N
NYMorningstar
Recording Modus Operandi
I just co-produced a Christmas dinner play in a hall about 40' X 80 ' with about 100 dinner guests and maybe another 40-50 people. There were 5 stages throughout the room, one in the center and four along the four walls.
My concern was being able to hear the actors talking in the scenes. Each scene had music and or/effects like wind etc., appropriate for the each setting going through four speakers (one JBL Stadium speaker column behind eack stage).
The problem was the people on the other end of the room from the actors. They were closer to a speaker than they were the actors so the music was louder than the actors for them.
To solve that problem, I set up the sound using an old Panasonic quad system that allowed me to isolate each stage (speaker) on it's own. This let me keep the music and effects isolated to each scene as it was executed. To the senses of the audience it worked great. The scene would start with the theme music and effects for each stage coming only from that stage. For the center stage scenes and the dinner intermission I had a surround sound coming from all four speakers. This worked great for me too and made it real easy to mix the background volumes with the actors speech.
I was a bit surprised how good it went without microphones in such a large room jammed with folks. Everything went without a hitch and each actor could be heard very clearly. I guess people being respectful and quiet certainly helped. Not pushing the volume for the music also kept our ears sensitive for the quieter parts.
We also scenes with acoustic guitars, acoustic drums (drummer boy scene) that fit the set up so well. For me it was certainly playing with a different dynamic range than I was acustomed to by not using a PA. The audience partcipation certainly reflected that. Everyone was involved and it was awesome.
I seen it and now I believe it, no PA worked great.
Next week I'm doing it in a similar venue but the locals are insisting the actors need lavalier mics for their hall. They also have an overhead PA system built into the ceiling. I'm thinking this is going to be chaos, no isolating the scenes and dealing with all the noise artifacts with each actor not knowing how to use a mic.
Any thoughts on how to proceed with the audio?
My concern was being able to hear the actors talking in the scenes. Each scene had music and or/effects like wind etc., appropriate for the each setting going through four speakers (one JBL Stadium speaker column behind eack stage).
The problem was the people on the other end of the room from the actors. They were closer to a speaker than they were the actors so the music was louder than the actors for them.
To solve that problem, I set up the sound using an old Panasonic quad system that allowed me to isolate each stage (speaker) on it's own. This let me keep the music and effects isolated to each scene as it was executed. To the senses of the audience it worked great. The scene would start with the theme music and effects for each stage coming only from that stage. For the center stage scenes and the dinner intermission I had a surround sound coming from all four speakers. This worked great for me too and made it real easy to mix the background volumes with the actors speech.
I was a bit surprised how good it went without microphones in such a large room jammed with folks. Everything went without a hitch and each actor could be heard very clearly. I guess people being respectful and quiet certainly helped. Not pushing the volume for the music also kept our ears sensitive for the quieter parts.
We also scenes with acoustic guitars, acoustic drums (drummer boy scene) that fit the set up so well. For me it was certainly playing with a different dynamic range than I was acustomed to by not using a PA. The audience partcipation certainly reflected that. Everyone was involved and it was awesome.
I seen it and now I believe it, no PA worked great.
Next week I'm doing it in a similar venue but the locals are insisting the actors need lavalier mics for their hall. They also have an overhead PA system built into the ceiling. I'm thinking this is going to be chaos, no isolating the scenes and dealing with all the noise artifacts with each actor not knowing how to use a mic.
Any thoughts on how to proceed with the audio?
