I've been doing sound for community theatre for about 14 years now, the last couple of years on a digital board (an X32), but sometimes I still struggle with EQ and dynamics.
The same mic in the same rough position on different actors' cheeks can sound radically different. I guess some people's cheek skin or bone is just more resonant than others. Also, even though the mic is fixed to the face, the tone can still change with head position, presumably due to reflections off other parts of their body.
I usually find my EQ curves (again, for cheek-taped mics) ending up as a low cut around 150-200, then about 4-5dB down ramping up to level around 1K, then maybe a small peak around 5-6K for "presence" and 1-2dB push above that for some air if it's a dull mic. I often find that it's a very narrow range between "boomy" and "thin", and find myself tweaking low-cut and the 200-400 dip through the course of a show, as sometimes the same person will sound good when they're singing with others, but then sound too boomy when they're singing solo.
Much of this is probably down to proximity effect of the mic being so close to the cheek. I do try to leave at least 1/2" of cable free past the tape such that the head isn't actually touching the cheek, but that isn't always possible.
I have tried forehead mounting in the past, using toupee clips and/or thin elastic halos, and it certainly gives a more natural sound, but most of the time I can't justify the loss of gain-before-feedback, as I am mostly working in small venues with merely adequate speaker systems, hard walls/ceilings etc.
As for dynamics, I am always very careful about setting transmitter sensitivity so that the loudest people don't clip the transmitter, although the EW100 is better than some when that happens. I try to get the loud peaks at about -12dBFS on the board, although of course people are always louder during the actual show than they ever are during mic test when you ask them to be loud.
I don't usually mess with the compressor settings other than threshold and ratio. I'm not even sure what the default values of attack/hold/release etc. are on the X32 channel compressor. I usually set a 2.0 ratio at a level that they rarely hit, although it's pretty obvious when the do as the sound flattens out. The knee control helps some but not really they're well into compression. I have also tried using a lower ratio (1.5 or 1.3) with a lower threshold, with the hope of getting a smoother transition, but then I lose the safety net when they suddenly decide to be really loud.
To solve that one, I have taken to using subgroups, with the low-ratio smooth compression on the channels, but a higher-ratio higher-threshold one in the subgroup, so that effectively you have two stages of compression. This also helps with keeping a lid on things when lots of people sing together, although the sound when it goes into compression is still weird.
The weirdness is perhaps simply that the X32 channel/subgroup compressors aren't that good, or that I need to adjust the other parameters to make them behave better for vocals. Obviously the board has some much nicer compression algorithms/models in the Effects section, but you can't use those on every channel of a big show.
The run of INTO THE WOODS I just finished had a very dynamic singer as the Witch. Sometimes she would be just whispering, and other times a full-on scream (which often *did* clip the transmitter, or at least pretty much peg the AF meter on the receiver). I had to ride her fader constantly because even in our small 99-seat house, the whispering would be inaudible without reinforcement, but the screaming would take people's heads off unless I ducked it.
I am worried because we're going be re-mounting the show in January in a much bigger (500+ seat) theatre and I probably will no longer be able to just duck her hard and expect that she'll still be heard.
All that said, maybe my "finger compression" skills are better than I give myself credit for, because I did a recording with all post-fader vocals, and it came out OK. You'll see what I mean about her dynamics, though.
http://eves.us/ntc/ITW_1107_LastMidnight.mp3
Anyway, any tips, or pointers to tutorials, gratefully received, thanks!
Simon Eves
The same mic in the same rough position on different actors' cheeks can sound radically different. I guess some people's cheek skin or bone is just more resonant than others. Also, even though the mic is fixed to the face, the tone can still change with head position, presumably due to reflections off other parts of their body.
I usually find my EQ curves (again, for cheek-taped mics) ending up as a low cut around 150-200, then about 4-5dB down ramping up to level around 1K, then maybe a small peak around 5-6K for "presence" and 1-2dB push above that for some air if it's a dull mic. I often find that it's a very narrow range between "boomy" and "thin", and find myself tweaking low-cut and the 200-400 dip through the course of a show, as sometimes the same person will sound good when they're singing with others, but then sound too boomy when they're singing solo.
Much of this is probably down to proximity effect of the mic being so close to the cheek. I do try to leave at least 1/2" of cable free past the tape such that the head isn't actually touching the cheek, but that isn't always possible.
I have tried forehead mounting in the past, using toupee clips and/or thin elastic halos, and it certainly gives a more natural sound, but most of the time I can't justify the loss of gain-before-feedback, as I am mostly working in small venues with merely adequate speaker systems, hard walls/ceilings etc.
As for dynamics, I am always very careful about setting transmitter sensitivity so that the loudest people don't clip the transmitter, although the EW100 is better than some when that happens. I try to get the loud peaks at about -12dBFS on the board, although of course people are always louder during the actual show than they ever are during mic test when you ask them to be loud.
I don't usually mess with the compressor settings other than threshold and ratio. I'm not even sure what the default values of attack/hold/release etc. are on the X32 channel compressor. I usually set a 2.0 ratio at a level that they rarely hit, although it's pretty obvious when the do as the sound flattens out. The knee control helps some but not really they're well into compression. I have also tried using a lower ratio (1.5 or 1.3) with a lower threshold, with the hope of getting a smoother transition, but then I lose the safety net when they suddenly decide to be really loud.
To solve that one, I have taken to using subgroups, with the low-ratio smooth compression on the channels, but a higher-ratio higher-threshold one in the subgroup, so that effectively you have two stages of compression. This also helps with keeping a lid on things when lots of people sing together, although the sound when it goes into compression is still weird.
The weirdness is perhaps simply that the X32 channel/subgroup compressors aren't that good, or that I need to adjust the other parameters to make them behave better for vocals. Obviously the board has some much nicer compression algorithms/models in the Effects section, but you can't use those on every channel of a big show.
The run of INTO THE WOODS I just finished had a very dynamic singer as the Witch. Sometimes she would be just whispering, and other times a full-on scream (which often *did* clip the transmitter, or at least pretty much peg the AF meter on the receiver). I had to ride her fader constantly because even in our small 99-seat house, the whispering would be inaudible without reinforcement, but the screaming would take people's heads off unless I ducked it.
I am worried because we're going be re-mounting the show in January in a much bigger (500+ seat) theatre and I probably will no longer be able to just duck her hard and expect that she'll still be heard.
All that said, maybe my "finger compression" skills are better than I give myself credit for, because I did a recording with all post-fader vocals, and it came out OK. You'll see what I mean about her dynamics, though.
http://eves.us/ntc/ITW_1107_LastMidnight.mp3
Anyway, any tips, or pointers to tutorials, gratefully received, thanks!
Simon Eves
