So, I thought I'd share again...
This weekend I'm recording the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington. The group is a very large male chorus and will be doing several shows this weekend. The venue is the Lisner Auditorium in downtown DC. (http://www.lisner.org) Overall, the venue is nice, but there is a bit of AC rumble.
Anyway - it's one of the more difficult shows I've done in a while - almost every number has different sized groups, different instrumentation and a lot of movement on stage. I'm using 14 channels right now -
2 Main Mics - ORTF (Flown in the hall above projector height.)
2 Flank Mics - Omnis - flown in the hall
2 Stage mics - Ribbons at the lip facing up in quasi ORTF pattern with rear lobe picking up instruments in the pit
6 Wireless mic splits
2 Splits from 2 different keyboards
So, the cool part is - the house guys are really cool as are the live sound guys. The live sound guys are gladly giving me the splits - in fact, they are using their iso boxes, their cables and feeding me their snake with all of the splits on it.
Overall, the main mics are probably going through around 400 to 500 feet of cable (50 feet from mic to overhead snake - overhead snake is 300 feet, then to the 100 foot snake which is fed down to me under the stage.
The stage crew has actually helped me the whole way - helping me line up the flown mics, carrying some heavy gear and feeding cables, etc.
So far, it's a really cool experience.
I'll try to post some pics within the next day or so.
The concerts (for anyone in the DC area) are tomorrow at 2 and 8 and on Sunday at 2.
J.
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Well...let's see - do's and don'ts: Don't: -Be afraid of height
Well...let's see - do's and don'ts:
Don't:
-Be afraid of heights
-Leave any cable home (you'll need most or all of it, unless there's a snake already run like in this case.)
Do:
-Respect your mic cables (they can be under a considerable amount of stress)
-Bring fishing line (to stabilize the mics)
The way that I fly my mics is:
1 - take the cables into the catwalk
2 - Lower them to the floor from above and tie them off
3 - Lower fishing line (used to either stabilize the mics or pull them to certain angles)
4 - Go back down, connect the mics
5 - Set up your rigging (I use AEA's mic hangers - http://www.wesdooley.com/images/AEA-MH.jpg )
6 - Tie the fishing lines to your riggings
7 - Go back up and pull up your mics (You'll need another person on the floor to tell you when you're at the right height and when they're pointing in the right direction).
8 - Pull in the fishing line and stabilize the mics
Make sure you secure the cables well (I use pull-ties and gaffers tape.)
For my main array, I used an ORTF pair of Schoeps mounted on a SabraSom bar with a custom stereo mogami mic cable which minimizes the amount of cables dangling down.
Things to bring along with you -
Leatherman tool
Tape
Fishing line
Flashlight
Two-way radios
I'll get some pics tonight.
J.
Hi Jeremy, always nice to read your reports. Quite a fe
Hi Jeremy,
always nice to read your reports. Quite a few challenges to handle as you describe it.
Could you perhaps share some of your experiences about flying mics, I have never done it myself and would need to add that to my repertoire. Any do-s or don´t-s apart from the obvious part of having a good insurance against falling objects hitting members of the audience?
Gunnar