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john tipton

External


Since: Sep 07, 2006
Posts: 3



(Msg. 1) Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:41 am
Post subject: comedy club mic techniques
Archived from groups: rec>arts>movies>production>sound (more info?)
Hey All,

I'm primarily a doc sound mixer and I have a friend who is Producing a
comedy club setup. He asked me to help him. They are shooting in an
auditorium with HD robocams (I"m going by on monday.) There will be two
handheld mics for the performers. He also wants to have crowd mics. He
says he wants to have two shotguns at the corner of the stage facing
out as well as two mics hanging from the ceiling. Can anyone help me
out regarding typical mic selection and placement for the crowd mics? I
don't know how big the space is, but I would imagine two schoeps
cmc6-cut1-mk-41 or cardiod hanging from ceiling, and two Schoeps
shotgun mics on stage? Or what about cheaper sennheiser schoeps style
mics work just as well?

He says he wants to mix the two ceiling mics and the two stage mics. I
told him he may run into phasing problems.


Cheers!

John Tipton

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Philip Perkins

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Since: Dec 09, 2004
Posts: 757



(Msg. 2) Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 12:14 pm
Post subject: Re: comedy club mic techniques [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
Your main placement issue will be the speaker stacks for the PA, and
how you can avoid them with the front audience pair. Something
directional and mounted not able to see the front of the speakers
should work. The "hall" pair farther back will get used mostly for
applause and laughter--as soon as the comic starts to speak thru the PA
the sound from them will be very colored and live sounding: best would
be multitracking these extra mics and letting them mix the audience and
hall in in post. The mics will be so far away from each other and from
the handhelds that there won't be any phasing issues, what there will
be is coloration when you add the sound of the PA in the hall to the
sound of the handhelds direct. This mix is very subjective re: how
"live" you/they want it to sound, a decision I would recommend be left
to post. You may decide you want to mount something either @ the
center stage lip or flown over that position that you can grab if there
is interaction between the comic and the people sitting front row
center--these people are quite far from your side mics.

Philip Perkins


john tipton wrote:
> Hey All,
>
> I'm primarily a doc sound mixer and I have a friend who is Producing a
> comedy club setup. He asked me to help him. They are shooting in an
> auditorium with HD robocams (I"m going by on monday.) There will be two
> handheld mics for the performers. He also wants to have crowd mics. He
> says he wants to have two shotguns at the corner of the stage facing
> out as well as two mics hanging from the ceiling. Can anyone help me
> out regarding typical mic selection and placement for the crowd mics? I
> don't know how big the space is, but I would imagine two schoeps
> cmc6-cut1-mk-41 or cardiod hanging from ceiling, and two Schoeps
> shotgun mics on stage? Or what about cheaper sennheiser schoeps style
> mics work just as well?
>
> He says he wants to mix the two ceiling mics and the two stage mics. I
> told him he may run into phasing problems.
>
>
> Cheers!
>
> John Tipton

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MitchB4610

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Since: Jul 15, 2006
Posts: 43



(Msg. 3) Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:48 pm
Post subject: Re: comedy club mic techniques [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
john tipton wrote:
> Hey All,
>
> I'm primarily a doc sound mixer and I have a friend who is Producing a
> comedy club setup. He asked me to help him. They are shooting in an
> auditorium with HD robocams (I"m going by on monday.) There will be two
> handheld mics for the performers. He also wants to have crowd mics. He
> says he wants to have two shotguns at the corner of the stage facing
> out as well as two mics hanging from the ceiling. Can anyone help me
> out regarding typical mic selection and placement for the crowd mics? I
> don't know how big the space is, but I would imagine two schoeps
> cmc6-cut1-mk-41 or cardiod hanging from ceiling, and two Schoeps
> shotgun mics on stage? Or what about cheaper sennheiser schoeps style
> mics work just as well?
>
> He says he wants to mix the two ceiling mics and the two stage mics. I
> told him he may run into phasing problems.
>
>
> Cheers!
>
> John Tipton

First and formost I would use a splitter to get audio from the
comedian's mic -- upstream of the house console. That way you don't
have to worry about the house mixer changing your levels part way
through the show. Take a feed from the house -- minus the talent mics
-- for walk on music, stingers, sound efx, etc.

