#4 An insight to mixing audio for a wrestling show!

Hi Friends,

A few years ago, I was asked to be the A1 for a wrestling show to be shot in India! For those who don't know what an A1 is, in the USA, the Chief Audio Engineer on a television show is called the A1. This wrestling show was to be telecast on a General Entertainment Channel in India and the Director of the show as well as many of the wrestlers were coming over from the USA.

I had never mixed a wrestling show in my life! I imagined there would be two or three commentators, some in-ring announcers and the wrestlers fighting it out in the ring. In fact, the primary mics would be just the hand mikes with the in-ring announcers. But how wrong was I to think that this was going to be simple!

Very soon, I found myself sending e-mails left, right and center to people in the USA who wanted to make sure that everything is done according to the way they do things out there. I was briefed in great detail about how they normally do such shows back in the US.

I learned that the major elements that make up the audio mix are:

• crowd noise (or ambiance of the arena). 
• the signature music track that plays for each wrestler when he makes an entry.
• the in-ring announcers, talking to the audience and the wrestlers.  
• the television commentators (who are only talking to the TV viewers and never heard in the venue, just like cricket commentators in a cricket match). 
• the sounds made by the wrestlers when they actually fight in the ring. 

Meticulous planning is what I had to do. I went on a recce to check out the location in Pune. By now, I had a fair idea about how they normally do the show in the US. and I was asked if these same micing patterns could be followed here and what mics were available to me and what consoles would I be using. I had to give them all these specifics and send them very detailed drawings of the venue with markings of where I planned to put up the PA speakers and the microphones in the venue.

Once my plans were approved, it was now time to execute them. For microphone placement, I had to follow as far as possible, the guidelines they had given me.

I had mics hung from above, over the audience area, to capture the crowd cheering and shouting - mics above the stage from where the wrestlers generally make their entry -  mics on the ramp coming down from stage to ringside - mics on the four posts of the ring - mics underneath the ring - mics above the ring - mics on the starting bell - mics on the video cameras - mics with the in-ring announcers and mics with the commentators. There were only 7 cameras, but over 25 mics! The Director himself told me that the video part is easy, and it is the sound mix that is more complex and difficult to execute.

A total of 3 consoles were to be used on the shoot.

• 1 for FOH (32 channel Yamaha M7CL)
• 1 for the main TV mix. (48 channel Yamaha M7CL)
• 1 for sending a sub-mix of the fight audio to the main TV mix console. (48 channel Yamaha M7CL)

The FOH console engineer was only responsible for what the live audience would hear.  That is every wrestler's entry music, the two in-ring announcers talking to the audience and the sounds that were being picked up from mics under the ring. (Every time a wrestler threw down an opponent, there would be a loud THUMP sound created by the falling body on the floor of the ring, and this sound would be picked up from below the ring and amplified over the subwoofers to add to the drama).

The sub mix engineer would only concentrate on giving me a mix of the sound effects, during a fight. Wrestlers cannot be miked, so it becomes very important to pick us the sound of them fighting, to add some realism and drama to the fights. Without those sounds, the show would become very flat and lifeless. Hence, the sub-mix engineer had to see where the wrestlers were placed in relation to the mics on the four posts and bring up the mic best positioned to capture the sound of their slaps and grunts. He would also bleed in the ring overhead mic if he felt that this was the best option at a given time.

I was in charge of the main television mix. I had to create a bed of the crowd ambiance using the overhead mics, suspended above the crowd to pick up crowd roars and applause. To this was added the in-ring announcers' mics whenever they spoke, which was usually before and after every fight. I had to also keep an eye out if any of the camera mics were in a position to pick up some good audio, especially when some wrestler would come along the ringside and cheer the fighters. Music was to be blended to the mix every time a track was played for the entry of a wrestler. And during the fight, I would blend the sub-mix that I would receive from my associate mix engineer, into the mix that I was creating on my console. (There were supposed to be two live commentators also speaking during the fights, but the live commentary was scrapped and a scripted commentary track was recorded and added to the mix in post, after the edit).

We had two days of technical setup and testing before we actually recorded the first show. It was a live event where people would come and watch these wrestling matches, live, from 6 to 9 pm. We would be recording the fights one after another for the duration of three hours every day, for about 10 days. (The show also had interactions between the wrestlers and other characters, outside the ring in different areas, like the green room, backstage, etc... These interactions were shot by a separate ENG crew, and this footage was edited into the show in post).

In addition to the online video edit and the audio mix, every camera was recorded on an isolated recorder. To record the video signal from the seven cameras and the audio from all the microphones, there was a bank of KiPro recorders and almost every mic I had placed in the venue was recorded on some track of a KiPro recorder. Most mics were also recorded on a JoeCo Blackbox multitrack recorder, which was specially bought for this show by RGB Vision, the chief supplier of all the audio equipment. This was also possibly, the first JoeCo Blackbox recorder to come to India!

What else did I learn from this show? Redundancy!

Even though every mic that was being used on this shoot was getting recorded on a KiPro, as well as on a Blackbox recorder, they still asked me if I had another backup recording device! We didn't have it, but they would have liked us to have yet another option as a backup recorder.

And later on in my career, I found out the hard way, just how important it is to have a redundant recording setup on a major shoot. Could be a topic for me to write about some other day!

Until next time,

CC

Website: www.cheeragcama.com

Website: www.thesoundblog.in
Email: cheerag.cama@gmail.com
Twitter: @cheragc

PS: This championship tournament, with Indian and foreign wrestlers, spread over 26 episodes, was shot in 2011 and telecast in 2012.

You can catch the show here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnM7m4jC3Zc


Links to equipment used on the shoot:

JoeCo Blackbox recorder
https://joeco.co.uk/multi-track-audio-recorders-products-joeco/

Yamaha M7CL console
http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/global/en/products/mixers/m7cl/features.jsp