Lesson Five - Tech

Technical Assistant

Everyone will be a technical assistant at ARTC. Because we usually have to set up and take down temporary performance stages in between other acts or on a tight schedule, we need all hands on deck. Below is a description of our equipment along with how we use it and important tips.

Your job as a technical assistant is to know what these things are and to do whatever the people who are in charge of set up tell you to do with them.

PLEASE NOTE: Tech is ever-evolving and advancing. Many of these items and terms are evergreen and will be in use for as long as we're doing shows. Some have been phased out and rendered obsolete. Especially when you get to the section on Mixers, speakers and amplifiers, things can change rapidly in terms of what we do and do not bring to shows. When in doubt, ask.

IMPORTANT NOTE: FOR ALL ITEMS, DO NOT TURN ON THE POWER UNTIL EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED AND ZEROED OUT

EQUIPMENT:

Cables:

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  SOUND CABLES - Male tends to be input / Female tends to be output

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  SOUND CABLES - Male tends to be input / Female tends to be output

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  XLR - Most often used to connect from mics into the mixer (whether using the snake or not). Also from the mixer to the amp

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  Quarter inch - Most often used to carry signal into the mixer from a keyboard or submixer or into a direct box. Also usually into the speakers.

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  Quarter inch mono - one line

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  Quarter inch stereo - two lines

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  Eighth inch, also called phono mini or headphone jack. Eighth inch mono - one line; eighth inch stereo - two lines

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  RCA pinplug (or just RCA) - Often the inputs into a mixer. Go from the Show Cue Systems computer to the submixer. CD player (if any) into mixer

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  Banana plug - Carry power from amplifiers. Many amps will use banana plugs and quarter inch mono

Snake:

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  Snakes - Combine XLR inputs and outputs into one cable for organization and ease of use.

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  Snakes - Combine XLR inputs and outputs into one cable for organization and ease of use.

Power cables

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  Extension cords. Female tends to be input, male tends to be output. Come in grounded and ungrounded varieties. Do not use an ungrounded (2-prong) extension cord. Also called "Edison"

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  Active surge protector. Actively condition the power and may have battery backup

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  Passive surge protectors. Your run of the mill power strip. When plugging a power strip into another power strip (which should be avoided in any case), use the top outlet to leave room at the bottom for a larger transformer.

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  IEC3 aka IBM or Zip Cable. The power cords that go directly into devices such as a mixer or amplifier.

Light cables

Male tends to be input, female tends to be output. XLR - not all XLR cables are 3 pin DMX. You can't tell the difference until you plug it in and the lights don't work. DMX - all DMX are XLR cables.

Computer connectors

USB

How to wrap cables:

(video) - over under

Wrapping the cables correctly helps them to all lay flat and come up easily.

Microphones (mics)

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  Shure Beta 87a - 87s feed back less and are more precise for vocals. These take Phantom Power. Phantom Power mics use an electromagnet rather than a standard magnet and therefore must recieve a continuous 48V supply of power. This supply comes from the board. Phantom Power should not be sent to any device that doesn't require it if at all possible.

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  Shure SM58 - The world's standard microphone. Everyone knows how to engineer and use them and they are VERY durable.

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  Shure SM27 - A large diaphragm studio condenser mic. We use them for choirs and crowd scenes. Anything with lots of voices on one mic. You can choose what pattern they are (see next image).

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  Microphone pickup patterns

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  Shure Beta52a - Kick mic. Huge diaphragm mic. Usually used for floor sounds in Foley. Very good for low registers.

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  Audio Technica - AT 8035. Shotgun mics. Usually used in Foley. Extremely directional (Super Cardioid). Imagine a cone coming out of the bottom of the mic. Any sound you want picked up must happen in that cone.

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  AKG C214 - What we use in the studio. The large diaphragm and the very high quality captures all the nuances of the voices. You can also set the pattern for a crowd or an individual.

Wireless mics

• We occasionally borrow wireless mics. They do not require phantom power, although they do require batteries and receivers which plug into the board.

• We occasionally have folks that bring in their own supplies which may not be covered here.

