Soundcheck

[Hughesie]

Hughesie... I love the rubber band trick. So simple and effective. Do you cut the rubber band to remove it or do you just let the actors struggle on their own?

major catchup, yeah that trick works really well we cut it out for them. but if you do it properly it's easy to do and stays in all night

any pain is a bonus

but i have a policy, that it isn't bad, once i wore on myself to prove that it's not to bad, and it hurts for a little while but then the pain fades away

 

[derekleffew]

I feel it's best to wait until all the carpenters are on stage and trying to talk to each other about important set things, Then turn up the system as loud as possible. Find the most obnoxious CD in your arsenal,Preferably something by Sunvolt, or an obscure Christian rock band, push play. Walk away from the board and disappear for the next 45 minutes. Come back to the board at the same time as the TD gets frustrated and decides to turn everything off. Yell at TD for interfering in your sound check. Turn off music, walk on stage with a wireless mic and proceed to say the words
" Syllabants, Syllabants, T- T- T- Teeeeeeesta" for the next 20 minutes.

I'm no expert but from years of observation, I think that's how you do it.

That's close Van, but you forgot one step. Wait totally silently until the LD in onstage and has men on the truss, hanging upside down to reach the Zoom ERSs underhung on taildowns. Then start white noise/pink noise, at 140 dB. After an hour or two of that, proceed with the obnoxious CD, at 150 dB. If the LD and electricians haven't lost their sanity yet, assemble the full cast onstage, to sing "ma oh me oh my" alone and in various groupings.

Every time I try to program lights during a rehearsal for an act I've never seen before, it turns into a sound check, and I end up programming the same eight faders with the same generic looks I always use.

Years ago, David Collison, a fairly well known theatre sound guy, stated that every actor should be implanted with a wireless transmitter when he/she receives his/her Equity card. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but back then it would have been VHF. Hey now my cat has an RFID chip, so maybe we're not that far off.