BTW, with just about any show you can't leave the
console. I hope you people are doing that. The
current production I'm working on has 14-15 lavs (4-5 w/intense rotating schedule...very intense), 3 floor pccs, 2
grid stage hang, 1
wing hang, and some channels will be compressed and ran through an
effects processor. You defintely can't leave the
console for more than 2 seconds. I hope that you people are mixing your lavs constantly, you're not just setting levels and
mute/unmute when needed. A mix should be dynamics along with the actors voice. Mixing is like playing an insturment, pretty much all musical techniques are involved in it. I primarly
play guitar (playing for years), I took piano lessons for years, and have currently been hobbying the drums. Mixing w/enough channels can be just as tough as playing these insturments. A good mix isn't a good
sound check, set and forget. Anyway, I've gotten great results with the PCC160s and AT853Rx, they
pick up just enough of chorus and ambient vocals. The
downstage ones
pick up pitt and tap dancing quite well, its nice to run these
throw the monitors to ensure the musical cues. BTW, I agree with you in not buying wireless. You know my modo for lavs, If you can't afford nice wireless and lots of it, just don't buy it. Its horrible watching a show listening to cheap noisy wireless w/all the crackling and buzzing or only hearing a small portion of the cast with lavs. Inconsistant volume levels are a killer. Sorry, I went a little off topic, but I had to vent some of these things out.
The following is crossposted from "Mics" in the Audio Questions forum,
http://controlbooth.com/postt1131.html&sid=75aabeea7a6e481d9a7d176b00024d90
Audio Technica AT853 are great hanging mics, they're also amazing drum overheads. They have a nice thin cable built in too. They can be used on stands as well. They have really nice rigging accessories. Get the Pro45 if you can't afford the AT853s. BTW, sm81s should never be hung, they are meant for close to near range applacations.
Crown PCC160s, you have to
play around with them a lot to get good
GBF. I once you used 8 of these in a musical: 5
downstage and 3 upstage hidden in the set. Make sure the
downstage ones are placed evenly apart from each other. When working with DS boundry mics, always have a center
point. So you should work in odd numbers. In theory you'd get more converage with more boundry mics and no center
point, but you actually won't considering the center
stage is always used and everyone sings into that location. This may sound stupid but I've seen this a quite a few times and its pethetic. Look under the mic and make sure the arrow pointing to your source, I've seen people prop up this mics on and angle vertically lol.