Microphones Mics for naked people

[Bnicholas]

Hey guys,

I'm stage managing a production of Hair and the director has issued me a challenge. As you might know at the end of the First Act, the actors get completely naked during a song. They will not be wearing a stitch of clothing. The actors are getting undressed on stage whilst they are singing, and do not leave the stage at all during Act 1 so I can't get sound crew to them. The director has requested that somehow the mics and mic packs stay on the actor during this scene which are not to be seen by the audience. I'm not that worried about the mics itself - it's how to secure the mic packs that worries me. The theatre seats about 1000 so having them singing with no mics isn't an option. I also am reluctant to simply rely on choir mics etc, because of the sound quality.

Help?

Bonnie

 

[Footer]

How bright is the scene going to be lit? Most of the time... its rather dark. My former employer did this show this year. The actors that had RF mics on at the time kept them in standard mic pouches attached to an elastic band. They were able to disrobe as much as they wanted to and still keep the mic pack on. The elastic was nude colored to the actors skin tone. You could not see the mic packs. Also... if people are looking for the mic packs and that is what upsets them... there is a larger problem. There is also no requirement that everyone had to get totally naked... as fun as it may be.

 

[jglodeklights]

You can also use stage makeup to blend the pack band and pack pouch better with the skin tone.

 

[Amishplumber]

When we did Rocky Horror last year Rocky's costume consisted only of gold shorts, so we ran into a similar problem. The sound guy used a wireless mic meant for yoga and other fitness instructors. Microphone and transmitter all in one headset package, no wires going anywhere. Don't know what exact brand he used, but this is what it looked like:

Fitness Audio MT-U8

I also can't speak to sound quality since he had Rocky run through a bunch of effects to make him sound more like a creation and less like a human...

Hope this helps.

 

[derekleffew]

Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair, glowing, flowing, ...

Chances are many, if not all, of the actors will be wearing wigs, which is a great place to hide a transmitter.

 

[rochem]

Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair, glowing, flowing, ...

Chances are many, if not all, of the actors will be wearing wigs, which is a great place to hide a transmitter.

This. On most of the professional productions of Hair I'm familiar with, they just rigged the transmitter into the wigs and it worked beautifully. Generally speaking, most characters tend to have a sufficient quantity of hair to make this work.

 

[BNBSound]

Samson made a mic that was just worn over the ear. Saw some at a tour stop last year. Not sure how well they'd hold up to stage singers though. The MC was distorting his pretty badly but that could have been the house tech who was mixing him from a remote station or the mics themselves.

 

[chausman]

Samson made a mic that was just worn over the ear. Saw some at a tour stop last year. Not sure how well they'd hold up to stage singers though. The MC was distorting his pretty badly but that could have been the house tech who was mixing him from a remote station or the mics themselves.

If you are referring to what I think you are, those are pretty terrible. They are very awkward for actors to wear, they are hard to hide, and sound awful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TimmyP1955]

Re: Distorting Samson: Many folks don't realize that most wireless come out of the box with the transmitter gain set such that any but the most wimpy singer will overload the transmitter (When doing briefcase gigs, I seldom encounter a wireless that has been turned down enough to stay clean.) The Samson I worked with (about 8 years ago) needed to be turned to minimum for anything louder than strong conversation. Some singers could still overload it.