wireless microphones and phantom power

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The two shows have been done and both performances went well, most of the cast did take on board mic technique, 3 didn't quite so much, but will work on them in the New Year. Did get some good feed back from the audience as they left, so better than I thought it would be.
Thank you forum members for your help and advice, which I appreciate and have a very happy Christmas.
 
The two shows have been done and both performances went well, most of the cast did take on board mic technique, 3 didn't quite so much, but will work on them in the New Year. Did get some good feed back from the audience as they left, so better than I thought it would be.
Thank you forum members for your help and advice, which I appreciate and have a very happy Christmas.

That’s great news! It always feels good to get compliments on the sound as the audience leaves.
Seasons greetings
Brian
 
Hi everyone, thought I would give you an update and let you know how thing are progressing, two weeks ago, finished our first show of 2019, it was a community centre seating a 100
people, tickets were sold out a week before the event, the group tell me this is the first time this has ever happened, there is a lot more enthusiasm in them now and they are taking a bit more notice of me.
I know that these shows are not perfect by any stretch if the imagination, but they do good for the local community and its also a social event for the members, regarding the mics in use, these are two sets of KAM wireless mics that have 2 mics for one receiver on fixed frequencies, these were inherited from their previous gear. Thanks for all your help.
 
You’ve got to wonder why some vocal groups don’t pay more attention to their sound quality. If the audience can’t make out the lyrics or words it pretty much limits the quality of the experience for them no matter how much talent and passion goes into the performance.
It sounds like you are learning quickly and enjoying the experience.
I am just getting ready for our next theatre production which is Guys and Dolls. Looks like somewhere around 10-12 wireless mics maximum with most scenes having less than that. 5 performances over 2 weekends with a maximum seating of about 240 people.
 
I don't think about what the time is when I fancy a scotch, good luck with Guys and Dolls
Bfpca, that's quite a big production and 5 performances, in the past I have done a max of 3 shows over a weekend, a Friday evening, matinee Saturday afternoon and again Saturday evening and that left me exhausted, to do 5, even though they are a week apart, that is quite something.
While I'm here I have a question, in trying to keep the setup and teardown quick and simple, I have done a swop of the qtx speakers for 2 Alto TX12 active speakers as these have an xlr input and a link, the cable length is just on 35 meters from mixer to the nearest speaker, if I use the link to connect to the second speaker (daisey chain) I will only be using one main xlr output from the mixer, does it matter which output I use and is it a good idea.
 
if losing the ability to pan sources across a stereo sound field is no loss to you go ahead just remember to check pan controls on channels and subgroups to correspond to your chosen output.

for me operating in stereo can be an asset especially when it comes to sound effects that may accompany the performance like "sound of door slamming from off stage right" panned hard to correspond.

fill me in where is your mixer position? as in are your operating off a stage wing or do you have an actual F.O.H.position?
 
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a Guy and Dolls production would cool to see...caught a run of it at a now defunct dinner theatre in Toronto the show was great with the exception of nasty low frequency resonance on a boundary mic deployed for a tap dance number...or was that me burping cheap scotch...fuzzy memories...

Bfpca good luck with the show! any chance your recording the show?
 
a Guy and Dolls production would cool to see...caught a run of it at a now defunct dinner theatre in Toronto the show was great with the exception of nasty low frequency resonance on a boundary mic deployed for a tap dance number...or was that me burping cheap scotch...fuzzy memories...

Bfpca good luck with the show! any chance your recording the show?

Thanks, I’m at rehearsal right now! Unfortunately, our royalty agreement forbids recordings. Yes, 5 shows over 2 weekends is a challenge. We have never done 5 with a main stage production. We usually stick to the typical fri, sat evening and Sunday 2pm format for 3 shows. We have been doing dinner theatres lately and doing 6 shows over 2 weekends. They are good because you have smaller casts, simpler productions and we always sell them out at 90 seats/show. You have higher ticket prices but also higher costs. However, when you sell out you can make a good profit.
Looks like somewhere around 12 wireless mics, maybe a couple more.
 
Hi Turk 182, my apologies for not responding to your last message much sooner, I did take onboard your advice of using stereo and panning for sound effects, in our last show in June, there was a need for a telephone ringing effect and the phone was placed stage right, your advice worked well, so now I connect speakers as stereo. My position for the mixer is right at the back of the hall, in a direct line of sight, 20 meters, cable run, 28 meters. The group have always done one show at a venue, but as they had to turn away people at the last show as it was a full house, it was decide to do an afternoon performance and an evening performance on the same day, 92 tickets sold for the afternoon show and 98 for the evening, max seating is 100.
I am now looking into a sub woofer, to go with the two twelve inch tops , like everyone else it's down to cost, in my case it's also cabinet size and weight, as it's me doing all the lifting and transporting, I don't do dance music only backing for vocals and group singing, I'm looking for something to give the music that extra bit of punch. All suggestions welcome.
 
