Sound

It's been a while since the last report, but the health things are easing up in my life. As for Committee business, I'd like to personally thank everyone for carrying on so well while I've been out of the picture. John Mahon led the team at The Acoustic Getaway and many have stepped up at The Minstrel. All have done great work. Thanks, everyone.

At the last open mic Christine tried running the show without sound reinforcement. All reports were that the night was a success. There was one group who postponed their appearance until the spring when there will be a p.a. system set up, but that was the only casualty. Christine reported that one group put on a stellar performance in that all-live setting. We'll look for them as a Minstrel performer soon.

And that leads to a policy discussion. Should the Terrace Room open stage nights continue to be without a p.a. system? Perhaps on bad-weather nights when attendance is usually lighter than usual?

As for our training sessions, I'd prefer that we focus those in The Meeting Room, since it's more important for all of our soundies to get fluent on that systems and its myriad nuances. The only way to get comfortable on such systems is to use them frequently.

John Mahon and I both own systems that are similar to that in The Meeting Room. John is willing to bring his on selected Fridays. (Mine is much heavier and I can't yet move it on my own.)

In the meeting room, we all should have noticed that the acoustic panels have been removed and the walls have been painted. The removal of the panels has affected the room acoustically. it's much more live with a distinct echo and resonance, especially on stage. Controlling monitor speaker frequencies is more important than ever. That the resonant frequency of the room hasn't changed, our equalizer settings don't require much change from what we've been using. Personally, I find the new sound more pleasing since the vocals are more live with that natural touch of reverb. Each sound person will have their own opinion of the new sound, but it will be what it will be. MUF doesn't seem to want the panels reinstalled.

Mix-Master training sessions

These Open Stage training sessions had been suspended while I was out, but we'll start them again beginning Friday. Mitch Radler is joining the team, and he is copied above..

Going Forward

Minstrel Booking Chair Mike Agranoff has been exploring ways to broadcast The Minstrel shows on line. There are many ways of doing this and one day it could be a significant source of revenue for The Folk Project and its performers. The system at MUF was designed for this, and other than the permission needed from MUF to use the system, and our need to staff the cameras to send video and audio feeds to the interwebs, the equipment side of this effort could be surprisingly simple. The learning curve to do this on a regular basis will be the hurdle.

To provide a quality audio mix for broadcast, we soundies will have to change the Minstrel mixing culture. Many's the time a loud instrument doesn't get a microphone because the audience sitting near the stage can see it being played and their mind tells them that they're hearing it. In reality, the sound from that unmic'd instrument isn't on the same plain as everything that is mic'd, and those unmic'd items never truly blend with the rest of what's on stage. Part of the physics of this has to do with the higher frequencies from those instruments that fall off the further the ears are from the stage. We'll have to get used to micing everything on stage. The purpose isn't to amplify or to exaggerate its presence, but to simply blend its sound at its live volume into the mix, sending all of its frequencies with it to the entire room and to our internet voyers. If a piano, sax or violin aren't within proximity of a microphone, our remote audiences won't hear them at all, or they'll sound like they're distant or in another room. Bill Henderson has been struggling with this on the shows that he records on video. He used to place his his mic near the speakers to catch it all, but without some instruments in the mix his audio tracks were unpresentable. He currently puts a mic near the camera to try to capture the live feel, which is a compromise since he now pics up the resonant frequencies of the room giving an audio track that is less than presentable to an internet audience. When we solve the mixing issues for broadcast, Bill should be able to share that same audio feed for his video recordings that have become such an important part of the The Folk Project experience.

Mike Del Vecchio

Sound wrangler