In my last post, I talked about my design process for the show. The next phase, is planning and equipping for operation. In other words, choosing my gear and configuring it to best achieve what the director wants, the musical director expects, and what will best serve the show and the engineer. (In this case, me.) Engineering for yourself is a very mixed blessing... but more about THAT later...

The first step for me in this is to look at the line up. How many actors on stage need a body microphone, and how many instruments in the orchestra pit?

The cast for Spelling Beeis 9 - and all 9 of them sing, so 9 wireless body packs and receivers are first on the list. Next I look to the length of time and number of songs each actor will be singing. For this production, all but one of the characters has one or more solos, and all of them spend the majority of the curtain time on set. This means I chose to put the entire cast on a higher grade element. I have been using Countryman B6 and E6 elements - both for the sound quality, as well as for the minuscule size for leading parts. They both are approximately a $300 each element. If I had a cast that contained chorus members or a cameo part, I would choose a less expensive element - I stock the Shure WL93 and WL93T - roughly speaking in the ballpark of $80 each. I especially like to use the Shure elements when the chorus members or cameos are dancers. The rule of physics says that dancers are going to put more strain on the respective element, never mind the potenial for sweat outs, so the hardier cable size of the WL93 as well as it's relatively less expensive replacement cost make sense

Physical expectations and choreography also comes into play when we get to pack placement. All of the characters in the show dance, but it's nothing extreme or requiring tumbling. I went with standard mic belts for the majority of the cast, with one member wearing his receiver in a suit pocket - which worked well only as the jacket never came off during the show. I let the individual actors adjust specifics with their belts based on their own comfort and costumes. The show clothes were modern and casual for most of the cast which helps a lot where pack placement is concerned.

In addition to the actor mics (and two back-ups) the show required three handheld wireless mics for the spellers, and two at the desk for the word pronouncer and the host.

For the pit in our production, we had a keyboard, reed player, percussionist, and multi-channel computer based synthesizer we've dubbed "Tom-Extra" for the musical director who put it together. The keyboard used left and right channels through a Rolland keyboard amplifier for pit sound, which has built in "low z" out puts - illuminating the need for direct boxes - unlike the synth, which requires 8. The reed player played mostly clarinet, with a few numbers using a bass clarinet, allowing for a single microphone. The percussion section was a full drum kit (kick, snare, two rack toms, floor tom, high hat, and two cymbals) along with orchestra bells, several pieces of had percussion, a drum machine to cover several "exotic" drums, and 3 timpani. I used an Audix drum pack - with two overheads one to cover 1 cymbal and the high hat, the other a cymbal, orchestra bells, and additional had percussion, mics on the snare, floor tom, and a mic shared between the rack toms and timpani. Additionally, the drum machine needed a single line and DI.

From these lists, I get two tallies. The first: number of channels: 12 wireless in show, 2 back-ups, second the 19 in the pit.

Next is playback and the effects for the show. Most are voice overs, and the others are simple effects, allowing me to have only six channels of playback, which could have been narrowed to four had I needed two from the SFX computer. A CD player for sound check brought my playback channel needs to 8.

As for outboard gear - I knew I would need one effects processor for the show, and planned for a second in case I needed multiple effects. This adds 4 channels.

The next set of needs are the output section of the show. How many speakers do I need, and where? The house system at ASF consists of a left and right tower position with a balcony fill delay, a center array, and a sub channel that can be used with left and right or independently. I typically leave the subs on a separate channel to give me more control of the house mix and to keep vocals from going there at all.

The stage area was shallow, requiring two downstage and two upstage monitors.

In the pit, I needed vocal monitors for the conductor, and generally for the pit players. I used two speakers for the general send to cover the pit, and a powered speaker for the conductor. I also sent a music only send to the booth for the stage manager for her to hear specific phrases or particular beats she needed to call light cues with.

Which brings the output channel total of the show to 14, and 45 input channels. The next complication? The largest console in my inventory is essentially 32 channels.

In the next installment, I'll detail laying out all of this, and how I use multiple consoles in tandem.

Until next time cats and kittens!

Cheers,

~R