How to mix

Hello everyone!

I know this is a very broad question, but here goes: I'm mixing my school's musical in a couple weeks, and I was wondering how one learns how to mix a show for theatre. I'm aware of what EQ, gain, etc are and how to use the console (we have a Roland M480), but I'm not entirely sure what to do after that, other than ride faders to make sure nothing's clipping too badly :) I do a bit of music production on the side so I'm used to tweaking stuff until it sounds good, but I wasn't sure if there was some more... methodical approach I could take to mixing. One other specific question I've had is, our auditorium has a left, right, and center set of speakers, and the console seems to have an output setup for the center channel, but I've only ever seen the left and right ones active - am I supposed to mix stuff differently for that center channel? I'm not sure if I actually have control of that center output from the console, or if the DSP just sums the left and right outputs and sends that to center. I've attached a picture of the speaker setup, although it's pretty dark.
 

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Hello everyone!

I know this is a very broad question, but here goes: I'm mixing my school's musical in a couple weeks, and I was wondering how one learns how to mix a show for theatre. I'm aware of what EQ, gain, etc are and how to use the console (we have a Roland M480), but I'm not entirely sure what to do after that, other than ride faders to make sure nothing's clipping too badly :) I do a bit of music production on the side so I'm used to tweaking stuff until it sounds good, but I wasn't sure if there was some more... methodical approach I could take to mixing. One other specific question I've had is, our auditorium has a left, right, and center set of speakers, and the console seems to have an output setup for the center channel, but I've only ever seen the left and right ones active - am I supposed to mix stuff differently for that center channel? I'm not sure if I actually have control of that center output from the console, or if the DSP just sums the left and right outputs and sends that to center. I've attached a picture of the speaker setup, although it's pretty dark.
Good Morning @Jason Antwi-Appah
A query + A thought.
Do all three speaker locations cover the entire audience OR do two only cover their side?
If the former, consider reinforcing instruments in stereo from the sides with vocals, and reduced low frequencies, from the center.
Season's Best &
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
For theater, the big thing is getting actor's mic on when they are on stage with lines, and turned off when they leave the stage or don't have lines. You don't want off stage conversation or other noises getting amplified. Having too many live actor's mics also increases the chances for feedback and ringing. Generally, just getting the mics on and off at the right time, managing levels, and avoiding feedback will keep you very busy. Get as many rehearsals as you can.
 
"How to Mix" is a class I've been taking for 40 years. I'll teach it to you but you'll need to free up some calendar time... ;)

edit ps: @FMEng is spot on. Ask yourself "can I hear AND understand what is being said/sung? Do I not hear things that are needed to tell the story? Am I hearing things I shouldn't be hearing?"
 
If you are talking about JUST the mixing, i.e. another Sound Designer set up the system, channel assignments, and initial EQ for the mics, then there are a few things I do:

1) sound check EQ - get each actor out on stage before the house opens, have them sing a couple of lines, listen on the solo channel with a GOOD pair of headphones (I use Sennheiser HD280Pro, closed ear for good hearing) and make sure the actor sounds good to you. If you are allowed to touch the EQ settings, plan on dropping out the low end a bit as well as narrow filtering out some amount of the midrange ... sweep the midrange frequency with the attenuation around -10-20db until their voice sounds clear and not muddy. The technique here is to remove sound, not add to it, and to goal is to remove the muddiness from the actor's voice and hear them clearly.

2) Line by Line fading - hopefully the Sound Designer has numbered each line in the margin of the script with the channel number of the line that is being spoken/sung. Then your goal is to have the faders on only when the lines are being spoken, and off before or after. You have to be very diligent in doing this and you are basically reading the show script for each performance, but it minimizes unwanted sound. If the Sound Designer set up the show for line by line fading then the channels are hopefully assigned with the most used channels in the middle of the fader bank to make it easier for you to operate common groups of faders easily. You have eight fingers (no thumbs) available to do this, and I often have several fingers sitting on faders during a busy scene. If there is lots of back and forth dialogue or singing, you don't have to pull the fader completely down between lines, if you pull it down about halfway that is usually enough to eliminate the cross pickup of the mics.

