SC48 for musical theater

[TheMAXX7]

SC48 for musical theater

I installed an SC48 in a church and it is working out very well. I also got to use one for a musical theater job. I only had 16 wireless mics to worry about so the 16 input faders worked fine for that show. But I usually have at least 20 wireless mics plus all of the other inputs.

If you do musical theater with an SC48 what changes would you like to see in the firmware to make it a better theatrical console?

I have a few things that I think would help but I will let others go first.

[somtech]

Hi. I use the SC48 regularly for musical theatre commonly running 20-24 Radio mics plus orchestra/band. This is my favorite desk for theatre especially after having used a number of other consoles before and after the SC48. Really good to facilitate clever routing and easy to set scenes etc and useful with flex channel. The Venue 3.0 software has some handy developments with extra stereo bus/groups. Running qLab through firewire means being able to add sound effects to a number of different speakers. Just an aside ... Great go-to plugins: Waves C6 with side chain, Vocal Rider (used lightly). This is a brilliant desk for theatre. S

[vikingthor]

It would be great if there where more options for surround panning. And Individual crossfade per channel fader, pan and auxes.

Most things are already possible, but may require more work with different snapshots and events

[TheMAXX7]

Some of my thoughts to make an SC48 or even a Profile better for theatrical use. I was hoping that there are enough people using these consoles for theater that would contribute to this thread so maybe Avid would listen to us. Some of my suggestions may help more then just the theater crowd.

I would like to see decimal point scenes capability added and the ability to skip scenes if needed. It would also help if the “Dup” (duplicate a scene) button were assignable in the events. So on the fly when doing a rehearsal I can quickly add a scene where it needs to be.

A custom layer would be real handy so I can make any fader on the surface be anything I want it to be. I know there are some workarounds but I lose things if I have to do that.

These are some of the things that come to mind that I think would improve the SC48 for theatrical use. I am willing to discuss this if any one thinks of a better way. I am thinking if we put our heads together and then ask for the improvements that are best for everyone. Some times I have seen suggested for changes that I may disagree with if it were to be made the new only way to do something. But I don’t disagree if it were to be made an optional way to do something. That I think is the benefit of digital, it can be customized to the way you want it to work.

I never use the stereo output I am always using matrix outputs. It would be nice to be able to assign the stereo fader to be a VCA control so I can use it as an overall master for my matrixes.

I don’t know if this is really the place to mention this but here goes. In IdeaScale someone made a suggestion for a change that I disagree with that was to change the default button from 0db to infinity and in IdeaScale I disagreed. Before I am even working with the actors on stage (working off of a cue spreadsheet that has been worked up for the show) I use the default to set up a quick scene starting point for the faders (at 0db) that need to be up in each scene as I go thru the spreadsheet. I set the trims to safe and set the trim when we do the mic check with the actors. So I would hate to lose that functionality.

Feel free to chime in.

[Mystere1]

The best thing I could think of to help out would be a theatre version of the software with more automation flexibility. It would be really nice if the automation worked more like Cuestation.

I doubt that would ever happen though.

#1 in my book would be more granular scopes.


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[forgotteng]

I am mixing a theater show on a Venue mix rack system. I am used to M7CL's and LS9's and analog desks but so far I like it. One thing I'm perplexed about is if there is a way to lay out my fader banks for each snapshot. I have over 20 wireless mics and orchestra etc. Does anyone know if there is a good tutorial out there that covers this? Thanks

[TheMAXX7]

Originally Posted by forgotteng

I am mixing a theater show on a Venue mix rack system. I am used to M7CL's and LS9's and analog desks but so far I like it. One thing I'm perplexed about is if there is a way to lay out my fader banks for each snapshot. I have over 20 wireless mics and orchestra etc. Does anyone know if there is a good tutorial out there that covers this? Thanks

I think the work around for that would be to have an active mic VCA/DCA and assign the mics used in that scene to that VCA. Change that VCA assignment from scene to scene. Then use the VCA spill function. I think it will stay in VCA spill from scene to scene. I haven’t tried this method and it will probably pop out of VCA spill when you do other things so it isn’t a great solution, but it might help.

[vikingthor]

Use the VCA spill mode, you can use a VCA as a custom layout on a snapshot basis, store any in or output on that VCA only for changing the faders to the surface. I would in this situation not use that VCA fader, and if you would like over all control of wireless mic’s and orchestra use other VCA’s.
If you change from snapshots in spill mode, faders on the surface will directly change as well.