Microphones Too Close To Sound Good?

[bishopthomas]

Ah hah, gotchya. Although, it seems like a lot to keep track of.

 

[NZM]

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.