What's your style?

soundop

Active Member
Ok, so just windering, how many people have to manully mute/unmute mic channels, and how many use boards with cues you can set (i.e. series two) i cant use cue sets, i have to manually unmute/mute mics my slef
 
Re: Whats your style

I've always done it manually, even though the board I primarily used had the ability to program channel on/off status in a cue. In the situation of a musical with over 10 wireless lavs the cue usually involved a fade-in as the actor/actress appeared so the cue system wouldn't have bought me much.
 
Re: Whats your style

We are still using the manual method with our 16 wireless mics. In our new space we are going digital. Our engineers are looking forward to it.

~Dave
 
Re: Whats your style

I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to that kind of a thing. I like to know and feel that I have actually muted/unmuted the sound. While the digital method sounds sweet, it just seems like there are too many variables for bad things to happen when I am not in control...
 
Re: Whats your style

When I have automation, I use it. There're times I've considered buying an 01V to bring to my old house gig just for the automation the old RAMSA didn't have. May I pose a few more questions?

How many simply mute their VCA/Groups instead of individual channels?
Do you prefer the standard red mute light, or Yamaha's On button with light.
How do you guys set up your groups/VCA's?

Sorry soundop if that's a hijack.
 
Re: Whats your style

I came to really like Yamaha's "On/Edit" button, especially because it was a momentary action button, not a push-on-push-off like the mackie boards have.

I always used a combination of group muting and channel muting depending on the scene. I think back specifically to musicals where the board was used to its fullest potential. I managed somehow even with 18 wireless mics not to leave one on when talent went backstage - a friend of mine did once though. Guess the actress went to the restroom in the dressing room and this guy didn't catch it right away and during a lull in program sound bathroom sounds came out for a little while before he lunged for the mute button.

I always grouped wireless mics into mens and womens groups for the purpose of inserting EQ and FX on the group since the overall EQ of both groups was at least similar. I also grouped all orchestra mics together like this.
 
My Soundcraft Series Two has mute groups and scenes. I tend to use the groups just to set everything to safe quickly and easily at the half and the end of a run. During a run I've manually managed over 30 inputs and have generally been glad to do so. The stuff I tend to do is short run community theater though. In a longer run I would definately want to get in to the scenes. The production would have to be running a lot smoother than the ones I'm usually on though. I'd want the cast to be more comfortable and consistant than they can get in the four or five runs that we do.
 
Not exactly what I do, but what I note people I work with do...

Last year for Schools Spectacular, monitors were running a PM1D and a PM5D doing submixes. What we had set up was each segment of half a dozen songs was a scene on the console and then within each segment, mics were muted and unmuted manually. The scenes were more than anything there to deal with EQ and IEM feeds. Muting was done by means of me reading our notes on the script to the engineer. I believe we did the numbers and it came out that if we were to have had to turn knobs, it would have taken 3 or 4 hours to get through a 2.5 hour show...

I think a part of the choice has to be the viability of having the chance to be distracted for the 10 or 20 seconds it takes to change scenes... But I'm sure the D5T and soon the SD7T with their theatre mods will assist in this process somewhat...:grin:

And as to the On v Mute... The 1D has both... On for channels and Mute for Groups... Can cause some confusion. Luckily a quick glance at the channel or group name will tell if it's on or not... If the display is bright it's on...
 
At my theater we do it all manually, bring the slider up as they come out and back down as they leave. However at my church we have a Yamaha on/edit switch witch I love. I generally switch it on and off manually but occasionally I use the presets. I may just like Yamaha's method because I learned on it but something about having a light for on instead of off makes more sense to me. I find myself attracted to shiny things ;) so having that light brings my eye where it needs to be when it needs to be there.
 
Depends on the show :p

I've been using the yammy digi boards since the PM5D first came out, so I'm used to the whole on thing. It's just a quirk of the board.

If it's up to 10 channels of wireless I go for fade then mute. I positively loath "mute button click" - it can really ruin atmospheres, especially in a straight play.

If it's more, then it's just whatever's fastest. And I start wishing for a digi board! I can't say I'm a massive fan of VCAs and Groups for muting - I've always found them a bit funny to deal with. However I do like series 2 for other reasons - nice big led meter for each channel for example :p

Oh, and Chris15 I think the SD7's going to be a while coming! But the D5t does indeed rock for theatreness.
 
If you've got the technology, put the effort in to understand how to use it and DO SO. When you utilize automation (be it mutes, faders, bus/vca assignments, eq, etc.) you free up your brain to work with your ears in MIXING the show and not just focusing on turning mics on and off.

If your console has the ability to use automation, USE IT. Don't just push faders or hit mutes (and an ON button is just a mute button with a different colored LED). You'll go a lot further in this industry if you embrace and learn to use the technology you've got to the fullest... especially as we quickly move into the age of digital consoles.
 
I confess, I'm a bit old -school in this. I prefer to work my mutes by the channel buttons. Automation is nice, if your working a theatre show where you set up a console and run it that way for a while but it takes more time than it's worth to build automation scenes for the one or two night concerts I do. I do occasionally use mute groups. It's convenient to have one mute group with all channels assigned to it for muting the entire board at once. Then things don't accidentally get left on during a set change.
 
I use mute groups a lot, but not cue-based programming. I believe the last musical I worked the sound designer used cue-based on our k2-40, but I usually never have enough time to program everything. When you have one, maybe two rehearsals for a performance and maybe everybody is there, maybe everybody isn't, it's simply not possible to get everybody's entrances and exits programmed. I'd consider it if I had a week of rehearsals on the front end though.
 
Considering how long ago I saw the first versions that's a while :p But no, it'll be awesome when it's here.
 
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i do most of my proper mixing (on desks larger than 16ch) using submasters
 
When i have to do sound for the school i help out at, i use group mutes, and channel mutes for the small events, but the plays and musical i normal program the cues in.

we are using a k2 - 48channel (btw its the bus drivers)
 

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