The Macks-fidler Theater

Transcript

The Macks-Fidler Theater SFX & The Digital Mixer Turning on the System Turn on the power buttons at the very top of the rack – that turns on the mixer. Turn on the Power Up Button immediately below the power buttons you just hit. When everything is on then turn on the computer Password is 1234 The Mixer. As you look at the board some “board geography” is in order. Beginning in the Upper left corner control area is the EQ region. Good news you can ignore this area. Just make sure the stereo button is in. Screen Control Area/screen There are four gray knobs /and buttons under the screen. Their use varies with what screen is up. To the Right of the Screen are other important control buttons to help navigate from screen to screen. We will come back to this area. Just below in the bottom right corner are the curser keys to move about the screen. Upper Right control area Solo – Phones – headphones if you want to use them. Phones jack is above that knob. Four assignment buttons – don’t use these. Push down both the stereo and mono button. Floor monitors knob – we have ¼ jacks for floor monitors. We have yet to use these. T/B (Talk back)– level of mic No means no – don’t touch. Slate = talkback microphone. Push while using. Bottom Right control area/Layers = which of three boards is active. 1-16 = for the Mics 17-32 = Layla and effects Master = aux masters that control the speakers. Anything below “layers” - ignore -Faders/fader buttons Record – for recording automation – not used. Select - use to select the channel for manipulation. Mute – don’t. How the theater is basically wired. As you look at the board the channels are arranged as follows. The first, second and master boards represent the three options or layers available. These are selected by pressing the correct buttons found to the bottom right. On the first board: Channels 1-16 are for selected microphone feeds. XLR ports of channels 1-4 are wired to the overhead microphones. In front of each XLR port is a preamplifier knob for that channel. The “pres” for channels 1-4 should be set for the green room etc. Watch the bridge and set as high as possible until you see red and back off. Do not assign these channels to Aux 1 though 4 as that will send signal to the main speakers. The next 12 channels are available to connect microphones plugged into one of the three wall boxes and one floor box in the space. 16 microphone leads. Each box has four microphone XLR ports, for a total of There are other labeled wires running to the middle of the rack. These are for the headsets and are plugged into the PK-5 power supply. On the second board: Channels 17-24 represent the Layla/computer. This corresponds to ADAT 1 - 8. (These are all assigned in snapshots, which we will get to later.) Then channel 25-28 represent effects options. The ones we would use are assigned to Aux 6, and feed through channels 27-28. On the master board: the Aux faders are assigned as follows (Note: are areas of the stage listed below assume that the stage is oriented against back hall wall): Aux 1 controls the down right speaker Aux 2 controls the up right speaker Aux 3 controls the up left speaker Aux 4 controls the down left. Aux 5 controls the Tascam Special effects: Don’t bother These are the only controls assigned to the house speakers. Aux 6 controls the Reverb special effects (More on this later.) There are ¼” “Aux sends” along the back The first four you see go to each overhead speaker. Note: The sub woofers are wired via Auxiliaries. The Signal Path of the system / Signal Flow through The Board On the board there are three output jacks or controls sending signal to distinct areas of the theater. Main out left and right - sends the signal to the green room and shop Studio LR – Are the Booth speakers controlled by the stereo master fader. This fader has no control over the house speakers. “Monitors” – Monitor feeds in the floor box. Note this has been renamed. In the BBT signal flow is assigned through the auxiliaries on the board. An Aux or “Aux Buss” caries signal from one place to another. The most important include. Aux 1 - 4 assigns signal to the house speakers. * *There are 8 possible Computer/SFX/Layla channels numbers 17-24 on the board and 1-8 in the patch of the software. A sound effects cue is run via the preferences in the cue through any number of assigned “mixer channels 1-8”. Currently you can assign all 8 in the cue and run the aux faders individually or just use any combination of channels 5-8 to get the individual speakers you desire. Aux 6 assigns signal to the reverb The faders manually control