Audio Mistakes We See in Rehearsal and How to Avoid Them

The most frequent problem I meet is a show where the microphones are chosen last, once the set is built and the cameras are positioned. By then the best places for a lavalier, a boom or a stand microphone have been taken by scenery, lighting stands or a presenter's desk. The result is a compromise that costs clarity on every line of speech, and it is rarely noticed until the first rehearsal.

A microphone plan belongs next to the running order and the camera plan. Before the set is finalised, I list who speaks, where they stand or sit, how far they move and which positions will be on a wide shot. That list decides whether a presenter needs a radio pack, whether a guest can share a table microphone and where a boom can reach without entering frame.

It also tells you how many channels you really need. A plan written early costs a conversation. The same plan written during a rehearsal costs a rebuild of the set dressing and an evening of rewiring for everyone involved.

• Write the speaker list before the set drawings are fixed
• Mark every position visible on a wide shot
• Count radio channels from the plan, not from habit

A line check with a technician reading from a card tells you very little. Real presenters speak louder or softer than expected, turn their heads, lean back, fiddle with their jackets and laugh at the wrong moment. Guests who have never worn a radio microphone behave differently again. If the first time these voices meet the system is during transmission, the mix is being set live, and that is where clipping and thin, distant speech come from.

I ask for at least one rehearsal where everyone who will speak does so at the volume and pace they will use on the day, including the guest who arrives late. Ten minutes of natural conversation shows more than an hour of counting numbers.

During that time I set gain structure with headroom to spare, note which voices need more control and agree a simple signal with the director for when someone moves off their microphone.

Distortion in a live show is almost always a gain problem made earlier in the signal chain. An input pushed close to its ceiling leaves nothing for a laugh, a raised voice or an applause swell. A limiter downstream can soften the damage, but it cannot restore a clipped waveform, and heavy limiting makes speech sound flat and tiring over a long programme.

The habit I keep is to set the average speech level comfortably below the point where meters get busy, and to leave room above it. A modest signal that is clean at the source can always be brought up later in the mix. A damaged one cannot be repaired.

I also check levels again after the audience arrives, because a room full of people changes both the sound of the space and how loudly presenters instinctively speak.

• Leave headroom for laughter and raised voices
• Re-check gain once the audience is in the room

A mix judged on small laptop speakers, or on loudspeakers in a control room with poor acoustics, will not translate. Equally, a mix built at very high volume hides problems that only appear when a viewer listens quietly at home. I have seen speech that sounded fine in the gallery turn muddy because the room itself was adding low-frequency build-up.

Good monitoring means a pair of speakers you know well, at a sensible and consistent level, with headphones as a second opinion rather than the only one. I listen at a level close to ordinary television listening and check the programme on a small speaker at the end of rehearsal.

Talkback matters here too. If the director cannot hear a clear cue over the programme feed, mistakes repeat. Keeping the intercom level separate from the programme level avoids a great deal of shouting during a show.

Wireless microphones fail in dull, avoidable ways. A pack with a half-used battery, a frequency shared with another system in the building or a transmitter placed against the body in a tight garment can each ruin a segment. Crackle and dropouts in the middle of a sentence are rarely a fault of the equipment itself.

Before every show I scan the venue for clear frequencies, label each pack with its channel and fit fresh batteries, writing the time of fitting on the tape. Spares sit within reach of the audio position, not in a case across the building.

Presenters are shown where the pack sits and told what to do if it moves. A short briefing on avoiding rubbing fabric over the capsule saves more takes than any amount of processing afterwards.

• Scan the venue before the first rehearsal
• Fit fresh batteries and note the time
• Keep spare packs at the audio position

A studio set or a conference hall brings its own acoustics, and microphones capture them faithfully. Hard walls, glass panels and bare floors add reflections that make speech sound distant, however good the microphone. Many mixers reach for equalisation to fix what is really a placement or room problem.

The cheaper cure is usually physical: moving a microphone closer, angling it away from a reflective surface, adding a rug, a drape or a set piece that absorbs rather than reflects. These changes are quick during setup and impossible once the show is running.

I walk the space while it is still empty and clap, listen to the tail of the sound and decide where treatment will help. It takes a few minutes and often changes the microphone plan for the better.