OT Stage performances - earpieces - OT

[John]

When watching a singer on TV with the earpieces I find myself wondering what they hear - is it just the backing - or themselves as well?

[Rick Hughes]

can either be their voice from foldback amp ... on stage sound may be blocking what they can hear (affects drummers a lot)

Others wear ear pieces to block damaging frequencies, they are joined by a curly cord so look like their are receiving sound ... take a look at ...#

[John]

Thanks - Googled Foldback Amp and now I can appreciate the purpose better.

Another intrigue is that some performers - eg in musicals can have tiny micrphones in their hair - yet others use large hand held mics. It amazes me that a mic in the hairline can get a true sound - yet they seem to work.

[The Natural Philosopher]

whatever they choose (and instruct the mixing engineer) for foldback. Most singers find that they need to hear themselves more than the back line, especially if that's got onstage amps of some beef.

Standard trick is main band supplies PA and engineer, support band gets crap foldback, out of balance front feed and sings out of tune. Main act then looks great, support band looks crap.

Trick is to sing one hand over your ears to muffle the backline.

Can't do much if the engineer is rubbish,(most are) or hates you.

[The Natural Philosopher]

a little hard to get deep frequencies with a teeny mic. But female vocs all fine with them. no real loss of quality.

[Dave Liquorice]

Can be what ever the performer wants, it'll be mix of what ever sources are available. These days wireless based In Ear Monitoring (IEM) is very common.

Or to block the racket on stage but then feed horrendous level direct into the ear...

They work very well indeed as do the ones on a fine wire on a performers cheek. Takes quite a while to fit a hairline mic so for most TV production it's not used. Very common on the big stage musicals, frees the actors to perform without being limited by a handheld microphone. From the technical point of view the mic is in a fixed position in relation to the mouth so the actor can't turn off mic and it's out of the way of rustly clothing or bumping about on loose clothing.

These tiny mics are pressure operated rather than pressure gradient so the small size doesn't really affect the LF performance.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Both, usually. But normally a different mix from the one you hear.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

A mic in the hair is only of any use where you don't want pop concert levels of PA.

They are the same mics as are used under clothing on the chest - as is common on TV drama where you don't want to see the mic.

They are omni-directional electret mics which can be very small but high quality. Hand mics are usually highly directional and noise cancelling - which makes them rather larger. Although most of that size could be just a handle, as it were.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Is that so Dave? you learn something every day.

Got any specs on line? I'd be interested..to file that away for future reference.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

No lack of bass on the smallest of these - although it may be deliberately rolled off since they are often used on the chest which in a man lifts the lower frequencies. But it's not a fundamental of small mics in the vocal range.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Pretty well all the mic makers have their specs online.

Just for interest, the same small mics are often used in pairs for dummy head recordings. And in TV as 'spot' mics where a drama is being miked basically with a boom mic rather than personal ones. They can be hidden easily. Another use is clipped to the bridge of violins in a pop type environment. Not the ideal way to mic up a string section - but when it's a choice of actually hearing them or not - can be ok.

All very topical for me - I'm just back in from a re-union of my ex colleagues from the Thames TV sound department. And still sober. ;-)

[Jim White]

[snip]

Was Tony Chapman there in your time?

[Dave Liquorice]

gradient

As Mr Plowman says these small mics have tailored responses, as all mics do to some extent. They won't be flat "DC to light" like an instumentation microphone might try to be but they certainly cover the male human voice range without bother.

Or the excellent:

You do need to register but it is safe.

[ScrewMaster]

I have directed a show which is running at the moment in a 350 seater theatre. Beauty and the Beast -

have a live 12 piece orchestra sited in one of the wings - they are mic'd with conventional mics in order to balance the instruments. We have mic'd up the principals who sing solo using various types of microphone to best accommodate their costume. Belle and Lumiere have hairline mics - Belle because she has a number of quick changes, Lumiere because of his large ruff. The Beast has a cheek mic - fits inside the mask and remains on when he takes off the mask during his transformation back to prince. The others have clip on lapel mics.

We are using the mics just to enhance the singer's voices a little, as even the strongest singers would sound feeble against the orchestra, so they are boosted just enough so that the voice still seems to come from the actor not the speakers.

[Bob Eager]

I do quite a lot of speaking in a 470 seat lecture theatre. Don't bother with a mic....it's not that good!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The ideal way to do it - sound reinforcement. Where it isn't immediately obvious amplification is being used. Sadly all too rarely done well.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's not a name that springs to mind so perhaps he was based at another Thames site? Mine was Teddington.