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More about the "Cabinet of Noise"
The whole sound system in the auditorium was designed to be operated in two ways.
First, from up in the booth, using the most of the main rack here, as well as the main mixer. The other way
is from down on the floor, using the black cart with a small mixer on it, that the microphone, computer sound
and VCR sound plug into. Click here for the basic info on that.
"From the floor" is how the system is used most often. Which is good because the main mixer up in the
booth can be turned off and there only needs to be ONE AMPLIFIER
kept on up in the booth to run the speakers.
The way we switch between the two different setups is just two cables on the patch panel.
Here's a picture of that panel. Click here to see it bigger.
Okay, this does look like a hot mess, but look at the two red circles. They are highlighting
those two cables that are plugged into jacks 10 and 11, from down on the floor. The little mixer is plugged into this.
Those cables go up to the two jacks marked "Center Cluster SPKRS". Those are the speakers
over the screen on the stage. With those cables plugged in, the little mixer bypasses all that extra stuff and
goes right to the speakers. The idea here is that you can use the big mixer in the booth, connected to the main FOH
( FRONT OF HOUSE) speakers, while still using the little mixer from down on the floor. Most of the time though,
you will find the floor mixer is patched into the FOH connection.
Let's turn our attention to the right side of the cabinet
These are some of the sound processing / amplifiers. For the most part they are set
and not touched. It is labeled to not touch anything to try to remind people
that even touching one button or turning one knob can really mess things up.
This is a diagram of all the AV connections in the Auditorium. This is where you
would look if you wanted to plug a wired handheld microphone in.
Notice some of them are in use already. 10 and 11, as well as 2,4, and 21.
*Diagram needs to be updated. The center mic is now using #25, not 21.
At the bottom of the page is a PDF called avlayout you can download
These are side view detail drawings of the stage left and right connections noted on the diagram above.
They just give you a basic idea of where they are located on the wall.
So what are some of the other ways we use the Tech Booth that are advanced?
The first and biggest way is using our 20 headset microphones for our Theater Department
productions. For this we use with the Yamaha TF5, so we can pre-program the microphone cues.
On the right is the back of the cart showing the wireless mic receivers. We can plug these into the mixer
and adjust the mics from down on the floor.
How do people hear a CD, or themselves singing while they are on the stage?
With these stage monitors.
Looking at the picture below, notice the red faders that are labeled STAGE MON.
Now click on this picture and look to the left for the CD fader.
If you push the button, in the column section for that channel, named 3-4 and
slide the STAGE MON fader up it will send the CD sound to the stage monitors.
Do the same for whatever microphone is being used. CAREFUL not to put it up too
much or you will get feedback!
That's all fine and good but how do you send sound from a
microphone or the CD player out to the main speakers?
Looking at that picture of the Soundcraft mixer, notice the faders.
Slide one up about halfway. If you have a mic plugged in down on the floor
you should hear something out the main speakers. As long as you move the fader number
that corresponds to the number of the mic jack you plugged into.
The light blue-green fader is for the CD. The little buttons along side it will direct the sound to where it needs to go.
Click on the picture will zoom in and you will see the buttons marked L-R, 1-2 etc.
Pushing L-R will send the sound out to the MAIN FOH speakers.
The YELLOW ones are the MASTER faders. The colored dots are to give you an idea
of where you should set the faders.
These are mic inputs 8 and 9 down on the front apron of the stage. They will be inputs 8 and 9 on the board.
Things to remember:
As stated further up the page, be very careful moving the faders up for microphones.
Too much and you will get feedback(A howling from the speakers).
This is very bad. The mics can be brought up to halfway, but something like
the CD player you bring the faders up only about a quarter the way up. It won't feed back but
it will get very loud.
Which brings us to the most important thing to remember.... if you are operating the mixer for
the sound way up in the Tech Booth, you NEED TO KNOW how loud it is out in the AUDIENCE.
Things don't sound as loud in the booth and may be painfully loud out there. or they could be just
the opposite, too quiet. So you need to go out in the audience to check.
LET'S GET EVEN MORE ADVANCED. CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW
Is there more written information on the stuff in the booth?
HOW TO SETUP FOR A PANEL DISCUSSION (aka Town Meeting or School District Meeting)
*LINKS BELOW ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION*
I want to use reverb on the singers.
I want to record sound and video in the booth.
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