Speakers

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  Sonic SM-12 - 2-way 12 inch speakers. ARTC owned and most often used if the house doesn't provide them. Passive speakers.

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  JBL EON - Active 2-way speaker. Take unamplified signal by XLR or quarter inch.

Amplifiers

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  Amps can also be built into the sound board on some occasions. Electro-Voice 7100. Takes XLR in and sends banana plug signal out.

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  Mackie M-1400I. Has both XLR and quarter inch inputs and banana plug and quarter inch outputs. It's a big honkin' beast made for big honkin' rooms.

Mixers

Front of House mixers - the bosses

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  Soundcraft SI Impact. Fully digital mixer. Needs an amp, but does not need the rack mount extras. Outputs to a computer via USB

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  Mackie Onyx 1640. Requires the rack mount extras. All analog in, but has both analog and digital out. Needs an amp. Output to a computer via Firewire.

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  Yamaha EMX 5000. All analog mixer. Has a built-in amp, so unless you're doing a huge room you don't need one. Does not need the rack mount extras.

Submixers

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  Mackie Pro FX8 - Normally used as a Foley submixer, but isn't often used at all anymore (2026). All analog XLR or quarter inch in or out. Normally runs to the main mixer so there is no amp. Does require its own power via Zip cord. Can provide phantom power to all mic channels.

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  Mackie DFX 6. All analog XLR or quarter inch in or out. Connects to the main mixer so there is no amp. Does require its own power via Zip cord. Can provide optional phantom power to all mic channels. Typically used with the Show Cue Systems laptop using an external sound card which allows the SCS project to send multiple channels for easier mixing.

Lighting

Instruments

Incandescents

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  Par cans

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  Fresnel (pronounced Frenel)

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  Ellipsoidal

LEDs

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  Spots

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  Floods

Dimmer Packs

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  Microplex and DMX

Lighting is used at about 25% of shows and can make a big impact.

Digital Recorders

• Zoom
• Roland

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  Tascam

The rack

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  The rack mount cabinet holds individual processors that can apply effects such as reverb. It also holds compressors, companders, and anti-feedback devices. It used to be a staple at shows, but newer boards have much of this functionality built in and so it isn't used a all anymore. We keep it around just in case.

Direct Boxes

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  This is one type of Direct Box, but there are several others that are similar. They can be Active, Passive, Mono, or Stereo

Tackle Box

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  The tackle box has a wide vareity of connectors, adapters, and other smaller parts that occasionally come in handy.

Other Equipment

• Laptops are often brought. Show Cue Systems runs on one, but we can also bring more if we want to do things like ensure a multi-track recording, read scripts that weren't printed out, and so forth.
• Tripods
• Effects Pedal - the Effects Pedal sits in the middle of the signal flow from the microphone to the board and gives on-stage performers access to specific effects on demand. We have used it effectively at shows such as War of the Worlds: The Untold Story and Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!. An important note is that it does not allow phantom power to pass through, so you will need to use a microphone that doesn't require the 48V.
• Keyboards/Musical instruments
• CD Player - Used to be a staple of the setup and used to play recorded sound effects (we also used to use cassette tape decks). These have all been made obsolete by Show Cue Systems.
• Tape
  • Gaff - less sticky than duct tape, excellent for taping down cables to prevent tripping.
  • Glow - not used as often, but can be good to mark things like the edge of the stage if things are dark.
  • Spike - more useful in stage productions than audio drama, it can be used to discreetly mark where an actor should stand or where a bit of set dressing might go during a scene change.
  • Gorilla - similar to gaff tape.
  • Masking - not used very often, but can be good for making a quick label for something.
  • Board - a white tape that can be put on a mixing board to help the operator remember which channels go to which input sources (mics red, yellow, orange, etc, keyboard, SCS, foley left, foley right, kick).

You must know to whom equipment belongs so that it can find its way home in one good piece. Much of ARTC's equipment is labeled with the ARTC logo and eventually all of it will be. At larger converntions it's important not to mix ARTC equipment with equipment from MMI or other similar technical providers if at all possible, but sometimes things happen. We have some MMI stuff, MMI has some ARTC stuff, periodically we get together and trade it back to each other.