SHARYNF- if you read the original post you'll see that this isn't for a particular show, there is no more information, this is a discussion....thats all. make up your own situation or recall a past experience.
~Allan
I guess the problem I have with this is that without the supporting situation description, most recommendations are totally out of context and of limited value
Let me raise some issues
Why do you want to amplify the
orchestra:
If it is due to a poor placement of the
orchestra vis a vis the audience that is one thing (a lot of the drive to mic everything has originated from some of the situations where the
orchestra was off
stage or in a less than ideal position
It is easy to look at how we might mic a band and extend that to an
orchestra
this raises some issues that need to be carefully looked at
Do you understand the
role of the
conductor, if you have a situation where the
conductor is "playing the
orchestra as an
instrument" then what the
conductor hears at the
podium vs what the audience hears due to
foh could be dramatically different and at cross purposes.
Most bands use a
system of monitors either
wedge or
iem's but typically this is not
practical or desirable for an
orchestra, so from a musicians standpoint on
stage in a
orchestra, moving beyond the on
stage acoustic sound scape to one that is mainly existing
FOH can be problematic.
There have been questions on this forum in the past re band shells, showing that in a number of instances people might not be aware that the purpose of the shell is to enhance the on
stage soundscape for the performers , especially in a typical theater high incidence of
soft goods etc environme3njt
I tend to take a less is better approach, trying to determine what the problem is acoustically that we are trying to correct for. The typical solution of mic everything, IMHO can be a real mistake especially for the inexperienced
foh person.
some of the issues are:
Are you trying to make a live "sound" intentionally or not sound more like a recorded sound? There really is quite a difference in just how a live acoustic soundfield generated by an
orchestra in a good acoustic
venue.
In general, since you at
foh have little control over the sonic
level output from many of the typically no amplified instruments, you can easily wind up raising the overall sound
level to compensate for this lack of control, and at the same time can tend to generate what I would
call an "in your
face" type of sound" . Just as an aside, on of the challenges is for the
foh person to have an acoustic memory to be able to differentiate a live
orchestra vs a recorded band in how things should sound
for recording a live
orchestra, a decca tree suspended above and behind the
conductor has been widely used very successfully
Decca tree - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Typically this is where I would go first.
As for on
stage levels I would work so that the the
conductor was "in charge" so that rather than have the
foh decide what
instrument to bring forware, have it be the interaction between the
conductor and the PERFORMER that brings up the
level. So in this approach the balance is more to create the sound for the performers and the
conductor and then that total sound brought to the audience.
I have seen many situations where for instance everything is attempted to be mic'ed, and what starts to happen is that for instance that 100g Steinway 9
foot begins to sound like an inexpensive spinet. or the sound of the sax is predominately from the bell instead of also from the pads
etc.
Some other things to think about
If you look at a production where the same performance is basically done night after night, or the band on ture plays the same songs time and time again, you can develop a better and better tuned
level/eq mix and be able to effective utilize 40+ input channels. Problem is in your typical mic everything
orchestra setup up there is little time for precise mic placement (vs in a recording session) and the levels/ eq tends to be a rough starting placed (vs reworking the mix in a large multitrack recording
SO there are different approaches,
IMO the first place to start is what is the situation, what are you trying to correct and enhance.
If you have the benefit of trying out things during rehearsals periodically
mute the
system and make sure what you "creating" really sounds better, if there are some issues look to see the best way to correct them, usually the simplest method works best.
Sharyn