3) For duets, or when two or more actors are singing closely together, I usually pick a mic and ride both actors on the same mic, and bring the other mic down about halfway to prevent cross pickup but still pick up the actor should they move far apart momentarily and then speak.

4) Crescendos -- In a number with a big ending, when the music swells or the lead gives a final belt of the song, I will often slowly push their mic up a bit more to increase the volume just for a moment, to fill the room a bit more and add to the emotion. If it's a ensemble number with a big ending I will do this for all the faders in use (up to eight, or as many as I can fit my fingers on) The audience can supposedly tolerate louder volumes for short periods of time especially when they are focused on an emotional moment on stage and not the volume itself.

That's my two cents -- there are many opinions and techniques used, I would seek out as many as you can.

-- John
 
Good Morning @Jason Antwi-Appah
A query + A thought.
Do all three speaker locations cover the entire audience OR do two only cover their side?
If the former, consider reinforcing instruments in stereo from the sides with vocals, and reduced low frequencies, from the center.
Season's Best &
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
I'm not too sure, I can't really tell from where the console is located. I'll try to test when I get back to school

For theater, the big thing is getting actor's mic on when they are on stage with lines, and turned off when they leave the stage or don't have lines. You don't want off stage conversation or other noises getting amplified. Having too many live actor's mics also increases the chances for feedback and ringing. Generally, just getting the mics on and off at the right time, managing levels, and avoiding feedback will keep you very busy. Get as many rehearsals as you can.
Thanks! We've had a few instances where offstage convos have come through in the middle of a scene, so I'll definitely make sure to mute mics when they aren't in use. Looks like I'll have 8 full rehearsals until opening night so this'll be... fun. Trying to see if I can get my hands on a machine I can install the REAC driver + Reaper so I can run a virtual sound check whenever I get downtime

If you are talking about JUST the mixing, i.e. another Sound Designer set up the system, channel assignments, and initial EQ for the mics, then there are a few things I do:

1) sound check EQ - get each actor out on stage before the house opens, have them sing a couple of lines, listen on the solo channel with a GOOD pair of headphones (I use Sennheiser HD280Pro, closed ear for good hearing) and make sure the actor sounds good to you. If you are allowed to touch the EQ settings, plan on dropping out the low end a bit as well as narrow filtering out some amount of the midrange ... sweep the midrange frequency with the attenuation around -10-20db until their voice sounds clear and not muddy. The technique here is to remove sound, not add to it, and to goal is to remove the muddiness from the actor's voice and hear them clearly.

2) Line by Line fading - hopefully the Sound Designer has numbered each line in the margin of the script with the channel number of the line that is being spoken/sung. Then your goal is to have the faders on only when the lines are being spoken, and off before or after. You have to be very diligent in doing this and you are basically reading the show script for each performance, but it minimizes unwanted sound. If the Sound Designer set up the show for line by line fading then the channels are hopefully assigned with the most used channels in the middle of the fader bank to make it easier for you to operate common groups of faders easily. You have eight fingers (no thumbs) available to do this, and I often have several fingers sitting on faders during a busy scene. If there is lots of back and forth dialogue or singing, you don't have to pull the fader completely down between lines, if you pull it down about halfway that is usually enough to eliminate the cross pickup of the mics.

3) For duets, or when two or more actors are singing closely together, I usually pick a mic and ride both actors on the same mic, and bring the other mic down about halfway to prevent cross pickup but still pick up the actor should they move far apart momentarily and then speak.

4) Crescendos -- In a number with a big ending, when the music swells or the lead gives a final belt of the song, I will often slowly push their mic up a bit more to increase the volume just for a moment, to fill the room a bit more and add to the emotion. If it's a ensemble number with a big ending I will do this for all the faders in use (up to eight, or as many as I can fit my fingers on) The audience can supposedly tolerate louder volumes for short periods of time especially when they are focused on an emotional moment on stage and not the volume itself.