the level of each channel sent to the house and the green room. The information below is relevant only when you are in the master board level. The stereo Master Fader controls the booth and the green room Note: The Stereo Master controls the speakers in the booth, but remember that it effects the signal going to green room and floor monitors. It has to be up in every case or nothing will be heard because turning it down in the booth cuts to signal to the actors. The Aux Master faders 1-4 control the level of the house speakers. Aux master 6 controls the level of the reverb (echo) in the house speakers. For example: What if I want ambient reverb from the hanging microphones (create an echo in the space for the actors) but we don’t actually want the sounds of the actors…. We assign the microphones to Aux 6 and not Aux 1-4. That way the reverb signal plays and not the microphones. By the way the pure signal of the microphones was still sent to the green room and booth. More on this later…. Assigning Input Signals to Auxiliaries Since the auxiliaries run the system you may need to know how to assign and new input signal to the desired auxiliary. This is done by navigating the screen and entering the correct signal assignments. (See using the screen for preliminary notes – experience is the best teacher.) There are three aux screen buttons “1-2’, “3-4”, “5-6”. Use the buttons to select the screen pairing. On the screen use bottom left buttons to select which of the pair you are manipulating. In the photo to the left the four knobs/buttons correspond to Aux 1 Level, Aux 2 Level, Aux 1 Source, and Aux 2 Source. The Screen is set to Aux 1 Channels 1-4 are highlighted and set to 0. Channels 17-24 represent the Layla and notice only 17 is up. In each screen a virtual knob represents every channel. These come in sets of four to correspond to the four knobs under the screen. Scroll to select the desired screen knob group and use the gray knobs adjust levels sending signal from that selected channel to the selected aux. How to use the Library screen Reading left to right we have four gray buttons under the screen: Menu Store Edit Recall Each of these has a lighter gray knob to allow you to scroll. Library menu button has been pressed to show the options of can be used to recall specific items external to a given snapshot. Shown on the screen are: Effects 1 Effects 2/reverb effects Gate/comp Comp EQ Snapshot Library Store Edit Recall The bottom right corner identifies a list of possible snapshots to select. Making Snapshots A snapshot on the board is a way of saving digitally programmed settings. We can have different settings allowing the board to do different things. In any case we begin with a default setting and then as we make changes specific to a given show we would save it a new snapshot. Bring a snapshot up - Go to the library button on upper right of the board. Hit Library (if that does not bring up a screen full of virtual faders as above, go to the first gray button below the screen “Menu” scroll to snapshot and then hit enter.) On the library screen you can scroll back and fourth through the existing settings using the large gray wheel. The wheel highlights the snapshot you are interested in. Note: clockwise is forward or down – it is backwards. Hitting the recall button (fourth gray button under the recall label on the screen) brings up what ever snapshot was highlighted using the gray wheel. To Save a New Snapshot Use the gray jog wheel to find an empty snapshot slot. Hit store which is the second button under the screen (next to recall). Then you have an annoying alphabet screen. Use the jog wheel to select a letter and then hit enter button, which is immediately left of the jog wheel. Repeat,…. repeat,…. repeat….. Done typing? Then hit “store”, which is the second gray button under the screen. Useful Labeled Snapshots for: These were created by Doug in June of 2010. 1. BBT with Mics. – Slight reverb in house/pure signal only in green room. 2. BBT No mics – mics only in the green room. 3. BOTH HAVE REVERB IN CHANNEL 17 FOR SFX CUES. Effects Channels This section represents something completely new to us at least. The reverb effects that exist in the board allow us to change the size of the space. We can create echoes as though we were in a cave or Cathedral. We can create large and small spaces. There are two effects options Effects 1 and Effects 2. We should focus on Effects 2 as the other is not designed to be of any help to us. The reverb is set in channel 17 of the board. Unfortunately we cannot have more than one reverb at a time unless we do some fast editing on the