feed from audio mixer to Camera!

Don`t forget to also record the ambient sound!

I'd use headphone out as a last resort.

 

 As it's a school. there's a possibility that the desk is jack out. I assume that you have XLR in?

 

 I have an ART Cleanbox that's very handy in gigs where I pick up the house feed

 

http://www.subwoofer-builder.com/cleanbox/cleanbox.htm

 

 It allows me to use just about anything.

I'll always ask for line out of the final mix into my xlr on channel 2  - Check the output feed levels before audience arrives and again once the show starts. I tweak the input manually especially if there's hushed narration where I can jack it up if need be. Sometimes I'll add my own radio mic hidden on stage, just in case their radio mics  fail. Obviously your channel 1 will pick up ambient as a back up too. 

yes barry....

 

 the gun mic.

thanks

john

 

I'll always ask for line out of the final mix into my xlr on channel 2

i know thanks..

 

................but what output ... aux , sub...

 

i know i will have to suck it and see 

quote.. "I tweak the input manually  ".................would auto not be a safe bet?

audio is one thing i am not great on!

thanks

jon

Be aware that some schools have powered mixers with sub outputs - for sub-bass speakers! Probably best to avoid those. They pretty well all have a L+R output on phonos, for recording, but most will have aux outputs (on jack or XLR depending on type and size) - which could be used to set you up a submix - however be aware schools also often have nobody who actually understands them, so your mix, done by a keen 16 year old could be less than ideal. Some schools I visit have digital kit and plenty of it. Others have ropey 20 year old rubbish!

 

Personally - I'll use room sound to channel 2, mixer sound ia cable or radio to channel 1 - or sometimes just record the mixer out and then sync it in post!

thanks Paul

i will try utility out ... then if that doesn't  suck .......will go head phone

 

john

Headphone output is a NO NO - because the essentia lfeature of a live desk is PFL, which means that the headphone output is continually switched between sources. In fact, if somebody tried to get me to mix without PFL so they could use the headphones output, I'd not let them do it! - it would be a bit like recording the viewfinder picture and making you turn off all the indicators, including the record light!

 

All mixers - even the smallest, have sockets that can be used - twin phonos at least are there on newish mixers, and even thirty year old ones have record facilities.

thanks Paul

 

ok.. i have 20 mins this evening and will try utility and if i can source another output!

john

NEVER AGAIN !!

 

teachers on the audio and light desk

Unco-operative, clueless, or just poor sound quality? Hope you had a plan B :)

 

oh no, not the lighting desk as well. Nothing worse than having some dork get their fingers on the faders - lighting equivalent of wiz wiz pan shots

 

robo

plan b?

 

gun mic....

Remember the old saying? Those of us that can, do, those who can`t, teach!

My plan b is sometimes to hang a tie clip mic over the front of the speaker.

That could be a radio mic, or hard wired.

 

During rehearsals you get a good idea of the kind of level you need to set the gain at.

 

Some speakers with separate HF of LF need more consideration.

Try to hang the mic away from drivers a little more to pick them all up and get a full range of frequencies.

 

Wouldn't a shotgun have been preferable?

 

very good.,....

 

best

]john

The trouble is in many schools and colleges, the kids are better at many things than teachers. In colleges, the expectation is that the teachers are specialists, but in school you can have dance taught by the brand new PE teacher, because it's physical, and lights frequently become the preserve of the DT teacher (or physics) and sound goes to music - simples!

 

I have actually played in the band for a school show where they hired in radio mics, mixers and gadgets galore and expected them to just work. Man though it was, I decided I really didn't wish to be involved, kept my head down and played and ignored it. Some schools rely on a technician who knows everything but gets very poor pay. When they move on, as they always do - they end up with good kit and no skills to use it! Crazy - but that is how it is in schools. I've visited my old school, who still use the gear I bodged as a student in 1974 - and just up the road is an academy who have a digital audio mixer and PA system that cost them £29 grand! Both make similar awful noises!

 

Love it!

 

 

And those that can't teach, teach teachers.

 

I thought it was "And those who can`t teach, write about it"! 

well i have edited it  to dvdsp as it was 2.15mins... and the audio is not bad !!. but not clean perfect as i would have liked!.... i wont be charging them!

thanks...

john

well i have edited it  to dvdsp as it was 2.15mins... and the audio is not bad !!. but not clean perfect as i would have liked!.... i wont be charging them!

thanks...

john

I forgot to mention that frequently schools, colleges and amateur groups sometimes don't have the budget to give everyone a radio mic - so some cast members with just a few lines don't get one - and the director isn't bright enough to do the blocking properly so the mic-less person is next to somebody who has got one for the critical lines. It's very easy not to even notice until in the edit you suddenly discover none of your audio sources include these people!

 

Schools also ignore copyright - honestly believing they are exempt as it's "education". All the big shows have very strict NO VIDEO in their agreements, yet schools plonk them on youtube and have no idea how wrong this is! There is huge belief in the technology just working, and not needing skill and experience to work it.

And these people are supposed to be educating our children !

 

they're very good at educating - however, none of this is covered in their teaching qualification, so why should we think copyright and operating technical equipment  should be within their skills area? Hence why the physics teacher does the lights and the PE teacher does the choreography. School shows, and I've now seen huge numbers of them, are universally awful from the technical perspective. When I was teaching in college, I often thought my own shows were really good - but inspection of the videos shows I was wearing pink glasses - the technical parts were OK, but much of the content was pretty awful.

 

I remember one teacher phoning the hire company complaining that the expensive hire equipment was making screeching noises. They arrived and asked to speak to the sound operator. What sound operator? They expected the equipment to work when each fader was raised to the position they'd been shown when it was set up. So the teacher simply raised each fader to the mark and left it there. No expectation that it needed constant adjustment?

 

In some of the BTEC courses, the sound operator gets graded. Pass means that they did it with guidance - Distinction means it was done independently. It doesn't say it was perfect. So if in a college production you have a merit or pass operator - you are in trouble. Even asking for an output might result in a blank stare!