Audio Suggestions for Filming School Plays

Question

I'm trying to obtain a better quality soundtrack for my wife's school plays (she's the music teacher). They don't have much of a sound system although I can combine the music from a digital source and the audio from the microphones (for speaking parts) into one stereo mini-jack. What is missing is the general audio; that is she has 100 kids on stage at once singing and there are no omni directional mic's that can pick that up. I have a Sony SR12 set up at the back of the auditorium and the audio is atrocious from that distance (and with that equipment).
Any recommendations? I'm looking for mic setup suggestions and recording source equipment that I can later take into Final Cut and sync with the video.
Keep in mind as best you can that while I do love my gadgets, I don't have $2000 bucks to spend on equipment, but I want to get this as close to professional as I can.
Thanks in Advance.

Answer 1

I video school plays as well: three cams (two HDV for following actors/action, one DV to cover the whole stage); My best audio has come from using a Rode NT4 dual capsule X/Y mic in the center, and a matched pair of Rode NT5's with omni capsules hard left and right.
The NT4 center gets good stereo and minimized the sound stage shift (left and right) as a centered actor turns his head left and right. Wide set stereo mics can have the sound stage flying all over the place as actors move their heads, but don't actually travel anywhere on the stage. The Rode needs phantom power OR a battery and plugs right into an XLR input on my HDV or DV cams. This mic pair I consider the stereo master audio track, so I use the DV camera (uncompressed PCM).
The two omni mics set left and right are used for overall ambiance if I need to add it (lightly), enhanced stereo, and uneven volume when actors speak from hard stage left/right, or even in the wings. I use the NT5 pair because they are a good match for the NT4 capsules from an audio perspecive, and they are small. They need phantom power and plug into XLR camera input.
The third camera only records audio for sync purposes, and I use the on camera mic.
Newer alternative that I've only tried on a short piece, but it worked well:
A Zoom H4n digital recorder. It has decent (not as good as the Rode's) on board mics that are in an X/Y pattern at 90 or 120 degrees (more centered / more stereo). It also has two XLR or 1/4" input jacks that can supply phantom power to external microphones. It will record all 4 tracks at once in 16 bit 48kHz uncompresed (WAV), or various compressed formats. It takes SD/HC cards, and a 8MB card (about $20 or less from Amazon) will hold hours of audio. It runs on batteries (risky or a wall wart that is included. It can mount to a camera tripod mount, and a mic stand adapter is included.
It's cheap enough, and for many uses, the onboard X/Y mics would be fine. Our theater stage is quite large, so the outboard external mics are needed to even things out.
Note also that I avoid whatever sound-reinforcement mics/speakers the theater wants to use. Too many ground loop issues, and reinforcement is different than audio for video. Keep your mics away from the speakers
The Zoom is about $350 from Sweetwater.
Then you can use your on camera mic for backup (something goes whoops, you still have sound, and you have flexibility in mic placement; the Zoom goes center, but maybe a bit back from the stage to pick up a more even sound stage; the omni l/r mics at about the same distance. Since the four tracks are two stereo pairs, you can play with delays if you get chorusing or echoing due to sound delays. But they are close enough to the audio source (the singers), that ambient echos are reduced and can be dealt with using compression, gates, etc. in FCP.
If you want to get more serious about audio for video, there's alway Logic or ProTools depending on your needs. I have ProTools for my studio (audio only), but have only used the LT version once for a problematic HVAC noise background I need to deal with. Probably could have done it in Sound Track Pro, but I'm just more familiar with PT.
Good Luck.
Eddie O
Message was edited by: Edward A. Oates