Working with live microphones in a theatre setup

[Dugrok]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a play with two actors as sound designer.

In the play, one actress is on stage, the other actor is in a vocal booth. He plays several roles, both with his acting, but also with some effects on the voice.

Obviously the processing time adds a bit of delay (the signal goes from his mic (SM7b) -> the room's board which feeds me the signal into a MOTU 828x -> Ableton -> back out through the MOTU to FOH, but also some rear speakers we have set up in the room to make the character "move".

I have a gate and a low-cut on the mic (in my processing) but I'm getting some room noise (a small intercom -- a safety feature of the building which we're not sure we can turn off). I'm also not getting quite as much level as I'd like from his microphone. I'm trying to keep the actor approx 30cm (1 foot) away from the microphone because he's got such a wide vocal range (theatre actors are trained to project, and we're trying to keep him as natural as possible).

Because he is also a heavy smoker, he coughs/blows his nose, etc quite frequently and so I'm also having to program in mutes/unmutes which make the noise on the signal more noticeable.

My question: I think I already know the answer to this, but is there any way I can squeeze more signal out of this microphone without also boosting the noise?

In case you're wondering: we're using Ableton to work around Qlabs (industry standard in theatre)'s allergy to 3rd party plugins.

Thanks in advance!

[Pitch Black]

Hi

My first approach would be a physical one. You say he's in a "vocal booth" - is this in fact a large-ish room or area offstage? I'm thinking could you position some sound deadening around his microphone position (scenic flats with blankets over them / stage curtains or duvets strung over ropes etc) anything to isolate him from the physical sound of the environment.

If he's already speaking so loud that you have the mic a foot away from him, no real way of "boosting" the signal is going to do much good. Better to go the other direction and try and reduce the noise floor IMHO. It could really be a quite small box around him.

It doesn't have to look pretty! When the pandemic first hit in NZ there were some funny pictures of RadioNZ reporters working from their homes, and showing the "blanket forts" and things they'd set up in bedrooms and living rooms to improve their accoustics.

When you say you're not getting his vocal signal loud enough - whats your gain-staging like? Can the op at the FOH board increase the input gain all? Or bring the mic a bit closer - the SM7b should handle quite a bit of level before it distorts - then you could put a compressor with zero make-up gain in the chain to keep his vocal from "blowing out". But my first instinct would be to reduce the background noise if possible.

Hope this helps.. Blanket forts FTW!

[[jur]]

Because he is also a heavy smoker, he coughs/blows his nose

It is part of the role, isn't it?

[Pitch Black]

Because he is also a heavy smoker, he coughs/blows his nose

It is part of the role, isn't it?

I thought with actors it's drinking!

[Dugrok]

Hi

My first approach would be a physical one. You say he's in a "vocal booth" - is this in fact a large-ish room or area offstage? I'm thinking could you position some sound deadening around his microphone position (scenic flats with blankets over them / stage curtains or duvets strung over ropes etc) anything to isolate him from the physical sound of the environment.

If he's already speaking so loud that you have the mic a foot away from him, no real way of "boosting" the signal is going to do much good. Better to go the other direction and try and reduce the noise floor IMHO. It could really be a quite small box around him.

It doesn't have to look pretty! When the pandemic first hit in NZ there were some funny pictures of RadioNZ reporters working from their homes, and showing the "blanket forts" and things they'd set up in bedrooms and living rooms to improve their accoustics.

When you say you're not getting his vocal signal loud enough - whats your gain-staging like? Can the op at the FOH board increase the input gain all? Or bring the mic a bit closer - the SM7b should handle quite a bit of level before it distorts - then you could put a compressor with zero make-up gain in the chain to keep his vocal from "blowing out". But my first instinct would be to reduce the background noise if possible.

Hope this helps.. Blanket forts FTW!

Hi there!

Thanks for the response!

Turns out our gain structure was set up improperly by the op at FOH and that's why the noise floor was so high. Things are working flawlessly now since he made the switch.

Taking note of all the other pointers (some of which I was aware, some I hadn't thought of) for the future!

[braduro]

Kinda skimmed the specifications, but sounds like s/n is not the real problem. It's gating his mic when it's not in use. You could try the stock Gate effect in ableton for paper ruffling and such. You also probably don't want an agreesive compression setting if sniffles and performance are now on a level stage. But for suppressing coughs? For a directional mic, you'd have to have the performer cough off-axis, or give them the performer's mixer and have them fade down.

If you know that he's only speaking with certain cues of the sound board (ableton acting as QLAB) you could use those same cues to include a dummy clip that unmutes/mutes the signal coming out of his mic channel, perhaps with a Utility device or an empty device group with it's Speaker Switch, for example.

As for delay in the performance, that's a bit more of a conundrum. It might not be enough to stifle the audiences interpretation of the exchange, but it could be enough to stifle the performer. You want to set up direct monitoring for the vocal booth artist, or omit monitoring on that channel entirely and to hear the cues on stage rather than hear one's own voice.