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Tools of the Trade / Radio mics - are performers too reliant on them?
« on: Aug 24, 2012, 11:18 am »
A well designed theatre, I can stand centre stage, project my voice and be heard everywhere. It is why people employ acoustic engineers, theatre designers and many other experts to design them - and I know they work, after all, I have performed more than a few focus sessions in my life talking to people in the gods without the aid of a mic.... yet the last three shows I have seen - big name productions - have all been over mic'ed in my mind.
Today, on a whim I went to go and see Annie - it had just been installed in the theatre that is in the same building as my venues, and they emailed me the RF list so that I could let our techs know what to avoid... long story short, went on line to see what sort of seating was left available and managed to pick up a seat 3 rows back, 5 seats in from the centre isle on the left - so a fairly good seat... I know the theatre really well, I have been technical director on 5 corporate events in there and know the acoustics like the back of my hand - I have also seen about 20 shows in there - a decent presenter can get away with out being put through the front fill and they really only need a touch into the line array - primarily the PA is used to "fill out" the room, balance it a bit and to add any effects/backing audio etc. I walked in and looked at the PA - instead of the line array I am used to seeing sitting way up against the top of the pros arch there are two smaller arrays - one of which lowered to about 1m above my head height... whatever. To each noise boy his own.
Then the show started... Orchestra sounded fairly good as the overture struck up.... Then the singers started to sing.
Almost the ENTIRE show sounded like it was coming from the speaker to the left of me... that is the speaker that was outside the pros arch. I was getting NOTHING from the stage what so ever. 3 rows back, NOTHING, even with no orchestra playing - during the a'capela parts - NOTHING. The only time I got anything from the stage was one performer who is renowned for his ability to be loud and project. To be honest they could have been playing a CD and miming if it weren't for the fact that a CD would be a better quality audio.
So I put it to my Stage Management colleagues - are our actors loosing the ability to project their voice? Is it a tallent that is no longer being taught as "they will just stick a mic on you anyway"? Frankly, I am getting tired of going for a nice night out at the theatre, paying $150 for a single ticket and then spending the night with my ears telling my brain I should not be looking at the stage because the audio I am focusing on is coming from somewhere else. The fact I am paying that much for a ticket is a further insult, but not worth getting into here.
Today, on a whim I went to go and see Annie - it had just been installed in the theatre that is in the same building as my venues, and they emailed me the RF list so that I could let our techs know what to avoid... long story short, went on line to see what sort of seating was left available and managed to pick up a seat 3 rows back, 5 seats in from the centre isle on the left - so a fairly good seat... I know the theatre really well, I have been technical director on 5 corporate events in there and know the acoustics like the back of my hand - I have also seen about 20 shows in there - a decent presenter can get away with out being put through the front fill and they really only need a touch into the line array - primarily the PA is used to "fill out" the room, balance it a bit and to add any effects/backing audio etc. I walked in and looked at the PA - instead of the line array I am used to seeing sitting way up against the top of the pros arch there are two smaller arrays - one of which lowered to about 1m above my head height... whatever. To each noise boy his own.
Then the show started... Orchestra sounded fairly good as the overture struck up.... Then the singers started to sing.
Almost the ENTIRE show sounded like it was coming from the speaker to the left of me... that is the speaker that was outside the pros arch. I was getting NOTHING from the stage what so ever. 3 rows back, NOTHING, even with no orchestra playing - during the a'capela parts - NOTHING. The only time I got anything from the stage was one performer who is renowned for his ability to be loud and project. To be honest they could have been playing a CD and miming if it weren't for the fact that a CD would be a better quality audio.
So I put it to my Stage Management colleagues - are our actors loosing the ability to project their voice? Is it a tallent that is no longer being taught as "they will just stick a mic on you anyway"? Frankly, I am getting tired of going for a nice night out at the theatre, paying $150 for a single ticket and then spending the night with my ears telling my brain I should not be looking at the stage because the audio I am focusing on is coming from somewhere else. The fact I am paying that much for a ticket is a further insult, but not worth getting into here.