I'm not sure I would want to hang a cardiod from the ceiling. Too far
away from the audience to get usable crowd fx -- I think you'd hear
mostly PA. I've had good success using 416s pointed toward the
crowd (away from the PA).

It is nice to have shotguns on the cameras for those close up audience
reaction shots .

If there is a roving Hand Held camera -- a wireless lav can be used to
catch backstage banter. PUt it on before the show -- take it off after.

Record iso tracks of everything if you can -- at least seperate the
talent tracks from efx tracks.

And last but certainly not least -- make friends w/ the PA mixer.
You'll need to work together.

Hope this helps

Mitch
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LaFayette

External


Since: Apr 25, 2006
Posts: 8



(Msg. 4) Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:00 am
Post subject: Re: comedy club mic techniques [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
416's are good as are SM80's, particularly if stage is short or thrust
type or if the procenium is high, attached to a light tree from the
front of procenium on the side-not wings. Speaker placement of course
is another concern with this. I've some success with Crown SASS stereo
PZM with wider spaces and lively crowds, hung from the middle front
lighting pipes.

Most Comedy Clubs are small so simpler is better, one spaced stereo pr
or your choice, although I think Schoeps may add too much air/ambience
to your mix. However, so does the SASS but to a crisper degree that's
favorable to clapping, hollaring, quick dynamic bursts from crowd in
which you would be gain riding too much w/ a sensitive Schoeper. I
usually record EFX on a separate DAT if not using an 8 Trk from the
mixer's D/O.

Good Luck, S.L.
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Philip Perkins

External


Since: Dec 09, 2004
Posts: 757



(Msg. 5) Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:30 am
Post subject: Re: comedy club mic techniques [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
Best advice nugget so far: "make friends w/ the house PA mixer". They
absolutely will make the difference between a good recording and an
unusable one. You can have all your feeds and mics and splits together
and if they screw up the PA it will all be for nothing. Audience won't
be into the show if they can't hear or are treated to bursts of
feedback or hum, and the performance of the comics will suffer as a
result. Call them ahead of time! Make nice! Go to a show as a scout
and see how they work--introduce yourself and make them feel that they
are an important part of what you are doing, and that you know you are
a guest and causing them extra work.

Philip Perkins


LaFayette wrote:
> 416's are good as are SM80's, particularly if stage is short or thrust
> type or if the procenium is high, attached to a light tree from the
> front of procenium on the side-not wings. Speaker placement of course
> is another concern with this. I've some success with Crown SASS stereo
> PZM with wider spaces and lively crowds, hung from the middle front
> lighting pipes.
>
> Most Comedy Clubs are small so simpler is better, one spaced stereo pr
> or your choice, although I think Schoeps may add too much air/ambience
> to your mix. However, so does the SASS but to a crisper degree that's
> favorable to clapping, hollaring, quick dynamic bursts from crowd in
> which you would be gain riding too much w/ a sensitive Schoeper. I
> usually record EFX on a separate DAT if not using an 8 Trk from the
> mixer's D/O.
>
> Good Luck, S.L.
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0junk4me

External


Since: Aug 10, 2006
Posts: 23



(Msg. 6) Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 2:06 pm
Post subject: Re: comedy club mic techniques [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
On 2006-09-08 spamiser DeleteThis @yahoo.com said:
>Best advice nugget so far: "make friends w/ the house PA mixer".
>They absolutely will make the difference between a good recording
>and an unusable one. You can have all your feeds and mics and
>splits together and if they screw up the PA it will all be for
>nothing. Audience won't be into the show if they can't hear or are
>treated to bursts of feedback or hum, and the performance of the
>comics will suffer as a result. Call them ahead of time! Make
>nice! Go to a show as a scout and see how they work--introduce
>yourself and make them feel that they are an important part of what
>you are doing, and that you know you are a guest and causing them
>extra work.
true enough, but do take a split of talent's mics
independent of the pa. YOu'll be glad you did. From op's
description only two mics for talent, reasonable splitters
should be rentable or even available for purchase
reasonable, especially when that few splits needed.




Richard webb,
Electric Spider Productions
Replace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real
email address.



Great audio is never heard by the average person, but bad
audio is heard by everyone.
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