|
Automatic Mixer for Drama
Taking Your Stage Production to the Next Level
Achieving high quality sound reinforcement for church dramas can be very difficult. The actors and actresses often have not trained their voices to project. The acoustic space may not lend itself to articulate intelligible sound. If a sound system is used, it is often inadequate. Feedback can be a problem, and the sound system may even distract more than it helps. What can be done to improve the overall impact of the drama? We will explore several options in this article.
Performer First of all, a high quality sound system, properly operated, can help the actors and actresses project their voices to every seat in the house. However, even a perfect sound system can only help up to a point. A sound system cannot amplify "nothing."The actors must be trained and encouraged to project with good diction and volume. Then, the sound system can do its job of just providing some reinforcement for the voices.
Sound System Why should a sound system even be used? There are several factors that drive the need for sound systems. First of all, the audience expects and wants to hear clearly without straining. They hear everything clearly at their home theatre, and want to hear the same quality of sound at the live theatre. Couple that with a noisier environment, and a sound system becomes necessary. Even professional theatres are using sound systems because the audience demands to hear everything. So you are planning to use the sound system. How do you achieve a natural, high quality sound that does not detract from the performance. The answers involve many factors. Naturally, the sound system itself must be capable of producing a natural intelligible sound. If it doesn't, high quality microphones or the best operator will not be able to correct that basic fundamental problem. You must start with a good basic system.
Microphone There are several microphone methods to use for a drama or musical. Floor microphones can be effectively used for drama. However, they rely on fairly strong voices. If music is being used, the floor microphones will probably not amplify the voice over the music, especially with weak voices. If this is the case, wireless microphones are the best alternative.
In fact, wireless microphones are now the most common microphone method in professional productions. The wireless systems provide high quality sound. The miniature microphones can be easily hidden and still provide good sound. However, careful placement and proper equalization are still very important. The difficult aspect of this method is that every performer must have a wireless microphone when they have lines or vocals. Otherwise, there would be a very dramatic difference between the sound quality of actors with a wireless microphone and those without one. Budget restraints usually require wireless microphones to be passed from performer to performer. That means the sound operator must have a good method of keeping track of who has what wireless.
Obviously, the more wireless systems you own, borrow, or rent, the easier it will be for the sound operator and the performers.
Wireless Tips:
Remember to carefully coordinate the frequencies of all the wireless systems. If you don’t, interference noises will give the sound operator and the audience many uncomfortable moments.
And don't forget fresh batteries. It is pretty embarrassing to have a wireless quit because of a dead battery. Also, tape the power and microphone mute switches so they can't get accidentally turned off.
Operator
Having multiple wireless microphones on the stage at the same time is difficult to handle. Feedback can become a problem, especially if you have weak voices. The more microphones that are on, the more likely feedback will occur.
Another problem occurs when two actors are close to each other. Both microphones will pick up the actor's voice. If both microphones are on, the combined result will be very unnatural sound due to the phase differences. As the actors move a little, the sound quality will also vary, which means unnatural sound to the audience.
The solution is for the operator to constantly be turning the wireless systems on and off. This method can work, but the operator will have to be very sharp and familiar with the production. In many cases, even a great operator cannot operate fast enough. What is the answer? It is the automatic microphone mixer.
Automatic Mixer
The automatic microphone mixer has been around a long time. However, in the past, it has been quite expensive and often not effective. Now, there are very good units available which can solve the sound operator's problems. An automatic mixer will inaudibly turn the wireless microphones on only when the actor or actress is actually speaking. Even with eight or ten wireless microphones on the stage, the automatic system will only turn on the unit that is being used. The result is very clean sound, even at maximum gain before feedback. With weak voices, that can be a show saver.
There are automatic microphone mixers that can even help solve the phase problem described above. The automatic mixer is smart enough to turn only one microphone on if it senses the same voice in both microphones. That eliminates the phase cancellation problem and the resultant poor sound. 
Figure 1
The automatic microphone mixer could be used by itself. However, we recommend the following setup if your manual mixer has channel direct output capability (see Figure 1). Connect the wireless microphones to your manual mixer. Then, take the direct output of each channel and send each wireless signal to an input on the automatic mixer. Do not assign the individual wireless channels on the manual mixer to the mixer main output. Now, connect the output of the automatic mixer to another input on the manual mixer. This input is assigned to the mixer main outputs which feed the sound system loudspeakers. If you configure the system in this manner, the operator will be able to use the manual mixer tone controls, channel fader, and the on/off switches. The automatic mixer will do the actual control of the wireless microphones. You can use the manual mixer on/off (mute) switches to turn off the wireless systems that are off stage.
Using an automatic microphone mixer will prove to be very effective in providing high quality sound reinforcement for drama productions. It can also be used effectively with music, but you will have to be more careful. The smart systems can be fooled with music, and may only turn on one microphone even if there is a duet. If this happens, you can simply assign those channels on the manual mixer and bypass the automatic mixer. When the song is over, switch back to the automatic mode.
Summary
Using the above tips and tools can help improve the sound quality of any production. It certainly takes a lot of stress off the sound operator. Best of all, the audience will experience great sound. The ultimate compliment on the sound system and the operator is when a listener comments about the great acoustics since they could hear everything clearly. Just smile and say thank you!
by Ron Huisinga © 1996 Internet Sound Institute (www.soundinstitute.com). This article is for personal use only. Any commercial reproduction is not permitted without permission. To obtain permission, contact ISI at hopi@soundinstitute.com
< Back
|
