from www.dictionary.com:

prep·a·ra·tion [prep-uh-rey-shuhn] noun

Let me go this way. in the past 2 weeks I have had the opportunity to work in and with 2 “rural” school districts here in Florida. The disparity in funding has really made my head spin. On one hand there is a new high school opening this fall with a near half million dollar TV Production training facility on the campus. On the other hand there is a an older high school, in another district, that puts on high quality Broadway style productions that has to raise 95% of all their own funding as well as deal with event conflicts and staff squabbles about what is more important, Sports or the Arts. A real life “Glee” situation.

The Principal at school #1 is trying to pull together her staff to open in August. She is a very upbeat and seems to be very passionate about the student she is about to be able to influence. There is a teacher, who has developed a TV Production program over the last 10 years, she is recruiting from another school in the district that would be great for the position. His main concern, what will happen to the kids that are in is current program and will it continue, or will it wither and die while he has moved on to “bigger and better things”?

The Drama Instructor at high school #2 is just as passionate as the Principal and teacher at high school #1 but, has an uphill battle to get each production done. I have been working with them for about 3 years helping with equipment, training, tuning and information and have observed a growth in the student and volunteer participation. Parents whose students from years past were influenced by this teacher and program are coming and putting their hands to work helping with the set building, costumes, and make-up. They are committed.

The Principal, and both teachers are working very hard to get the best experience for their students, but why is it so hard for one and not as difficult for another? I realize that one school is new and the other is not, but why is it that it seems that a system that 10 plus years old and in drastic need of upgrade cannot get any funding. It is providing a service to the school, students, parents and the community. It would not take a large amount of money, in comparison, to make the upgrades and the benefits to the school and community would be wonderful.

Ok, so much for my rant. I feel a little better but I am still frustrated.

Now, back to the original question: What do you do when you are producing a Broadway type production in a school with very limited resources?

Well, you make do, you scrape and save, and you put on the best production possible.

The enthusiasm of the cast and tech crew will carry most of the production, but there are the tech challenges.

In the case of the high school I have been working with they opted to invest in wireless microphones to be able to give the production the pop it needed. But with 16 wireless headsets and 4 hand-held microphones, tracks and a small live orchestra and fold back monitoring there is a little bit of a challenge with gain before feedback. In some scenes there are as many as 16 mics open at once, there on an older Mackie 24.4 console and its capabilities are maxed out.  Since the headworn mics, Chameleon Liz-Pro Roadster, are omni directional the gain before feedback in the monitors was terrible and to compound this there is no phase reverse switch in the Mackie 24.4. I made phase reverse adapters for the inputs to the console and we were able to get the gain we needed to allow the actors to hear each other on stage during the musical numbers.

Next was the physical act of holding the mics in place. This year the mic upgrade included the afore-mentioned Chameleon Liz-Pro Roadster which has an adapter to make it go over both ears and therefore making it much easier to keep the mic in place. But we still had some of the older Chameleon units so they used a combination of paper surgical tape and flesh tone flex Band-Aid tape, both work well.

I was at the dress rehearsal helping to work out some of the last audio system tweaks and all went well. I am looking forward to seeing the production this weekend.

The passion these teachers have for these students bless me greatly and drives me to learn more to be able to help more.

Sorry for the delay, I will be better next week.

Ok, here I go…

Well, let me think back, what was the first time I can remember being interested in sound? I guess it was when I was 6 or 7 (1966ish) and Dad got a small portable reel to reel tape recorder and I recorded “Flying Purple People Eater” and “Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” and drove everyone crazy with the playback. Then again on July 20, 1969 sitting in front of the big Zenith TV with Dad’s 10″ Wollensak reel to reel recorder and a small hi-Z mic recording the moon landing. All the summer movie days watching the Beatles on the screen and listening to the music. Thursday nights at the symphony in Chattanooga. Montreat Choir camps, school Glee clubs and select choirs. School band, coronet, French Horn, playing Chicago songs. Going to a church in Stillwater, OK and turning a couple of knobs so that my ears did not hurt and beginning to learn what a Soundboard (Peavey MKII) was and did.

This is how I got started doing what I do and have done for the past 25+ years.

For me, sound is a way of expressing myself, all though it is mainly in a supportive and not a creative role. Being able to shape the sound of a band, worship team, Pastor, guest speaker, grandmother or child to be able to reach a person that needs to hear what they are saying is my creative outlet. This is my goal, to get the Word of God from the man of God with the least amount of distractions. Oh by the way I have been doing this sound thing mainly in the church and with traveling ministries all these years. So my perspective will come mostly from this vein, though I have done a lot of secular gigs too.

What is a distraction?

Distraction

noun

1. mental turmoil; he drives me to distraction; conjurers are experts at misdirection; distraction; Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0; distraction;

2. an obstacle to attention

3. an entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations

4. the act of distracting; drawing someone’s attention away from something;

(WordMonkey Dictionary)

Definitions 2 and 4 best express my thought of distractions in sound in a service or event.

What are these “obstacles to attention” and “ drawing away from something”?

Well they can be as simple as too loud or too soft or as complicated an intermittent crackle in a mic line that was not there during rehearsal. But, how do you determine what “too loud or too soft” is? The best way I have found is to, “Always be aware of your surroundings.” Watch the people, where you are stationed things might be great but 8 rows forward or 15 seats to your right things can be totally different. Watch how people are participating, if during a Praise set people are still sitting there may not be enough sub or not enough volume for people to “feel” the moment. Conversely the same is true for a worship set if the people are still up and jumping or cheering loudly it might be too loud or there there may be too much thump for the moment.

I have discovered that finding that person that is tuned into the service is really pretty easy and in most churches they sit in the same places from week to week. This can work to our advantage as sound techs, it becomes our constant in a sea of inconsistencies.

Another good way to avoid challenges is to know your system and know you room. Know how the room reacts empty and full, cold and dry or warm and humid. On days when the room is cold and dry the high frequencies will sound louder. But, as the room fills up with people and the and the lights warm warm the air it will get “thicker” and the highs that you just cut because they were too loud need to be put back in because everyone sounds as if they are mumbling.

Every service and service is a unique event be aware of your surroundings, know your room and know your gear. I will continue to in this track for the next couple of blogs just to be able to get more in depth into my experiences with different rooms and situations.

I hope you enjoyed this, let me know with your comments and questions.

Memories

Here I go again doing something I said I would never do, Blogging.

Some 20 years agoish I remember standing in a video edit suite in Tulsa, OK and stating, “I will never turn on a computer for audio.” 3 weeks later I was editing Sound Effects for a movie on a ProTools  v1.2 system on a Mac IIci with a 13″ screen.

I am now using ProTools9 to do live recording in the church where I am employed and I am using computers in all other kinds of other sound reinforcement duties as are we all in this industry.

My how things change.

In this blog I will try to pose and answer questions that have arisen in my 25+ years in Live Sound Reinforcement, Location Production Audio for Video and Film, and Studio Audio.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to comment and I will either address it, do my best to respond, or just laugh really hard because we have all been there.