BERKELEY, CA – Berkeley Repertory Theatre is relying on Countryman Associates' E6 Omni and E2 Uni-directional earset microphones, B6 Omni lavaliere models and the Type 10 direct boxes. Sound supervisor James Ballen, who has been handling sound at Berkeley Rep for the past 10 years, specified the gear.
Ballen, who also worked with Chicago's Goodman Theatre, is tasked with overseeing all aspects of the Tony-award-winning regional theatre's sound operations on behalf of artistic director Tony Taccone.
"When an actor or actress is outfitted with a microphone-be it an earset or lavaliere type model-sound quality is only one of several key considerations," Ballen noted. "Comfort is equally important. If, for example, an earset mic doesn't fit well, it becomes extremely distracting, and this is likely to compromise the talent's ability to give their best performance."
Ballen said the E6 earset mics are "extremely comfortable, very lightweight, and sound fantastic," also crediting them for their sound quality and ability to blend to various skin tones.
"These mics are used in many of our productions and we keep roughly 10 units in our permanent inventory," along with a pair of E2 earset microphones and about 15 B6 Omni lavalieres.
"The Countryman E2's have a much shorter boom than the E6s and, as a result, are even less visible to the audience," Ballen noted. "Being uni-directional, their pickup qualities are different from the E6s, so having both models gives us considerable flexibility when outfitting the talent.
The B6 lavaliere mics, Ballen added, "have proven to be invaluable when it comes to placing a microphone directly onto wardrobe or hiding it within a costume."
Passing Strange, which eventually went on to Broadway was presented on Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage, "which has a rather odd shape that can cause acoustical challenges. This theatre has no right angles and the stage juts out halfway into the house. Because of these factors, feedback is a huge issue whenever we use lapel or body mics on stage," Ballen noted.
"We started tech rehearsals with some microphones placed on the actors' ears to make them as discreet as possible, but we quickly hit the ceiling in terms of gain before feedback. We just couldn't get acceptable levels.
"We then switched everyone over to Countryman E6s and these mics completely resolved the issue," Ballen said. "The sound was fantastic, with tons of gain. Everyone involved with the production was impressed with the vast difference the E6s made."
Depending upon the nature of the production, live musicians are frequently hired to play the theatre's shows. Making the Hi-Z unbalanced (musical instrument) to Lo-Z balanced (mixer channel input) conversion can create distortion and color the sound if not handled properly.
To overcome this, Ballen often relies on Countryman Type 10 direct boxes. "We had a show a while back that required several guitars, and we used the Type 10's exclusively," he said. "The sound quality was crystal-clear and transparent-absolutely wonderful."
Ballen also credited Countryman for its customer support. "They've overnighted products to us in the past and are very responsive whenever we have questions."
For more information, please visit www.countryman.com and www.berkeleyrep.org.