That's my two cents -- there are many opinions and techniques used, I would seek out as many as you can.

-- John
Ah, I didn't realize there's a distinction between mixing and system setup, to clarify I'll be doing both. I'll probably set up a couple of DCAs for leads, chorus, etc. and reassign them to faders based on cues.

Thanks for the replies everyone, they've been really helpful so far.
 
If you are doing the full sound design, then I will add a couple more suggestions to think about (I don't have time to go into detail, but there should be plenty of other threads discussing these):

* Gain Before Feedback -- speaker placement
* Fills -- the more speakers and speaker power you have, the less volume you need.
* Gain before Orchestra -- more often than not the orchestra is too loud compared to the actors. Takes a lot of patience and working with the music director.
* Mic placement on actor -- for musicals forehead placement is arguably the best for frequency response and decent GBF ... cheek or boom mic for better GBF if you don't care about appearance ... and over the ear last resort for actors with no hair or hats. Also hide mics in props for special cases.
* challenge assignment -- as I mentioned earlier, try to keep frequently grouped actors on adjacent channels for easier multi-finger fading.

-- John
 
Herewith, set to a possibly recognizable song, your end-game for the line-mixing:

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That's interesting ... but strikes me as way too much futzing second by second unless absolutely required to ride the edge of feedback. So many chances to eat a word or line. I used to mix more "twitchily" but have evolved to a gentler fader approach bolstered with some compression and (as he did here) liberal use of snapshots. I think what I learned was that accepting a 90pct perfect mix was an excellent trade off for eliminating so many chances to screw up a number by missing lines or risking a moment of ringing. For just getting started, remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good. And good luck!
 
That's interesting ... but strikes me as way too much futzing second by second unless absolutely required to ride the edge of feedback. So many chances to eat a word or line. I used to mix more "twitchily" but have evolved to a gentler fader approach bolstered with some compression and (as he did here) liberal use of snapshots. I think what I learned was that accepting a 90pct perfect mix was an excellent trade off for eliminating so many chances to screw up a number by missing lines or risking a moment of ringing. For just getting started, remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good. And good luck!
I agree with this. I have a different perspective because I have never mixed audio for theatre, but I have attended my fair share of performances!

The most recent was a comedy show at a university. The student mixing consistently brought up the faders late for the comedians, cutting so many of their lines. The mix engineer single-handedly killed the punchline to about 20% of the jokes. I couldn't hear!

Where's the balance between aiming for line by line fading versus possibly making the audience miss lines? The concept just sounds dangerous to me!

(But I do realize that line by line is the industry-standard method. Here's an interview with the engineer of Hamilton:
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That's interesting ... but strikes me as way too much futzing second by second unless absolutely required to ride the edge of feedback. So many chances to eat a word or line. I used to mix more "twitchily" but have evolved to a gentler fader approach bolstered with some compression and (as he did here) liberal use of snapshots. I think what I learned was that accepting a 90pct perfect mix was an excellent trade off for eliminating so many chances to screw up a number by missing lines or risking a moment of ringing. For just getting started, remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good. And good luck!
If you a struggling with gain before feedback, adding compression would make the situation much worse. If you are lucky enough to have a situation where you have some feedback margin, then a little compression is helpful. I agree that mixing too much leads to more mistakes and can be as bad as doing too little.
 
"One Day More" looks like a challenge! Thanks Jay for posting that ... great to see ...

Joel, I hear your argument about dropping lines ... so do your best for what you are capable of.

In past years I shadowed a couple of Broadway traveling shows -- Drowsy Chaperone and Wicked -- and in both cases the Sound Op went full up, full down on every line. I asked if lines are ever dropped, and the answer was "if the [professional] actors don't follow the script, lines will be dropped" ... ;)

Me personally, If there are more than a few channels working in a scene I will often start the scene by bumping up those faders 1/3 to 1/2 so I can easily spot them, then I'll fade from that level up to full ... makes it easier.

