gains are usually fine from show to show after they are acquired and set - as long as I can get the mic installations to be somewhat consistent.

However, I wonder if a basic mic element / intermittent check could be done offline by the A2 ahead of fitting the actors.

In most of the theaters I work, the receivers are not backstage with the A2 so I've been thinking of building a little battery powered microphone element test box, with a mic preamp, balanced XLR out (or 1/4" out), the appropriate connector for whichever brand wireless being used, and where the box would deliver whatever voltage DC bias power the element needs. A2 could connect this to a little mixer with headphones and run through all the elements in a show with cable wiggle test, etc.

I had seen that Masque Sound in NYC has one, or perhaps had one for sale (it might be discontinued) - the MTB-51E Mic Test Box

I suppose even such a thing does not eliminate all issues, possibility for a problem to develop during the show, nor does it address installation issues, but it could be a help.
 
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