In regards to my previous post about
VCA's, I should have been more
clear. If a
console has
VCA assign automation, each scene or song of a show can have differences in what
channel is assigned to what
VCA. For example, the opening group number could have
VCA 1 be men,
VCA 2 be women, and the rest for various sections of the
orchestra. The next song, a duet, could have the leading actor on
VCA 1 and the actress he's singing with on
VCA 2. This allows the person mixing to work in the master section of the
console for the majority of the show, rather than reaching from one end of the board to the other in order to mix a song.
Yes, that could be done, but I have never done it myself. I normally don't have the luxury of enough pre-show time to program the automation, nor sufficient tech rehearsals to test it all to ensure it correct.
Whenever I have seen people try to program shows into a
desk by selecting which channels should be muted and unmuted scene-by-scene, I have seen it come very much unstuck. I prefer to spend more rehearsal time watching and familiarizing with the show so I can keep
track of who is on/off
stage and who talks/sings when, and drive from the faders. This works well for most of the smaller shows where I am typically using a
Yamaha LS9 and work from the Custom
Fader page presenting all the radios plus a few key mixbus masters (
reverb send, delay
send) and
orchestra/
track submix. But the XL8 only presents 16 faders in Area A (where I mix radios) and 8 in Area B (where someone else mixes
orchestra), so VCAs and POP groups are essential, meaning more prep time and effort is required to keep the
layout logical and as consistent as possible between "scenes" so I know what
fader is doing what at what time - so
VCA programming as you suggest is likely a reasonable solution. At least I will have 12 VCAs and 8 POP groups to
play with - though some of those will be needed for the
orchestra mixing on Area-B.
But again it comes down to "knowing" the show and when to expect two actors to be close enough to result in the
phase issues being discussed above. If you know its likely to happen at a particular
point in the show, then be prepared and ready to adjust the levels of the individual mics involved. With
headset mics (which I most commonly use) the distance from audio source (actor's mouth) to
microphone capsule is normally about 1 inch. So the second
microphone has to get within about 3 inches of a common source to breach the 3:1microphone placement rule, so its not going to happen too often. Its most common during a hug (or other intimate moment
), a close dance number, a "face-off" situation, or needs some sort of physical contact (fight routine with one person held in a head-lock). Its not normally something to worry about during the normal flow of a show. But hair-lione mics inceases the distance from source to primary
microphone (maybe 4 inches) and hence the 3:1 rule means you may have a problem up to 9 inches to the second
microphone.
One example I found in a recent performance of "Alice in Wonderland" was when Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum were singing "How do you do and shake hands" and the choreography had them all twisted together resulting in their heads being ear-to-ear and singing - certainly needs to be aware of it then!. Another example from our recent Les Miserable show was when Eponine was dying in Marius' arms and both singing with their heads very close together.