Mic Choices
Oct 19, 2007 3:55 PM
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This Month in Mix
Getting a great vocal tone that stands out in the mix but that does not kill everyone in the front row to hear it above the music can be a real nightmare. Here, the right mic choice can save the day. I use the Shure KSM9 because it has a switchable pickup pattern. In really small venues with a loud stage, I use the hypercardioid pattern for the extra noise rejection on the capsule. Another trick that really works well is to determine the dominant frequency in the singer's voice and then cut about 2 to 3 dB of that frequency out of every other instrument onstage. This creates space for the vocal to sit in and lets the vocal cut through without pushing the level really hard and possibly distort your preamp. Adding a highpass filter at around 170 Hz can help keep sympathetic vibrations in the mic stand from causing feedback on stages that are hollow.
—Jayme Braun
One of our goals was to create an SR system with a huge wow factor for the audience, while providing outstanding audio excitement for our TV viewers. There were 3,000 in the Bella Centre with an additional 7,500 in the town square, and knowing that there's a potential TV audience of a staggering 1.4 billion, we had to keep our wits about us. With virtually all artists during the evening choosing Sennheiser mics and wireless personal monitors, it meant that I could go into a live show with confidence. The [Sennheiser] SKM 5200 is really the only choice where broadcast or recording is concerned. You can get a lot of dynamics from them, and they're a very rich-sounding mic. They won't overload the front end on you and have such a great pattern with a really smooth sound.
—Derrick Zieba
We have all faced the problem at some point in our career where your vocal mics are grabbing a lot of the backline and cymbals from the kit. A cool little problem-solver for this is to use a product called Mic-Mute (www.micmute.com). These are infrared-activated gates that plug in between the microphone and the cable right at the mic stand. They are easily adjustable with trim pots for threshold and decay, and they also run off of phantom power. These are great for cleaning up your mix. I’ve had great success with these with a number of bands—especially when a singer or guitar player stands in the center of the stage in front of the drum kit.
—Fabrizio Del Monte
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