mixer between cues. I don’t recommend it. To find this go to the Library Menu button (bottom left corner of the screen) and scroll to Effects 2 and hit enter to get to the reverb effects library. On the screen in the lower right corner you will see a list of different spaces (cathedral, little spaces, hall, etc…) . Select the desired space by scrolling with the jog (gray) wheel and then hit recall. (Recalled out of the library.). Now hit the effect button to route the signal then hit “patch” on the screen. First button of this screen, At the top of the Patch screen make sure that “Loop insert” is selected and not “Effect 1 Effect 2, Series….” Use the cursor to scroll down to the bottom to the effects 2 part of the screen Effects 2 input is set to aux 6 = scroll there and hit enter. Set output = was set at Channel 27 Note: any channel above 25 is fine. To hear anything, we need to bring up Aux 6 through the speakers. Raise the aux master 6 fader Note: Old timey radio is another effect, in effects 2, that can be used for announcers – our dialogue their old timey radio sound. We can create our own reverb effects and name them. Say the standard option of a cathedral is not appropriate or any other listed spaces. Then we can bring up the closest existing version, edit it, and save it as a new effect space. To do this Bring up the desired effect Hit “effect 2” – edit button Make changes as described below Go to “Decay” row on the screen to adjust the Low, Middle, and High knobs. These control the time it takes for the varied frequencies to decay/ stop. Increasing the amount of time to decay increases the size of the space. For example, The BBT has a decay of less than a second and the Meyheroff decay is 1.2 seconds. A cave could be 3-4 seconds. The Meyerhoff downtown is about 2 seconds. There are other control knobs but they have less influence. If you want to know more take Doug’s class. To save the edited effect Hit library button – Go to Effect 2 in the window Go with the cursers – to select Page1, Page 2, nd etc., and, scroll to “U-1” or user one. Find a blank space in the list. Hit store. – Do the alphabet thing described above to rename the cue. Hit store again to save. Running cues/ Speaker selection control In sound design you want sounds to come from different locations in the space. You even want them to pass through the space. In order to do this you need to determine what speaker will do what in any given cue. To control the direction from whence the sound came we can do a couple of things, Run the individual Aux 1-4 faders as you watch the show. To select the speakers via SFX do the following: First make sure the software file is patched correctly Go and scroll down under the “cues window” to “patch”. Then look at the assignment and organize the windows of groups 1-8 to Layla24 digital out (1) in numerical order 1 through 8. Make sure that you stick with digital and not hit analogue by mistake. The Older files the assignments were 1-4 and out of order…. Then, in the individual preferences screen of a given cue select the desired speakers by selecting any of SFX Mixer Channels 5, 6, 7, 8 Channels 17-20 of the board and channels 1-4 in SFX go to Aux 1-4 (all four speakers) Channel 21 of the board and channel 5 in SFX goes to Aux 1, which controls the down right speaker Channel 22 of the board and channel 6 in SFX goes to Aux 2, which controls the up right speaker Channel 23 of the board and channel 7 in SFX goes to Aux 3, which controls the up left speaker Channel 24 of the board and channel 8 in SFX goes to Aux 4, which controls the down left speaker Note: The routing of the signal though specific channels to specific aux sends was done in the mixer. You set this by going to the aux 1-2 button or aux 3-4 and adjusting the individual channel screen knobs identified by channel 21 - 24 A Reverbed Cue Assigned to the first channel (channel 17) in the properties section of the cue in SFX. The first channel 17 would be up as would Aux 6. Note: sounds coming from a distance have more reverb, which fades out as the object appears and then picks up again as it goes away. This is done by actively manipulating channels 17 and Aux 6. Aux 6 (the reverb) is slid up or down as needed. SFX – Basics Turning on the computer 1. Turn on everything else first. 