Hello there,
Firstly, I'd like to say that I have made a genuine effort to figure this one out myself, with much trouble. Any advice or opinions from someone knowledgeable would be terrific! Excuse the length - there are just a lot of details!
I'm the TD of a small high school with a pain-in-the-butt MD who thinks he's everything, with sprinkles on top... Our performances are all live, and made of a mashup of choral performances, dances, drama pieces, etc. Anyway, he refuses to place his choir anywhere but against a wall in a corner of the gymnatorium. The room has a 5-second echo if I'm lucky, so acoustics couldn't be worse. The mains were installed nicely, a couple dozen feet in the air. The issue is that if you place a microphone anywhere but onstage, feedback will occur at about 5 different frequencies, even with very little gain.
I'm trying to give volume to a 16-peice vocal jazz ensemble. I'd like to clarify: 16 of the (albeit highly talented) quietest high-school voices you will ever hear. Placing overhead mics is impractical... The only mics other than 57's and 58's in the inventory are 2 AKG C1000S's. They refuse to give me any volume before the start feeding back, which is understandable considering the room. I can place them facing exactly opposite to the speakers and still only catch 3 or 4 voices.
Next idea is to close-mic every individual in the choir. We have enough 57's and 58's for everybody... But I have the same gain problem because the vocalists are so quiet and can't hold the thing close to their lips for the life of them. It's also not desirable because the room is 125x75 feet and cable runs become ridiculous, and students trip over them. In addition, there are junior choirs who have specifically requested not to hold microphones, so managing all of them and their cables between acts is nearly impossible.
I am moderately experienced in sound, but I have no idea how to handle this anymore... Sound checks (which I get about 5 minutes for) become "WHY ARE YOUR MICS SO QUIET?" and "WHY ARE YOUR VOCALISTS SO QUIET?"
Any tips on how to make this louder would be much appreciated. The mixer is a Mackie Onyx 24.4, and my only signal processing is a stereo 31-band EQ (which I run the mains through). Mains are QSC 2 K8s and 2 QSC KSubs. Subs are on the floor, by the way.
Thanks,
MrMagLit
Firstly, I'd like to say that I have made a genuine effort to figure this one out myself, with much trouble. Any advice or opinions from someone knowledgeable would be terrific! Excuse the length - there are just a lot of details!
I'm the TD of a small high school with a pain-in-the-butt MD who thinks he's everything, with sprinkles on top... Our performances are all live, and made of a mashup of choral performances, dances, drama pieces, etc. Anyway, he refuses to place his choir anywhere but against a wall in a corner of the gymnatorium. The room has a 5-second echo if I'm lucky, so acoustics couldn't be worse. The mains were installed nicely, a couple dozen feet in the air. The issue is that if you place a microphone anywhere but onstage, feedback will occur at about 5 different frequencies, even with very little gain.
I'm trying to give volume to a 16-peice vocal jazz ensemble. I'd like to clarify: 16 of the (albeit highly talented) quietest high-school voices you will ever hear. Placing overhead mics is impractical... The only mics other than 57's and 58's in the inventory are 2 AKG C1000S's. They refuse to give me any volume before the start feeding back, which is understandable considering the room. I can place them facing exactly opposite to the speakers and still only catch 3 or 4 voices.
Next idea is to close-mic every individual in the choir. We have enough 57's and 58's for everybody... But I have the same gain problem because the vocalists are so quiet and can't hold the thing close to their lips for the life of them. It's also not desirable because the room is 125x75 feet and cable runs become ridiculous, and students trip over them. In addition, there are junior choirs who have specifically requested not to hold microphones, so managing all of them and their cables between acts is nearly impossible.
I am moderately experienced in sound, but I have no idea how to handle this anymore... Sound checks (which I get about 5 minutes for) become "WHY ARE YOUR MICS SO QUIET?" and "WHY ARE YOUR VOCALISTS SO QUIET?"
Any tips on how to make this louder would be much appreciated. The mixer is a Mackie Onyx 24.4, and my only signal processing is a stereo 31-band EQ (which I run the mains through). Mains are QSC 2 K8s and 2 QSC KSubs. Subs are on the floor, by the way.
Thanks,
MrMagLit