Andy Woodward attended the base sound course in March 08. Upto this time he had as he put it dabbled with sound equipment but wanted to understand more. This included the desk, cabling, connecting it together, setting up and basic use of outboard equipment. Having completed the weekend live sound engineering course Andy found he had alot more confidence and knowledge and it has helped him not only with his engineering skills but also on deciding what equipment he should be using. Following on from the course Andy has bought some more equipment through ourselves and has really embraced sound engineering with the forming of his own company aw-pa-soundsystems.co.uk. Now he is getting numerous enquiries through his website and word of mouth to sound engineer a broad range of gigs in the south east. He is even doing his own talks on sound engineering to local groups in his area. Recently Andy undertook sound engineering a large theatre production and here is his diary of how it went
Andy Woodward Diary
PLANNING
AND OPERATING THE PA FOR A FULL PRODUCTION OF ANNIE
AT THE GULBENKIAN THEATRE, CANTERBURY.
I
was asked last year if I would do the PA for a production
of Annie for de capo school for performing arts. I had
worked for de capo on smaller productions on previous
occasions, but Julie Tugwell the principal told me that
once a year she put on a large scale production so that it
gave the performers a chance to experience what it would be
like on a West End Show.
I thought about the job a lot to make sure I got it right
as this was the biggest theatre job I had done. The
following is the way I went about it.
PLANNING
Soon after being asked to do the job I had a meeting with
Julie to get an idea of what she wanted. Her requirements
was initially for 24 discrete face worn radio mics, a few
on and off stage hard wired mics and to mic up an 18 piece
orchestra. Upon looking into the cost of the radios, the
cost was prohibitive even the cost of the extra JMFG
licence was nearly £300 for the week, plus as I only have a
24ch A and H GL2400 desk that I bought from Howard after
the course I would have needed to hire a 48ch desk. More
cost! I could always link my small SX20 to give another 9
channels to the A and H. Another meeting, and I explained
the situation and we agreed the best way was to swap the
mics on some of the actors and leave the main seven
characters mic’d up for the duration of the show, and
that some of instruments that had a very small part in the
show would be left out. (are 2 toots in act 3 of the 2nd
half really warranted.) We then needed 13 actual channels
of radio and I could mic the orchestra up with 7 condensers
and a DI box. A quick re-price and we had an affordable
working show.
I
then went to 2 rehearsals at the de capo studios to get a
feel for the show. I planned the desk on paper using
channel 1 to 14 for radios 15 and 16 for CD players 17 to
23 for the orchestra, 24 reverb return. (the show was to be
in mono). I could see that I needed extra help with this so
I got another guy who knows a bit about sound to do the
sound effects and to cue the mics. I decided that it was
best to set the faders and then mute the mics as and when.
I also had 2 people from de capo (volunteers to put the
mics on the actors and change them when necessary). Leaving
2 mics spare for breakdowns the other spares were put on
the actors to speed up change overs so only the transmitter
needed to be changed. As I always try to have a backup I
ordered 14 radios (in fact I was sent 16 as they were rack
and ready units) and I was given 4 extra mics. I sent all
radios to group 1 all orchestra to group 2. I used 2 stage
monitors at the front of the stage pointing backwards with
just the orchestra through them from Aux 1 inverted to
group 3 fader and as the orchestra was to the rear side of
the stage, they had a monitor with just the actors voices
and sound effects routed through Aux2 going via group 4
fader. That way I had overall control of the main sections
with a single fader. There was no room to have a
centre
fill.
THE
SHOW
Monday 10am load in and set up. 1pm - those of the
orchestra that could turn up did and had sound check. As
they were in a confined space I gently gated 4 of the mics
to reduce spill a bit. In front of the 2 trumpets I put a
clear perspex screen,, one to stop the person in front
being deafened, and two to help reduce the spill from their
volume. 6pm onwards individual sound checks on most mics.
Looking forward to the next job with de capo.
Tuesday. 5pm dress and tech rehearsal. Slight disaster as
we were given a script (117 pages) and some of the mic cues
were not only in the wrong places but mics were left on
when they should have been cued off several pages later.
Finished approx 10pm.
Wednesday 5pm dress rehearsal. Cues sorted. The stage
managers job had previously been given to a university
student studying theatre management and drama as
‘work experience’ and the other real stage
manager who knew the play intimately gave me the on/off mic
cues. Leaving me to balance the sound and raise and lower
the volume accordingly.
Thursday and Friday Showtime. 7.30pm until 10pm. Would
normally arrive 2 hours before show if all set up ready to
go. Thursday got stuck on motorway for 45minutes so flew
the rest of the way when cleared. (that’s why I try
to get there 2 hours before). The ‘just in
case’ factor!.
Saturday arrive 11 am for 1.30 matinee, 7.30 evening
performance, Standing ovation at the end. 10.30 to midnight
pack away and load out.
PROBLEMS
Wednesday. Although I had shown the backstage people how to
put the mics on they left some of the actors to do it
themselves. Consequently some of the capsules were up by
the ear and some dangling in front of the mouth. Throws all
the gains and levels out. Sorted with bit more chat to
them. One main actor had slight hum from transmitter (found
by using pfl on each channel) Changed transmitter and
retuned.
Thursday. 2 mics stopped working during change overs during
first half. Got them changed through talking to the stage
over comms. Found what was causing them to break during
interval. Backstage, trying to be tidy the girl in charge
of the mics was winding the cord so tight around the
transmitter that she was breaking the mic connection.
Sorted.
Friday. Ordered 4 more mics to be over-nighted for spares.
During show 2 actors came on and costumes had nearly pulled
jack out of transmitter causing bangs and cutting out of
the vocals. Have heard this sound before so knew what it
was and easily remedied when they went off stage.
Saturday. Matinee was being filmed (single camera for
copyright reasons) using radio mic to get some sound from
stage to camera. Using a 4ch uhf mic had
interference/breakthrough on my system. During the interval
changed it for one of my vhf mics. No more problems
Only other problem was in the second half of the final
show. Right from the start I had told everybody to have
their transmitter turned on and double checked by the
backstage crew right at the start and to leave it on for
the duration. Simple….No!. One of the main
characters turned his off during the interval and went on
stage and had to do an acoustic set!!!
CONCLUSION
The way I work is,
1. Plan everything you can and write it down so that at the
gig when people are talking to you etc it is one less thing
to think about.
2. Sods law, something will go wrong. Don’t panic
(doesn’t always work), work logically through the
problem and use your experience to get over it
3. Look after your gear and keep it maintained. Minimises
breakdowns.
4. Be courteous and helpful to others, they are the
customer and paying you.