When I attend an amateur show where lines are being dropped, my first suspicion is that they don't have the lines numbered on the script and the sound op is trying to work off of memory as he/she sees the actors go onstage. My second suspicion is that they are either not paying attention, or aren't the right person for the job ...

-- John
 
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All of these replies have great info. Just my .02. Resist the urge to use mute buttons unless the fader is at 0. I have seen way to may people new to theatrical sound just think they can set a level and simply un-mute the channel when the performer arrives on stage. Problem is if you are late even by a millisecond you will hear a terrible hot mic drop and the voice will go from barely being heard to booming on the FOH system. It's distracting and is a sure sign of noob on the console.
 
Hello everyone!

I know this is a very broad question, but here goes: I'm mixing my school's musical in a couple weeks, and I was wondering how one learns how to mix a show for theatre. I'm aware of what EQ, gain, etc are and how to use the console (we have a Roland M480), but I'm not entirely sure what to do after that, other than ride faders to make sure nothing's clipping too badly :) I do a bit of music production on the side so I'm used to tweaking stuff until it sounds good, but I wasn't sure if there was some more... methodical approach I could take to mixing. One other specific question I've had is, our auditorium has a left, right, and center set of speakers, and the console seems to have an output setup for the center channel, but I've only ever seen the left and right ones active - am I supposed to mix stuff differently for that center channel? I'm not sure if I actually have control of that center output from the console, or if the DSP just sums the left and right outputs and sends that to center. I've attached a picture of the speaker setup, although it's pretty dark.
Jason - where do you live and study? Its possible someone on this forum could drop by to help you if invited and allowed. If you're in NorCal, I'd sure be willing to. Many people facilitated my audio skills when I was a student and paying it forward gives me pleasure and honors my mentors.
 
I am in a slightly similar situation re center speaker. My amp and speaker distribution is set and not controlled at all from console. The mix is mono. The engineer who visited to replace a faulty power amp explained the setup thus: “Always do live shows in mono (or if stereo then not hard-panned). The risk of stereo is that house left will miss nearly all of program that is panned hard right. Eyes and attention often follow sound. When sitting house left, the center speaker will help draw focus away from full left. That way if an actor enters speaking or singing from house right, the center speaker will prevent the “wait, what?“ brain event that would the eye and attention away from actor, briefly searching the wrong side and not finding the character.” The pitfall in my house is that a speaker with a wireless mic who walks into the audience center aisle, (Non-theatrical presentations are common in High School Theaters/Auditoriums) there is the center speaker overhead pointing right at the handheld mic just itching to deliver howling feedback. For this reason I am hoping to install a center speaker fader knob near the console. (in our setup, that is one channel of a power amp, the other of which is labeled “monitors”… though currently I can not get any signal out of the jacks one would most likely use to feed floor monitors… that one wI’ll need a console-accessible fader, too, if I ever get a floor monitor setup.) My school does not use lots of stage mics nor body mics, yet, but when my own kids were in such shows the console had 2 operators ( 3 or four hands) on those faders.) you cannot trust the talent to mute/unmute their transmitters… they have no idea and their heads are already full of “things to remember.” If the orchestra is actually pre-recorded sound cues (much HS Theater) you definitely can hand those off to an assistant.

My question is.. area mics: I’ve seen plenty of boundary mics at the extreme downstage floor position. What else do people use to “bug” the performing area that can actually pick up amateur actors without ringing like crazy? Are they overhead in the rigging? Are they “shotgun” mics? ”choir mics?”
 
