New Gig ... New ... well Different Gear

[Chont]

Got asked to work the board for this weekend's show. This time its a different production company in the theater and they brought their own gear. I pulled the house board and Microphones out of the Control booth and got things set up. Its a Mackie SR24... a couple of busted channels but whatever. The Mics for this are 8 Shure BLX4R and 8 Shure SLX microphones/receivers. I was told they were reliable on the last three shows they used them for so fingers crossed. Maybe this will make a good case to show the owners what better mics can do for the theater. I'm a little baffled on how they have the Antenna DA... the cabling is a mess and the connections look wrong to me so I feel like the DA isn't really doing much but I'll fire it up tonight and see how it works. The guy told me to feel free to organize the cabling. I'm kinda torn on that ....

 

[Chont]

The Microphones have worked great so far for tech week. The board on the other hand... not so much. The Right side of the stereo bus is out so had to run mono without the proper cable for the input to the board, the tracks sounded like crap. They got hold of a new board for me. Its functional but Its a cheapo board they borrowed from someone. There isn't even any mute buttons on it so had to use the LR bus buttons as mutes which took some getting used to last night. Music sounded much better. Had a couple of honking feedback hits which I hope I don't get again now that I know the show a bit better. 18 mics on this one. I can't do Sunday's show so I feel bad for the kid that has to take the helm for the Sunday show.

 

[Chont]

Gonna have to make a case for the Exec director of the theater to Get some Shures or maybe try trading in the existing mic system for one in the H Band. The Shures we are using are in H and so far so good.

 

[jonliles]

Sounds like your weakest link in the signal chain is still the board. Nothing wrong with those Shures as long as you get the frequency coordination and then gain structures dialed in.

 

[TimMc]

People that have to borrow mixers or other primary system components are not production companies. People that send out broken gear are not production companies. Sorry, after almost 30 years of managing a regional production company I had to draw the line on the stage...

That said... if you are going to the producers for hardware, I'd get a mixer first. At least that one item will be a constant rather than variable, and it's up to the producer's crew to not damage it and to arrange repairs on behalf of the producer when things fail for whatever reasons.

And remember these 2 things: Buy once, cry once. Its related friend: The wrong piece of gear at 'the right price' is still the wrong piece of gear.

Which mixer to recommend? I lack sufficient exposure to the current crop of mid- and entry level mixers to offer a suggestion from them. I'm sure folks here will have some ideas.

For myself, I'm comfortable on Avid, most Yamaha, and the Behringer/Midas 32. What I'd prefer to use in a "walk up and mix" situation is a full sized control surface mixer. Can have tablets, laptops, etc for support of the console and remote control of the console, but I ain't mixing musicals on glass. If I'm brought in early enough, I can use an X32 Rack with a laptop and X-Touch controller (and whatever extra i/o is needed), using the X-Touch as my fader bank for DCAs or channel strip access to touch up EQ. Bringing me in at dress is not early.

 

[jonliles]

I like The Berhinger X32/Midas M32s and the A&H Q series for on the fly mixing. They have similar workflows. Yamaha TF series always takes me a moment to get acclimated. I have a stack of non-digital mixers that get used less and less, both Behringer & Midas.

 

[Chont]

People that have to borrow mixers or other primary system components are not production companies. People that send out broken gear are not production companies. Sorry, after almost 30 years of managing a regional production company I had to draw the line on the stage...

That said... if you are going to the producers for hardware, I'd get a mixer first. At least that one item will be a constant rather than variable, and it's up to the producer's crew to not damage it and to arrange repairs on behalf of the producer when things fail for whatever reasons.

And remember these 2 things: Buy once, cry once. Its related friend: The wrong piece of gear at 'the right price' is still the wrong piece of gear.

Which mixer to recommend? I lack sufficient exposure to the current crop of mid- and entry level mixers to offer a suggestion from them. I'm sure folks here will have some ideas.

For myself, I'm comfortable on Avid, most Yamaha, and the Behringer/Midas 32. What I'd prefer to use in a "walk up and mix" situation is a full sized control surface mixer. Can have tablets, laptops, etc for support of the console and remote control of the console, but I ain't mixing musicals on glass. If I'm brought in early enough, I can use an X32 Rack with a laptop and X-Touch controller (and whatever extra i/o is needed), using the X-Touch as my fader bank for DCAs or channel strip access to touch up EQ. Bringing me in at dress is not early.

I agree... I think Production Company was the wrong choice of words. Its Community Theater so I suppose Theater company would be a better suited description. He broke away from the group he was with and started his own. He is very talented and puts on amazing shows with nothing. He's in the process of building things up and will be purchasing his own gear hopefully soon but for now he rents what he needs.

The show was a huge success!!!. Everyone left the theater raving about how awesome the show was and how great it sounded. It was glorious having mics that had no issues and I could just enjoy mixing it.