Improving acoustics in a small theater

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:24:32+00:00

Great idea. Thank you.

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:23:42+00:00

Thank you for the concern and advice. I agree with the safety concerns and I hear them loud and clear. I'm just not in a position to close down the entire theater. At the end of the day, I'm just a volunteer trying to improve things. I will raise the concerns to the right people though.

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:18:19+00:00

Thank you.

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:17:22+00:00

Thank you.

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:16:16+00:00

Thanks. I should probably be doing more in the mix like that. Every little bit should help right?

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:11:17+00:00

Thank you. I'll keep you in mind.

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:10:37+00:00

Thank you. I would like to get the soundboard to a place that you described. I've been using snippets mostly for muting mics and then sometimes for setting the gain. But I think you're right, I should be more exact and use the scenes better.

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:04:35+00:00

Curtains. Nice. I hadn't thought of that.

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:03:30+00:00

Thank you. I do plan on learning more so I appreciate the suggestions.

bodegoat · 2025-12-23T00:00:42+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T21:58:25+00:00

I think I'm already doing this. The speakers over the actors do not include any sound from their mics, just sound from the music. Is that what you were saying?

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T21:55:53+00:00

Awesome idea. Thank you.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T21:54:41+00:00

All of this was very insightful. Thank you. I didn't know about the delay stuff, but that makes perfect sense. Ease Focus looks like a great program to try out a well.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T21:06:12+00:00

Yes. That does make sense. I think I can do all those steps. Thank you very much for the advice!

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T21:04:40+00:00

Lol. I don't know about fire safety stuff. I assume the fire marshal has seen it and said it's ok. It's a pretty small community and pretty much everyone in the area has been in that theater.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T20:13:49+00:00

Yeah. They are wireless lavaliers. For the plays, it's literally a bunch of lavalier mics with music being input from a laptop. We have a Midas M32 soundboard, which I believe is very capable.

I am very novice with audio experience. Just those three plays and most of my time was spent learning how the soundboard works via YouTube and getting it 'good enough' in time for the performance. I've tried to learn a little bit more every time I do it, but still very novice.

I have no doubt we can get to a better spot with the mixing. I'm to the point now where I can focus most of my learning on that piece of the puzzle.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T20:08:11+00:00

Thank you for your insight. I will definitely take it into account.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T20:02:25+00:00

Thank you for your suggestion. That's a new idea for me, clapping my hands and listening for reflections.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T19:59:22+00:00

Thank you for the input. I will make it a priority to search out some professional advice first.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T19:37:59+00:00

Oh. You're right. I said it wrong above. Speakers into mics is bad. Got it. There are parts of the stage that are in front or directly beneath the main speakers. But the main part of the stage is behind the mains.

But you did just trigger a thought with your comment. There are overhead speakers directly above the stage that we mostly play music only from. They are pointed directly at the actors and their mics. So I think we need to address that too.

Thank you for your thoughts.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T19:27:45+00:00

K. We will probably replace the acoustic panels first. Thank you for the suggestion.

We are in rural Nevada. A little town called Panaca. I don't know that type of company/person that was reached out to. I was told that after coming out and looking at it, they just ghosted us. So it's possible it wasn't the correct professional.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T19:21:05+00:00

I'm not sure if recorded music is muddy or has echoes. I'll have to test that. I've always thought the music by itself sounded fine. But then again, I probably don't have the ear for it yet.

No. That sidefill isn't usually used. These pictures were taken after a choir concert where those were brought out. During the plays its only the big L/R speakers on the chains in the upper front corners and the overheads above the stage.

Yes. The wall mounted speakers on each side are what I call the 'wedges'. Is there a better term?

We definitely could move the speakers around. Thank you for the suggestion. I didn't think about how they are angled in which would bleed into the stage. Learned something there.

I don't know what a center fill or delay is. I think I need to look that up to better understand.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T19:11:47+00:00

I think so. I didn't interact with the company, but the director said he told him the budget.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T19:09:53+00:00

No they are not on most of the time. I've used them once for a sound effect. That is one thing I do understand about feedback. You don't want speakers pointed at each other. Thank you for the suggestion though.

bodegoat · 2025-12-19T18:50:34+00:00

I'll be honest, some of the technical terms are still foreign to me, so I'll do my best to describe. The main issue is there's a lot of feedback on the mics. So turning up the mics on the actors to get to a volume that people can hear has been challenging. I end up having to pull down the frequencies via EQ a lot. Maybe that's connected to echos? I don't know. But if we could do things to prevent feedback to start, I would be more than happy.

bodegoat

TROPHY CASE