I am in a slightly similar situation re center speaker. My amp and speaker distribution is set and not controlled at all from console. The mix is mono. The engineer who visited to replace a faulty power amp explained the setup thus: “Always do live shows in mono (or if stereo then not hard-panned). The risk of stereo is that house left will miss nearly all of program that is panned hard right. Eyes and attention often follow sound. When sitting house left, the center speaker will help draw focus away from full left. That way if an actor enters speaking or singing from house right, the center speaker will prevent the “wait, what?“ brain event that would the eye and attention away from actor, briefly searching the wrong side and not finding the character.” The pitfall in my house is that a speaker with a wireless mic who walks into the audience center aisle, (Non-theatrical presentations are common in High School Theaters/Auditoriums) there is the center speaker overhead pointing right at the handheld mic just itching to deliver howling feedback. For this reason I am hoping to install a center speaker fader knob near the console. (in our setup, that is one channel of a power amp, the other of which is labeled “monitors”… though currently I can not get any signal out of the jacks one would most likely use to feed floor monitors… that one wI’ll need a console-accessible fader, too, if I ever get a floor monitor setup.) My school does not use lots of stage mics nor body mics, yet, but when my own kids were in such shows the console had 2 operators ( 3 or four hands) on those faders.) you cannot trust the talent to mute/unmute their transmitters… they have no idea and their heads are already full of “things to remember.” If the orchestra is actually pre-recorded sound cues (much HS Theater) you definitely can hand those off to an assistant.

My question is.. area mics: I’ve seen plenty of boundary mics at the extreme downstage floor position. What else do people use to “bug” the performing area that can actually pick up amateur actors without ringing like crazy? Are they overhead in the rigging? Are they “shotgun” mics? ”choir mics?”
Wow. SOMETHING has to control a mic input that ultimately is fed to that center speaker. Perhaps this is a semantics issue...

But to your question about area mics - I did 8 performances of Best Christmas Pageant Ever with 3 floor mics (Bartlett PCCs). The company has done this show 37 years and the blocking was arranged so most critical dialog was within about 10 feet of a floor mic, but not everything. The issues are hearing small voices with "big parts", just like any other time. No easy 'fix'.

I did a line-by-line mix, just like throwing DCA faders in a musical (only a lot slower, usually). Whatever mic the speaking actor was closest to was used and the other mics were turned down about -20dB. Again, only 3 fingers needed, but it takes a little practice to get a nice cross fade when actors move left/right. One rehearsal.

Director loved the audio (best ever, she said, but considering the title of the show.... ;) ) and we didn't need to use their wireless mics (mostly in the 600 mHz band that T Mobile and Verizon scooped up). Oh, had we needed their wireless it would have come to me on opening night. Oh joy unfulfilled! /snark

Oh, and the PA? Some stack of JBL JRX series. Uggg. A tiny sonic step above a Mackie Thump (which are lousy, even for cheap stuff). Placed just outside the proscenium left & right. The floor mics on each side were about 5 feet from those stacks o' sonic stew. PA in stereo so was able to do some small, discreet panning to get a bit more SPL, but it becomes something to restore before the next actor steps downstage. I used lots of EQ in the venue's X32. The Stereo Output EQ dealt with the PA (to the extent that EQ could 'fix' what ailed it), I used the input EQ to high-pass (low cut) the Bartletts and voice them to sound kind of "natural" in the PA. I assigned them to a stereo bus (removed them from the L/R assignment), the EQ in the that bus (6 bands of parametic goodness) was used to extract maximum gain before feedback. The bus feed the stereo main to the PA, and the MONO main bus which feeds the lobby, dressing rooms, and spot booth. More outputs than inputs on this show...

But the point of 4 paragraphs? It's that an active mix is needed to get the most out of area mics, and if the operator has 40 years in audio, there's a chance it might work... (where's the emoji that pats itself on the back?) At any rate it's not a 'set and forget' affair.

Back to your situation with the actor walking down stage, under and past a flown loudspeaker (do I have that right)... the "easy button" is to work with the director to see if it's possible to have no dialog for the 1-2 seconds the actor will walk through the spot most likely for feedback. The mixerperson can "duck" the actor's wireless mic and restore the level when the spot is passed.

Finally, my goal in most shows is for the audience to think (if they think about the sound at all) is that all the actors delivered their lines cleanly. My grandma would say "nice that they spoke up so the old folks can hear 'em". I don't want the show to "sound amplified" unless that's part of the story telling or the person who pays me wants it that way. To me, the potential for feedback in the situation you describe indicates a couple of things, first that perhaps there is an 'expectation management' issue and the other is that there's just too much gain already applied somewhere between the wireless mic receiver and the output of the console (or where ever the system gets the drive signal.. and that's a further discussion). Note that #2 relates to #1, and vice versa.

