Midi Cues

[KHugz]

I'm a non-Equity PSM at a professional theatre. Our sound engineer has started loading midi cues that are programmed to fire the actors mics into the sound program that the SM runs. During performances for a musical we typically will have a light board op, spot ops and a sound engineer in additional to whatever deck crew is needed for a particular show. The stage manager is responsible for calling all deck, lighting and spot cues and fires sound and/ or projection cues through a network that communicates with the computer at the sound board.

My question is: Is it becoming common practice for a stage manager to be responsible for firing the commands to turn actors mics on and off? I, personally, feel that if there is a sound engineer present, it's their responsibility to manage and control the actors mics. I'm also not enamored with the increase of cues required with the addition of actor mics into the calling script.

Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated, our engineer isn't currently giving me the midi cues to deal with because I put my foot down and told him he was responsible for mic control and for my current production I didn't have time to write an additional 300 cues into my calling script, but I recently discovered that he regularly gives the cues to my other stage managers who are calling musicals.

 

[Thetechmanmac]

Whenever I do sound for a production (typically at my school, otherwise I do lighting for everything else) I always mute/unmute mics myself. SMs have more things to worry about. RARELY I will need a cue from the SM especially if someone says something off stage. But, the engineer should handle all mic duties. PS I run around 16 mics for our productions and don't have a problem with it.

What kind of console do you have? Some consoles have mute groups which make it REALLY easy to mute large groups.

 

[themuzicman]

It is NEVER the PSM's job to run microphones for a musical. NEVER EVER EVER.

The purpose of the audio console is to actively mix a musical, line by line. Fader Up on line, fader down after a line. A PSM does NOT call a musical's fader moves, nor do they actively control the microphones. The audio engineer is the most active participant of a musical, aside from the PSM, as they have their hands physically controlling the audio.

My script may possibly be more marked up than the PSM's when I mix a musical, as I am juggling faders for all of the actors and the entire band (albeit, DCA's make this job a fair bit easier as I am only focusing on 12-16 faders that are being actively re-assigned on a per-scene basis).

On smaller plays (only plays!) I sometimes offload either QLab firing to the light board via MIDI or LX offloads firing their LX console into QLab, but again this is NEVER the PSM's job as they are calling the freaking show.

Seems like you need a talk with your audio guy about doing his job.

 

[themuzicman]

What kind of console do you have? Some consoles have mute groups which make it REALLY easy to mute large groups.

Mute groups are cool and all, but the engineer needs to actively mix. Assign large groups to a physical group fader and bring them in and out, you try to never hard mute something. On digital desks, assign the ensemble to a DCA and bring them in and out. But for real for real, unless you are super amateur or lack physical group faders (analog desk), you try to steer clear of using mute groups to mix.

 

[Thetechmanmac]

I've never used mute groups before for a production because our console doesn't have them. It was just a thought. I usually bus certain mics to subs...guess you could call that a DCA.

 

[Lextech]

The audio engineer is the most active participant of a musical

In a busy musical you can end your sentence there. As for the mute group thing, it really depends on what you have at your disposal. Having mute groups in the days before digital consoles saved my butt on a bunch of occasions. Even now, while I would not use them all the time, I could see their use in certain situations using analog gear. They are a tool and I tend to use a tool when I need to. As for the SM triggering sound cues, that is a matter of design choice. If possible I prefer to have my sound op take sound cues themselves unless there is a real reason for them not to. So to answer the OP, no you should not have to trigger scene changes for the sound op.

 

[icewolf08]

I am wondering what exactly the mix engineer's job is, if he isn't taking his own cues? This seems like a completely bassackwards setup.