The Music Director and Me

So I was designing a musical and I got the most hilarious email from the music director, telling me that there would be hotspot amp/speakers [shudder] in the pit and also dictating microphone placement. Here is that exchange:

Honestly? One of the better musicians around here.

We: You specify two microphones for the woodwinds doubling. Where... do you suggest those microphones go exactly? Perhaps we have wildly different ideas about how to mic woodwinds. 

They: There are many changes of instruments for the player so the constant repositioning of the mic is not the best idea.  Flute mics high close to the players mouth while a clarinet mics close to the players hands.  This would be the correct way to mic these instruments, which is why we need 2 separate mics. 

We: There is no "correct" way to mic any instrument. Close to the mouth might be fine for flute if this were, for instance, a Jethro Tull concert in 1972. But we might want a somewhat more delicate sound for a small-ensemble musical theater experience. This will help enable the subtle dynamics and phrasing of the material to be realized with more musicality than otherwise achievable with rock-and-roll mic technique. I suggest we do not close-mic the woodwinds.   

They: Actually, that’s incorrect.  The micing is dictated by where on the instrument the sound is coming from.  If we were in an isolation box then you can mic the space, but that is not the case here.  Flutes and clarinets produce sound from different parts of the instrument.  We will need 2 mics. 

This is maybe the funniest thing I've ever heard about how sound is amplified. So yes, from here on out "The micing is dictated by where on the instrument the sound is coming from" is one of those things which should be a cartoon sign on every mixing board. 

Anyway, can you tell I got fired from that show? Thank the gods too, I've heard nothing but bad things about how these shows sound and, well, now I know why. "The micing is dictated by where on the instrument the sound is coming from." Huh. I wonder how that works on violin? ;-)

Liz Swados

Liz Swados is dead.

You'll notice a bit of a gap in her resume in the above-linked obituary. I worked with her on a couple of those gaps.

Back in the day when I was a lowly sound operator/sound mixer at the Public Theater, organizing a union by day and working on plays and musicals at night, I got put on a Liz Swados show after a week in the shop. They needed someone to mix a new musical she was putting up about Jonah and the Whale. It was all electronic keyboards (which was a mess which we'll get to later), two women and a man on stage with some big "whale bones" in the theater. Um. The upstairs theater on the left (or north) side of the building. I forget what that's called.
Anyway, Liz took an instant dislike of me.

Which is too bad because I kinda liked the show. But the two keyboardists were sort of all-over-the-place in volume and the show had dynamics issues. Also, there was no sound designer assigned to the show so we were using some very old-timey Sennheiser wireless (which actually, when you could get them to work, sounded quite good.)

In addition, Joe Papp really hated her show. At least that's what the word was among the crew and administration. He thought it was just childish garbage but he was going to "teach her a lesson" by having it open so she could read the critics tear it apart. Oddly (and I was out of the show and working on another show by this point) the critics didn't really hate the show that much. They didn't love it. But Wolf was coming in with a super-sold-out show a Zora Neal Hurston plays that was going to run for like 6 months, so Liz' show got the boot anyway.

The arrangements were... loose. And mixing electronic keyboards is a mess in the best of circumstances (which is why most keyboardists mix themselves). 

Then a couple years later I got an emergency last-minute call to come help a show that was touring around NYC schools and was having terrible sound problems. I got there, fixed the problems -- only to realize that ha HA! It was a Liz Swados show. I have no idea if she remembered who I was. 

Years after that, when we were producing Apostasy I got a cassette in the mail from her -- obviously something she sent out to every producer who had a project listed in the Hollywood Report -- looking for composing work for film.

And that's all I know about that.

Sound Design Tips and Tricks for Stage and Screen s1 ep05

Here I introduce the mixing board (very introductory) to the reluctant sound designer.


Ooh. The name of this series really should be "The Reluctant Sound Designer" shouldn't it?

Sound Design Tips and Tricks for Screen and Stage s1 ep04

Basic things about speaker placement.

Sound Design Episode 2

Wherein I explain the reasons behind using preshow music in the theater.

SDTTFSS series 1 episode 1

The first episode of Sound Design Tips and Tricks for Screen and Stage wherein we answer the question of what to do when you need sound to come from somewhere on the stage. Ien DeNio was essentially the knowledge base around this episode. Here are the notes for the episode (these were my notes that I was working from in raw, unedited format.)

http://iendenio.com/





Question:

1. There's a phone ring or computer sound that's supposed to be coming from the stage. It sounds dumb coming from the speakers overhead. What can I do on an unlimited budget, and what can I do to fake it?

The right (old-fashioned) way:

IFB and squawk box

The more recent hack is to use a baby monitor.

Ien’s favorite baby monitor to mod is the Sony NTM-910

Yea, the black wire was just something I had lying around.. a crap speaker 1/8" input jack or something.. so I hacked it off, pulled the red and white lines that went to the little microphone and connected them up. I didn't even solder this one... its just wrapped and taped

Also: walkie-talkies can be used.

Note that like all wireless things you can have trouble with taxicabs and other radio interference.

Lastly: http://www.stagecaller.com/

“It works best, I've found, if you throw up a dedicated wireless connection sans internet, connect the phone and computer to that.”