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Standing Mic Placement Advice Needed A.S.A.P.Date: September 5, 2010
I need some advice about placing standing mics for a quartet of 11-year-old girls, singing "Mister Sandman" (the Lojeski SSAA arrangement) to a karaoke accompaniment. Until last night, we were under the impression that they would be singing with handheld wireless mics, and their choreography reflects that. Now that we know there will only be three mics (instead of the four that were available at the audition), we will have to go with the mic stands, and I know nothing about where to put them.
The contest is in ONE WEEK, so we don't want to change the choreography.
The acoustics in the movie theatre are not particularly good, so they do need the mics.
They are in front of a curtain on a shallow stage. They mostly stay within three feet of center stage, with occasional movement a few feet further towards stage right. They swap positions, sometimes sing in two rows, sometimes in one, and we have been working hard to balance the different voices (S2 and A1 have larger voices, and they sometimes stand in front of the other two). I've been told that the mics are directional.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Replies (5): Threaded | Chronological
John Howell on September 5, 2010 6:04pm
Hi, Edna, and that's a real challenge! Will you have ANY chance to rehearse with the sound system, or at least to rehearse with mics similarly place AND TURNED ON so you can rejudge the balance?
My advice, quite seriously, is to use a single mic and have the girls gather tighly around it. My barbershop quartet started in junior high school, and that's the setup we used for many years, long after we stopped doing exclusively barbershop. It has the great advantage of bringing the singers close together so they can hear each other really well, and you can still do upper-body choreography although break dancing is NOT indicated!
If that isn't possible, you'll have to sacrifice close miking to the choreography. Not a huge problem if they stay basically in a restricted area, as you seem to describe, but the sound, balance and blend will suffer. I'd say place the mics with one centered, one on each side a couple of feet out, and do your best to keep the distance between their mouths and the mics constant no matter what moves they're doing. But you simply can't do Janet Jackson if you don't have the right equipment to make it work!
Another possibility might be to put the lead singer on one mic and divide the other two mics between the remaining 3 singers, but that would depend on what their choreogrphy is. Hands and arms, half-turns, and weight-shifting is one thing, bouncing around and turning in circles is quite another!
Choreography must always fit the mic setup, not the other way around. Ballet moves and vocal balance do NOT go together, never have, never will. In the shows I directed for Disney the mic plot was very carefully worked out in advance BY THE CHOREOGRAPHER, and she had to choreograph not just the singers but the mics, the mic cables, and the mic stands as well! (This was before the days of everyone having individual wireless mics.)
All the best to you and your young ladies. Rehearse them with a great positive attitude, and I'll bet they come through like troupers!
John
Edna Huelsenbeck on September 5, 2010 7:57pm
John, thanks so much for the quick reply and excellent advice! The problem has been solved (I think): although we got nowhere with our appeals for a fourth mic, another contestant was able to convince the powers-that-be that it was necessary for the larger groups, and completely unfair for those of us who had assumed that four mics at the audition meant four mics for the performance. So, the emcee's mic will be added to the mix. (No word on whether there are any technical differences, although I'm trying to get that info.)
Unfortunately, we only get one run-through with the mics and sound system, and it is NOT in the performance hall, so we may still have issues crop up. Two of the four girls have sung in this contest before, so they have some idea of what to expect, and we have been coaching them all summer on mic technique. (And singing, and moving, and selling it to the audience, all at the same time.)
John Howell on September 6, 2010 8:27am
Edna: "we have been coaching them all summer on mic technique (and singing, and moving, and selling it to the audience, all at the same time)."
GOOD FOR YOU!! That's called "performing," and too many teachers don't realize that when those kids move up the ladder as PERFORMERS they will need all of those skills. Mic techique is especially important, since there are so many things that can be done WRONG! I had one young man in my college ensemble--incredibly talented--who seemed to think that his sound came from his stomach, because that's where he held his mic!! But he learned, and after he graduated went to work for Disney at Tokyo Disneyland.
Eleven years old is not too LATE to start learning great performing skills. Just don't let them push their voices too hard when they start going through their voice changes.
John
on September 6, 2010 5:14pm
"Directional"... exactly how they're directional makes a big difference. Nasty thing about sound systems is that when you work with sound, you're in the world of physics, instantly and irrevocably, and unless you know how everything works, "logic" may not be ... logical. Sometimes "directional" microphones used to amplify choirs are really the kind of microphones I call "eaters," the sort that one singer is supposed to use to amplify him/herself, and they're barely any use to pick up anyone except who is right in front of, and really close to, the mic. Yeah, they work... kinda... sometimes... sorta... but truthfully... work well? Nope.
But, I will give you a dirty trick. Assuming that these are "singer's" directional mics, imagine instead that they're flashlights, and they amplify the person at whom they're pointing, and upon whom their light shines the most brightly.
Place the microphones so that the best singers, in whatever choreography they're using, will be the one that the "flashlights' point at the most frequently.
As I said, a dirty trick, but... if you've got a suboptimal sound system in an acoustically unfriendly hall, anything you can do that'll help ... will help. Certainly, whatever you do, try to keep them away from the ... vocally challenged, because you can be sure they'll be the only ones the system amplifies. Somehow, it always works that way.
Good luck!
Robert
on September 7, 2010 8:52am
Sounds to me like the organizers of this event need to provide audio that is appropriate to the job needed. I have sung at festivals in colleges and public schools, and the colleges invariably had better (and more) equipment than the schools. Plus, they seemed to have a better grip on how to use it properly.
Fred Wygal
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