Mic suppression effect

[Destrox]

I went to one of my school's plays last night that I wasn't able to be a part of. It made me think, is there a way to suppress a mic so that it sounds like the actor is saying something from another room? The guy running sound had the mics of people saying things from offstage louder than most of the people on-stage. It didn't sound right and made it sound like a recording. Is there an effect to add to it or some type of quick cut you can make to the sound to make it sound like it's coming from another room? Thanks!

 

[museav]

Is there an effect to add to it or some type of quick cut you can make to the sound to make it sound like it's coming from another room? Thanks!

Well, simply reducing the level would help, but some EQ would also likely be a good idea. Being in the next room would typically reduce a lot of the higher frequencies relative to the low frequencies. You might have to play with the EQ to get it to sound like it is coming from the next room but still be clearly understood, maybe starting by rolling off some frequencies above 4kHz but boosting a bit around 500Hz and 1kHz.

 

[waynehoskins]

Sometimes naturalism (or at least realism) is your friend. The easiest way to make the sound appear to come from off up-left through the door, rather than from the typical center loudspeaker array, is to put a speaker behind the door up-left. Feed it of course through an aux or some such. Then you take that mic channel, EQ it appropriately, send it down that aux without routing it to the main outputs, and you're good to go.

 

[Destrox]

That'd actually probably work really well. The main thing I noticed the problem in is when there was singing or that sort of thing coming from "upstairs", so we could probably just rent an extra speaker and stick it behind the stairs that lead behind the set. Thanks! Any other ideas besides a speperate speaker and EQ?

 

[2mojo2]

Putting a speaker on stage could have some unintended effects.

First, it opens up a whole new set of possible feedback loops, depending on where the actors are delivering the off-stage lines and how sound reflects from the speaker behind the door.

Second, This amplified sound on stage is going to be picked up by all open mics, which could complicate balancing.

If you have a L-R-Center speaker installation at Front Of House, you can create a sense of place on stage by lifting the Center channel and panning the actor's voice to stage left or right.

 

[Eboy87]

Easiest way is to dial back the highs and a bit of the low's, emphasizing the mids. Then run it through a reverb unit, mix to taste, then send it on its way. Not sure about the speaker on stage. I've seen and used seperate speakers on stage hidden in the set for SFX playback, but I've never run mics through them. Not saying it won't work, I've just never tried it.

 

[waynehoskins]

Oh, that's an open mike on stage? That's a whole other animal, you're right. I've done the offstage speaker thing with effects (and prerecorded dialogue), but with a mike near there, you're right, it'll be different.

 

[Destrox]

Sorry for the late response, but yeah, that's with other actors on stage and stuff. So just quickly suppress their lows/highs and send it through reverb? I guess I'll have to play around with it a bit and test it out. Thanks!