My pet hate - Radio Mikes used in Theatres

[Hugh-AR]

My pet hate .. stage productions where the actors all use radio mikes.

Bronwyn and I quite often go to Bath to the Theatre there. It is brilliant, as it hosts all the shows as they come out of London and go on tour. I say 'brilliant .. but not the week before last. The show was the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. The set was great, the acting and dancing were great, the orchestra were great ... BUT ... every member of the cast had a 'radio mike' coming down off the top of their heads; huge speakers on either side up in one of the 'boxes'; megawatts of amplification. It would have sounded better coming from a CD, as at least that would have been in stereo! When everyone has a radio mike the sound comes out of both speakers and their voices sound very 'hollow'. And I reckon each member of the orchestra had a mike, as their sound came out of the speakers too. It's the first time the Bath Theatre has hosted a production like that. They do that all the time in Weston. I suppose you could argue that amateurs are not able to make themselves heard across an auditorium, so need radio mikes, but you wouldn't expect professional actors and singers to use radio mikes!

I suppose one could say that it is the job of the sound engineer to keep track of where a person is on stage, and route their radio mike either towards the left or the right speaker system depending on where they are on stage. Would have a job doing that with such a large cast. I wasn't aware of any 'mixing' units in the auditorium.

But this last week Bath Theatre had a company doing Iolanthe. An all male production! The 'fairies' (men) had falsetto voices and sounded as good as any soprano! And just a grand piano to accompany them. And not a single radio microphone in sight! I think this is the fourth Gilbert and Sullivan Opera they have done. Fantastic show!

Anybody else have a gripe about radio mikes?

Hugh

[VAL7JEAN]

Once upon a time those on stage had to 'throw' their voices.
Now with modern technology the use of face microphones, amplification etc is obligatory.
It is unlikely, modern stage musicals in particular, could survive without the use of personal microphones, amplifiers and the necessity for a sound engineer sitting at the back of the auditorium.
With this sound package, shows can travel around the country without the problem of theatre acoustics.

[andyg]

As anyone who went to my concerts from the 70s onwards may remember, I used to avoid microphones if it was possible and, like the actors, I projected my voice. To much hassle picking the mikes up, switching them on, switching them off and putting them down, not to mention the trailing wires etc. However, there were plenty of venues that were too large for this, and some smaller ones had awful acoustics. Mikes were essential for these.

So when 'tie clip' radio mikes came in at certain venues, with a sound/lighting engineer taking care of volume control ups and downs (and it was fun trying to catch them out as you spoke between numbers - but they had the final sanction of simply turning off all the stage lighting!) it was something of a blessing. However I'd always joke with the audience that you had to remember to switch the mike off during the interval, or everyone would know where you'd been! And I recall one venue - Sheffield, I think - that issued me with an early radio mike, but due to the limited number of channels available back then, we got interference from an event taking place in a different room in the venue! And when organs went digital, some makes and models didn't like the amount of RF (radio frequency) noise that some cheaper mikes generated - we were back to hand helds or shouting.

Now it's all different and much more sophisticated and I can't imagine any major production running without face mikes. Panning an individual singer or two across the stage would be possible, though thinking back to the last production I saw, there were too many singers on stage, all constantly moving around for anyone to do this manually. I can't think of how you could automate it. Technically, the voices should track the singers across the stage, but with the PA system speakers on either side of the proscenium arch and mounted high up I'm not sure if the end result would be right sonically.

[Hugh-AR]

Andy,

You have made some really valid comments there. I was thinking too that it isn't just the volume levels that the Sound Engineer has to keep track of and adjust, it is the position of the actor/singer on the stage that the sound engineer should be keeping track of too, and he/she should be panning him/her to the left or to the right for the audience to get the best experience from the sound point of view. As you say, if everyone has a radio mike (as they did for the production of Thoroughly Modern Millie) to do this becomes an impossibility.

We once had a sound engineer staying at our Hotel who also composed a lot of the 'background music' for BBC programs. And that's another bone of contention with me .. you sometimes can't hear what people are saying as the music is so loud! He said to me that when they introduced Nicam Stereo he couldn't watch the telly any more. This was because for a BBC production they didn't have the resources or the money to get the sound right, and knowing what they should be doing (and weren't) did his head in. He said that watching a blockbuster film was a different matter all together. They had the resources and the money to make sure the whole production was as it should sound, so that was fine.

Bronwyn and I went to an open air production of Little Women at Dunster Castle (National Trust) last week. It was done from a stage set up on the lawns, and there must have been 200 to 300 people in the audience. We all brought folding chairs .. and a picnic. Just as well there was perfect weather for it! The production was amazing. No scenery, of course, just the acting. And not a radio mike in sight! And we heard every word quite clearly. And quite honestly, you can't beat a production where the sound is coming directly from where the actor is on stage.

Hugh

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Hi

Further to Andy's comment, large shows can have access to special tracking software & audio circuitry that automatically adjust the feeds to (often) multiple loudspeakers to position the apparent sound image of the major characters. I first saw that at an audio trade exhibition getting on for 10 years ago.

As to the use of radio mics, I can remember when they were hopelessly unreliable, and we sound engineers would avoid the things if we could possibly use a cable. Among my former freelance activities, I used to record speakers at the Spring Harvest Christian conference (working for a major player in that market segment). I well remember one year when a big-name speaker was preaching at all 3 weeks - and he preached the same sermon absolutely word for word from memory. He insisted on a radio mic so he could move about - and on week 3 he decided to wrap the aerial cable up & stuff it in his pocket - with the result that we were faced with constant signal drop-outs and background electrical noise. Dire. Probably among the worst recordings I'd ever made until one of the PA crew went on stage & rectified the situation. The light relief was that the guy running the PA and I, having already heard the sermon twice, were mouthing to each other what he was going to say next on the third repeat! Happy days.

I use mics when speaking - mainly for the benefit of those who have hearing problems, and if there's a loop system or equivalent in the venue it becomes essential. I'm happy with a fixed, wired mic for preaching, but I have purchased a head-worn radio mic to use when I'm leading worship & playing, so I can move between different keyboards without being "off mic". It works pretty well.

I have a small selection of various microphones that I've put together over the years, including a couple of other now rarely used radio mics.

Every Blessing

Tony