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Raysor, I am not an expert on this stuff but it sounds like what you need is more mid bass oomph rather than sub bass. If you have the power handling and power available you could try mid bass eq for the instruments you want to accentuate. The other option would be a second set of mains for use in larger venues.
I usually rent 2 12” powered monitors for our dinner theatre. For our main stage there are 2 15” monitors suspended high centre and then 2 10” on the outside to fill in. There is one dead spot that I fill in with a rented 10” monitor.
We usually run a live band for a main stage production. It’s a major expense but makes a huge difference for something like Guys and Dolls. We had drums, piano, 2 trumpets and a reed player (sax and flute) It is usually hard to get them to play quiet enough for the people near them to hear the lines.
Guys and dolls went pretty well for us with about 700 tickets sold over 5 performances. That is a record number of tickets for us.
Next is a dinner theatre in Sep. The Big Bad Musical - 6 performances over 2 weekends. I’m hoping to get a second person to help with sound so I can actually relax and enjoy some of the performances.
 
Hi Bfpca, Many thanks for the constructive advice, just shows you how good I am, it didn't
even enter my mind to increase the mid rang Eq, normally if a singer wanted to sing with a particular backing track I would play it from my laptop into the mixer using the phono inputs and that strip has only highs and lows to Eq's.
I now have a 3.5 stereo jack to two 1/4 inch mono jacks to plug into the unbalanced stereo sockets on the mixer that have 3 Eq's to adjust, high, mid, low, will let you know how I get on.
Very good results from the "Guys and Dolls" and good luck with the September shows, I
really admire you guys handling all that responsibility over many shows, the concentration it takes is enormous. I f a lighting person makes a mistake, it can go unnoticed, but a sound engineer makes a mistake and every one knows.
 
Raysor, thanks for the complements. Some mixers have a variable turnover freq. adjustment for the mid control. This is very useful for tuning individual vocal style/microphone match. Some singers will stay away from the mic a bit too far which can lead to a thin lower midrange. Others will eat the mic, which gives you too much low frequency emphasis in their vocals. Experiment with what you have in terms of EQ.
Some people will turn up the upper midrange to make vocals more intelligible. This often leads to a harsh sound imo with vocal sibilants being emphasized. My approach is to get a natural vocal sound and then if the vocals aren’t loud enough - turn up the volume.
Biggest headache for me when doing large productions is malfunctioning or broken wireless mics. One night during guys and dolls the mic for Nathan Detroit got trashed. The cable got caught on something and it ripped the entire connector right out of the pc board in the transmitter. Luckily the actor has a huge voice and belted out his lines until we could get him another mic. Having at least 1 spare mic is my policy when doing shows. You never know what will happen.
Are shows are all volunteer run. We have a producer that produced high school plays during his entire 30+ year teaching career and a director who has a life long passion for amateur theatre. It’s great fun for me and I look forward to every show!
 
Bfpca, just to let you know have done some experimenting with the EQs and finished up with some decent sound, to my ears any way, so the subwoofer will be crossed off the list and some wireless microphones put in it's place on the shopping list, rehearsing a show at the moment with a producer that I have not seen his type of work before, he tells me is that he wants 4 wireless mics on stands on the front of the stage, the stage work area is 16 feet wide, it's more like a play with the odd song here and there with lots of people coming and going, speaking a few lines as they come near a mic and singers using mics handheld, so far there has been a read through and positioning of characters. This one could be interesting.
 
Still have a few more weeks of rehearsals to go and they are going well, as this producer knows his stuff about 25 + people on stage at the same time singing some big numbers.
And here I need some advice from you very helpful forum members.
One monitor on stage is not doing the job of everyone hearing the music, so I now need another one as the stage is not big enough for 3.
The one in use at the moment is an alto active 150 watt rms 10 inch 2 way speaker, would another of the same be enough, if they were placed on the left and right of the stage, I only plan to put the music through them so the group can all start singing at the same time.
My idea would be one main out from the mixer to one main speaker and link to the second main speaker, then an aux out to one monitor then link to the other monitor.
Thank you.
 
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