2. Turn on the computer and computer monitor 3. The password is 1234 Opening SFX 1. There are two SFX icons on the window (black square/yellows triangle) 2. Double Left click 3. Wait Creating a new show file 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Go to “File”. Upper Left Corner. Pull down to “new workspace” and it will ask you to save it . Do so using the play’s title. You then open effects and cues files within that named workspace. Across the bottom of the workspace are four window tabs: Notes, Go, and two cue status buttons. At this point create a workspace of multiple windows for your use. Note: when leaving the space save it. Don’t hit the X. Different windows in a show file Workspace This is the file that contains everything you will need. It is the show file that will include the cue window, the effects window, and the Go button to hit to run the cues. So you begin by creating this space and saving that space will save your settings. Effects Effects files contain links to effects on our computer. In this file you can rename the individual file in English in order to know what it is. This is a storehouse of effects. You cannot play sounds from this window. You can play samples and see if you want to drag the cue into cues file and add it to the cues list. Cues Go Use of this file window is optional. You run the show in this window and the cues are numbered sequentially. Make a big go window so you can’t miss it during the show. Using Hollywood Edge Hollywood edge is the sound cue library of first recourse. They may not have everything but in 20 CD’s we are pretty close. It does not have music. That will have to be loaded in via CD and converted to a .wav file. (more on that later.) 1. First there is a binder that has possible cues alphabetized. Try a number of options to find what you need. 2. Cues are numbered Example: PE 20 13 1 - PE 20 = CD number (Note: we do not have above #20.) - 13 = the track # - 1 = ID # 3. Once you see something you need then you can find the CD stored in the hard drive of the computer. You find the Hollywood Edge files in the ”short cut to my music” folder on the desktop. CD 14 and 15 are missing from the hard drive in the BBT. I have to reload them. 4. Now you are looking in the files and want to move the file to SFX First go to the little minus sign in the upper right corner to minimize the SFX program without closing it. Then back on the desk top find the folders mentioned above and inside Hollywood Edge folder you will see other folders arranged by the CD number. Open the CD folder Got to the bottom left of the screen and reopen SFX. It will block your view of the CD file. Go to the bottom left and click on the file tab and it will open in front of the SFX workspace. Find the cue with the track number and drag it into the effects window, or the cues window. The sound effect is copied and not removed from the CD folder – a good thing. 5. The cues then have to be renamed in SFX so that they are useful to you later. The cue files are renamed through the properties button. Select “Attributes” then go to “description” – highlight the track # and rename. 6. You also identify the cue number in the properties section as well. Only Wave files work. Making wave files/soon How to put CD Tracks in SFX – (This section was created by Ryan Lessing.)  INSERT CD into the computer’s CD DRIVE  OPEN REALONE PLAYER   At the bottom of the screen, click CD  Select SAVE TRACKS, then click OK.  The files will appear in a folder called unknown in the folder MY MUSIC.   Change the name of the folder to something OTHER THAN “UNKOWN”.  You can now drag the files into SFX Running the show: Running it manually Use Aux 1- 4 Use Aux 6 and fader 17 for reverb Running it through SFX see above for speaker selection Hit go Notes: 1. The computer – windows sounds should be off. Go to Control Panel under my computer. Open Sound & Multimedia. Under “Schemes”, scroll down to “No Sounds” and click “Apply.” 2. To edit time of cues Open Audacity Load CD track into program Highlight the part you want to delete and then click “Backspace” Wait Play the track to test if it worked (You can hit Ctrl+Z to undo) Export as a .WAV file and save it. Add to SFX 3. Save your files often. 4. When running a show you can protect your file by switching from “[edit]” to “[play]”. In “play” you cannot change your cues. You switch back and forth by going to the view window and pull down to “switch desktop” Floor Box Monitors 16 available XLR cables wired as used in channels 5-16. 3 wall boxes/ 1. floor box Tascam Mixer Computer Layla Channels 1-4 Channels 17-24 Studio L & R Booth Speakers Knob renamed as Monitors Overhead microphones Stereo Master Channel 22 Channel 6 SFX Aux 2 Main Out Right Main Out Left Channel 24 Channel 8 SFX Aux 4 Shop Green Room Channel 23 Channel 7 SFX Aux 3 As you look out the booth window from the mixer works clockwise from your upper left. House Speakers Channel 21 Channel 5 SFX Aux 1