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what mics for small school performance
shooting a small performance at a school, this is a very small stage in a classroom. i iwll be on a riser about 30ft away, they have no audio at all, just projecting. i want to hang a mic down in the middle of where they perform to get a somewhat better signal than the cam mike on my ex. the stage area is roughly 25-30 ft across. was thinking of hanging my sennheiser 835 mic down in the middle about 3ft down from lighting scaffolding, and will use my lectro wirless plug. will this get me much off them or should i use another mic instead?suggestions
there will be anywhere from 3-20 on there at a time -
3 Replies
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In my opinion, the sound pick up will still be very disappointing.
Is it impossible to increase this to 3 rifle mics and hang left 1/3. Centre and right 2/3. And hang quite low.
Better IN ADDITION, identify the key performers and put personal radios on them and put someone on a mix..
Whats ever way a better result will add complexity and cost, but this is how its done.
Your single mic will be better than the camera mic at the back, but wont be that good.
PeterPost Production Dubbing Mixer
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Hey Jim,
I agree with Peter that this is not the ideal situation and that you would achieve the best quality audio by using lavaliers planted on the talent directly. But if this not achievable due to budget or even comfort of the students/parents/teachers (I’ve worked a lot with children and it can sometimes be a challenge), I have a few other suggestions.
Instead of hanging shotguns, I think you’d be better off with two or three hanging cardiod condensers (see the Audio-technica 853 series) hung just above the heads of the talent. These mics are tiny and designed to be low profile, and their wider pickup pattern is better suited than shotguns for miking areas of a stage evenly. Try those alone or in combination with boundary mics planted on the edge of the stage. I’ve had success with Crown PCC (phase coherent cardiod) mics, which have been used in live theater for years. I think the combination of these would give you decent quality audio. Of course it also depends on the sound of the room and the performers themselves, but there may not be much you can do about those variables. Hope this helps.
Michael Cooper
Production Sound Mixer
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2505267/ -
unfortunately i dont have any details on the principals, kids are going on/off the area throughout, they just booked me last minute to shoot this.
theyll just have to live with what i get.
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