Using recorded chorus in a live musical

[alisymon]

I have been doing sound for quite a lot of amateur musicals recently. I have been booked for a production of Seusical next year. I have heard that the musical director is thinking of recording the chorus to reinforce their sound and having the band play to a click track. My question is how does the band follow the click track in terms of where they are in the score. Would you record, say the piano (which will be the main instrument in the band) along with the chorus, which would then make it easy to follow. Or would spoken cues be recorded along with the click track. I have a Roland VS-880 recorder which I could use to record everything. Any information on how this is best achieved would be most welcome.

[paulears]

The usual system is to record a click, with beat one accent onto one channel, with a "one, two, three, four, two, two, three , four" count in - the MD hears the first one, and then counts the band in on bar two. All the band need a pair of headphones so they can keep to the beat. It's quite simple and as long as the MD keeps going, all is well. The track can have just the vocals coming in and out where needed. As an option, if you have them, you can always use a dressing room with an off-stage chorus in it - that works fine too, just needs a video feed of the stage and the conductor plus a mic or two.

[alisymon]

Thanks for that Paul, it certainly sounds the best option. I have used the off-stage chorus before but this venue has nowhere suitable.

[paulears]

Worth adding that it's usually best to give the player to the MD, so he can start and stop when he wants - the sound op starting it can be a problem, because if they miss the first count in, it will be a train wreck, so a player in the pit, or a remote start button is essential.

[GridGirl]

We're using a recorded orchestra at the moment (we don't have the space for a full pit orchestra) which the live band of keys, bass and drums are playing along with. The way it works for us is that the orchestra is recorded in stereo (to the click track), with the click on a third channel; the band each have a 4-channel mixing desk with stereo orchestra, click and vocals coming in to it so they can set their own levels - they're playing with headphones on the whole time. There's nothing to stop you doing exactly the same thing but with a chorus instead of an orchestra, and the advantage is that you can put whatever you want on the click channel because it's not being heard by the audience - we have some vamps which are repeated 14 or 15 times, so the MD has recorded himself counting each bar on the click channel so he doesn't have to worry about losing count. Contrary to what Paul has said above, we do have the operator running tracks; I went through with the MD and put cue points in my score and I call the tracks in. A couple of tracks which kick in partway through songs (they start with just the live band) are cued by the MD on camera - both the operator and I have a conductor monitor so he cues direct to camera for the ones that need to start on the beat.

[mac.calder]

If you have the budget, rent something like Aviom Personal Monitor Mixers.

 

We use this combined with a 24 channel multi-track on board our newer ships. Used with a digital console which accepts an Aviom card, you just need to direct-out a selection of channels and groups and they can mix their click and monitor mix as they like, and it means that they will not feel as isolated from the rest of the orchestra as they may when wearing headphones.