Have a great 2022!
 
Wow. SOMETHING has to control a mic input that ultimately is fed to that center speaker. Perhaps this is a semantics issue...

But to your question about area mics - I did 8 performances of Best Christmas Pageant Ever with 3 floor mics (Bartlett PCCs). The company has done this show 37 years and the blocking was arranged so most critical dialog was within about 10 feet of a floor mic, but not everything. The issues are hearing small voices with "big parts", just like any other time. No easy 'fix'.

I did a line-by-line mix, just like throwing DCA faders in a musical (only a lot slower, usually). Whatever mic the speaking actor was closest to was used and the other mics were turned down about -20dB. Again, only 3 fingers needed, but it takes a little practice to get a nice cross fade when actors move left/right. One rehearsal.

Director loved the audio (best ever, she said, but considering the title of the show.... ;) ) and we didn't need to use their wireless mics (mostly in the 600 mHz band that T Mobile and Verizon scooped up). Oh, had we needed their wireless it would have come to me on opening night. Oh joy unfulfilled! /snark

Oh, and the PA? Some stack of JBL JRX series. Uggg. A tiny sonic step above a Mackie Thump (which are lousy, even for cheap stuff). Placed just outside the proscenium left & right. The floor mics on each side were about 5 feet from those stacks o' sonic stew. PA in stereo so was able to do some small, discreet panning to get a bit more SPL, but it becomes something to restore before the next actor steps downstage. I used lots of EQ in the venue's X32. The Stereo Output EQ dealt with the PA (to the extent that EQ could 'fix' what ailed it), I used the input EQ to high-pass (low cut) the Bartletts and voice them to sound kind of "natural" in the PA. I assigned them to a stereo bus (removed them from the L/R assignment), the EQ in the that bus (6 bands of parametic goodness) was used to extract maximum gain before feedback. The bus feed the stereo main to the PA, and the MONO main bus which feeds the lobby, dressing rooms, and spot booth. More outputs than inputs on this show...

But the point of 4 paragraphs? It's that an active mix is needed to get the most out of area mics, and if the operator has 40 years in audio, there's a chance it might work... (where's the emoji that pats itself on the back?) At any rate it's not a 'set and forget' affair.

Back to your situation with the actor walking down stage, under and past a flown loudspeaker (do I have that right)... the "easy button" is to work with the director to see if it's possible to have no dialog for the 1-2 seconds the actor will walk through the spot most likely for feedback. The mixerperson can "duck" the actor's wireless mic and restore the level when the spot is passed.

Finally, my goal in most shows is for the audience to think (if they think about the sound at all) is that all the actors delivered their lines cleanly. My grandma would say "nice that they spoke up so the old folks can hear 'em". I don't want the show to "sound amplified" unless that's part of the story telling or the person who pays me wants it that way. To me, the potential for feedback in the situation you describe indicates a couple of things, first that perhaps there is an 'expectation management' issue and the other is that there's just too much gain already applied somewhere between the wireless mic receiver and the output of the console (or where ever the system gets the drive signal.. and that's a further discussion). Note that #2 relates to #1, and vice versa.

Have a great 2022!
Thank you, TimMc! Very helpful. Regarding the center loudspeaker (“Wow. SOMETHING has to control a mic input that ultimately is fed to that center speaker. Perhaps this is a semantics issue...”) the live mix that leaves my control goes to a rack backstage with a locked back panel and is then distributed (nicely) among several QSC power amps which in turn feed 2 main speakers L and R, two rear speakers L (under-balcony) and R aimed at balcony, and the afore-mentioned center loudspeaker flying just above the curtain. With a good 12 feet of thrust downstage of the curtain I have had frustration gaining (cheap half-cardioid condenser) floor mounted boundary mics befire feedback.

