Creative mic placement on a set

[AlexDavila]

About two years ago, I designed sound for a production of Brighton Beach Memoirs with a well-equipped community theatre. The audience was seated onstage on risers in a three quarter round configuration. The original intent was to embed mics into the set and rely on discreet area mic'ing in lieu of body mics because of the intimacy and physical closeness of the audience. See the attached photos:

Brighton Full Stage

• AlexDavila
• Mar 26, 2016

Brighton Living Room

• AlexDavila
• Mar 26, 2016

We had some success with a Countryman B6 embedded in the chandelier and a couple other lavs on dressers in the upstairs bedrooms, but there were many dead areas onstage mixed with the poor acoustics. Because of this and concern for our older patrons, we ended up integrating body mics after the second dress with much success. The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth regarding area mic'ing. I feel like the problem was not only a lack of ingenuity on my part, but also a scenic design that wasn't conducive to hiding mics. Does anyone have any thoughts on the situation? Also, can anyone direct me toward examples of discreet area mic'ing, including equipment and techniques?

Thanks!

 

[balderson04]

Hi, Alex:

I was waiting for someone a little more knowledgeable about sound to chime in here, but no one has, so I'll toss in my two cents.

My first thought is "how big is your stage if you had the audience on stage with the production and still felt you needed to mic the show?"

My second thought is that lavaliers are not intended to do what you're asking them to do, here. They're meant to pick up a voice a few inches away, not twenty feet.

I've used PZM mics (Pressure Zone) with very good results in everything from outdoor Shakespeare to musicals in 600-seat auditoriums. And, for simple vocal reinforcement in a straight play, you don't need to spend huge amounts. A couple or four can do the job.

On the set you've shows us, I'd put on at each downstage corner, one on the wall at the first landing of the stairway (facing the door) and one somewhere near the front of the upper bedroom (it's hard to tell where, though.)

Right tools for the right job is the way to go.

Good luck.

David

 

[themuzicman]

@balderson04 Right tool for the right job is any tool that gets the job done right. I've done several large off-broadway shows that were area mic'd with a dozen DPA 4061's hung from the ceiling, another few shows entirely mic'd with DPA 4061's in DPA BLM (boundary layer mic) mounts all over the floor, built into floors/walls/set prices. If it gets the job done well, it works!

An audience on the stage doesn't mean they didnt have issues with uneven sound - could have been large risers, might have also had overflow seating in the house. The point of proper reinforcement in many plays and musicals is to reinforce when natural amplification fails, reinforcement in this case is not amplification - you strive to keep the destination as close to the same sound as the source. This holds true for 200 seat theaters as well as 20,000 seat arenas.

More importantly, I can think of many venues where PZM's won't cut it, I work in New York and find myself routinely watching producers spend moderately large amounts of money to get even sound in straight plays in 500 seat theaters because they know in the right hands you won't even know it's been amplified, and that illusion is worth it to some directors. I've also done a ton of Shakespeare that has required lav mic'ing to keep this illusion up.

 

[AlexDavila]

Thanks you two for your thoughts!!

@balderson04, I should have mentioned that the first photo shows the entire playing area with seating directly off SL/SR/DS what is shown. Were this not the case, some PMZ's across the front would've likely been a good option, especially if the audience were actually in the house (what a concept! ) The playing area was roughly 30' wide by 30' deep, and the main areas of contention were the bedrooms on the second level, the stairs, upstage near the front door, and just outside the front door on the small porch (see the background in photo two). Also generally, when action was happening far to either side, the audience opposite that side could no longer hear the dialogue.

There are a lot of factors that I've left out of the mix (the placement/model of the house speakers in the air, the cast's ability to project, my own prep time, etc), but I what I'm trying to figure out is some halfway-proper techniques for hiding mics and mixing them accordingly.

@themuzicman, the BLM mounts you described are definitely on the right track, but I'm having a hard time finding resources that describe how one uses/hides them in walls/floors/set pieces etc. I don't doubt that a lot of the techniques you've used and seen used are the result of many years of trial and error along with a great deal of collaboration between different designers, but I feel like that information is either too niche for anyone to think to share it or just a well kept secret.

And now I think I'm just complaining. So sorry. It's not that I'm trying to avoid tinkering and figuring it out on my own. I think I'm frustrated because I've come across a wealth of information regarding wireless mic usage and instrument mic'ing techniques so I feel underwhelmed by the resources available on this.

Again, thank you for your thoughts and time. Hope the tour is going well @themuzicman !

 

[themuzicman]

@themuzicman, the BLM mounts you described are definitely on the right track, but I'm having a hard time finding resources that describe how one uses/hides them in walls/floors/set pieces etc. I don't doubt that a lot of the techniques you've used and seen used are the result of many years of trial and error along with a great deal of collaboration between different designers, but I feel like that information is either too niche for anyone to think to share it or just a well kept secret.

Not a well kept secret, array micing over the stage is just a simple math problem along with some processing and a skilled mixer. You actually end up mixing a mic array like a musical - one or two mics at a time, line by line, and just bring up whatever mic is directly over the person you want to get and follow the 3:1 rule if you need to bring up more than one. If you have a digital desk with enough discrete outputs, you can also choose to throw the mics only on the opposing side of the stage or just into delays, etc. but it can be a challenge - a good rule of thumb I follow when bringing in mic arrays is wherever the natural sound dips -6dB I bring up the mic a hair until I gain back natural sound -- this counterintuitively means that quieter shows may end up with a lot more speakers than loud shows just to keep the sound natural-isa and intelligible. But really it's whatever sounds best for the room so the person in front of your actor doesn't here a speaker, but the people behind and far away in front will hear -- there is some trial and error involved there.

As for BLM mounts, a good scenic painter goes a long way with hiding those. The mounts themselves are like $16 a piece - the most inexpensive thing DPA sells and cheap enough to destroy in trial and error. I hand them off to scenic painters and have them built the mounts into walls and floors, and get carpentry to leave me access to them somehow. It involves collaboration, but honestly not many designers have started using them -- they are a nifty little trick I had a designer show me two years ago that I pull out of my toolbox every few months now. If you don't want to hide them, they velcro to things really easy, and you drill a little hole in your surface the size of the DPA diaphragm (or any tiny omni really).