The “speaker waking into the center aisle with a wireless handheld” is not a directed dramatic scenario. It’s something like a motivational speaker or the principal of the school trying to get closer face-to-face with a tired audience of teachers or a presenter having a q and a in a fully lit house where the asker gets to speak into the mic so everyone can hear the question. No actors are involved so I used the confusing term “speaker” (a human). The center flown loudspeaker has no individual control that I can operate separate from other speakers.

I’m just getting started at this. I’m an aging volunteer with a lifetime of music-only /audio only production experience as a performing jazz and r n b keyboard player prior to settling down to teach music in a public school.

I really appreciate the patience and depth of every reply I’ve gotten on this forum. It is a flotation device in a choppy sea.

I can definitely see the X-32 emerging as one of the few truly loved and relied -upon pieces of Behringer gear. It’s not the first time I’ve been pointed to the marriage of a digital mixer with physical faders. I think I will abandon my plan of a touch-screen only Soundcraft ui24r as the main mixer. Currently we have one or even two small Soundcraft Zed16’s and my addition of a mono 32 band graphic for tweaks to whatever I wish to send it’s way.
 
Hi Neal-

Ah, staff and administrators... my sympathy.

I think we're looking for a technical fix to a human issue? i.e. the person holding the stick mic at navel height, whispering, whilst another adult prods you to "make it louder" over the kids in a gymnatorium. Sympathies (note plural). The opposite cause, similar problem - the user who cups the mic like a rap star and turns it nearly omni with a 2kHz peak the size of Everest. More sympathies.

In the ideal world we'd have Mandatory Education Camps in which to remedially train Good Presentation Habits into scofflaws... but now that the fantasy is wearing off... I submit that a fast finger and a serious "ringing out" will help, but we're not changing the laws of physics. If Scotty couldn't do it on Star Trek, we can't, either.

Mixing on glass - tablets or touchscreens - leaves a lot to be desired in "combat mixing". I like physical controls, even in the compacted real estate of control surfaces, for pep rallies, PTA meetings, awards ceremonies or banquets, stuff where I really don't want to be looking down all the time. And mixing musical theater on glass just seems painful to me, but if I were a 15 year old who has only used touch screens/phones as a primary interface, I might have different skills, results, and feelings about faders. The bad news is that most physical digital mixing consoles are in short supply in the USA, as are the input/output boxes and a bunch of interface products. The chip foundry fires last year have created specialty chip shortages that will last at least another year for some items. Yamaha, in particular, is saying that the PM series mixers will not resume shipping before Q4 2022, but similar shortages are affecting all manufacturers to greater or lesser extent.
 
2) Line by Line fading - hopefully the Sound Designer has numbered each line in the margin of the script with the channel number of the line that is being spoken/sung. Then your goal is to have the faders on only when the lines are being spoken, and off before or after. You have to be very diligent in doing this and you are basically reading the show script for each performance, but it minimizes unwanted sound. If the Sound Designer set up the show for line by line fading then the channels are hopefully assigned with the most used channels in the middle of the fader bank to make it easier for you to operate common groups of faders easily. You have eight fingers (no thumbs) available to do this, and I often have several fingers sitting on faders during a busy scene. If there is lots of back and forth dialogue or singing, you don't have to pull the fader completely down between lines, if you pull it down about halfway that is usually enough to eliminate the cross pickup of the mics.
Hey Jason,
I am a teacher who mixes for our high school and middle school shows. I think it is very important to focus on reading the script as jkowtko says. I have told myself many times "I know the show well enough, I can just watch and mix." Every time, I make unnecessary mistakes because of this. I know that professionals do this all the time, but that's part of what makes them professionals. Rely on the script and it will give you much more confidence, and Practice, Practice, Practice.

Good Luck,
Bruce
 
Wow. SOMETHING has to control a mic input that ultimately is fed to that center speaker. Perhaps this is a semantics issue...
No, something has to. And mixers that have LCR panning *start* in 5 figures, last time I looked; none of the X-32 class mixers can do it, I don't think.

My LS9's can't.

If you have few enough mics, as you say, you can just hand route, and manually crossfade it, but it's like running RGB PARs on a SmartFade...
 

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