live sound unusual mic choices

[pounce]

i'm running sound for a barbershop quartet event today and tomorrow. so i don't know if this counts as an unusual mic choice within a live sound context, but i've opted to bring my r84 ribbon mic as the "primary" mic that the quartets sing around.

at their previous venue the soundguys used a pair of sdc's in an XY coincident placement for them. that would work too.

in my case, a ribbon mic with it's inherent figure 8 pattern is probably an odd choice, but boy howdy does it seem to work. the quartets sound good, natural, and unprocessed. i simply notch out a bit of the two frequencies that want to give me a little trouble and we are home free. i really like the tone of this, and the open clear quality to it. not a rock sound at all, but perfect for this event. and they love it. it's a good compliment to this style of performing, and the wide pattern is critical for these folks. most quartets are pretty good about staying near each other and singing into the mic, so this is a good bit of fun in an event that is almost only a single mic.

any other unusual mic choices for live sound you have tried?

[pounce]

ok, one of the friday night show quartets just soundchecked. they sounded awesome. their buddy in the house said they sounded better than they did on their last cd. it's a funny style of music, but these guys are disciplined vocalists and the combination of trained vocalists and a nice ribbon mic sure produce stellar results. the figure 8 pattern would make it impossible for most rock and roll, but any chamber music might work fine with it live. i bought it for the studio, but hooray for wes dooley, it sure works in certain specific live situations.

ps: they thanked me and the mic profusely, which is awesome. it's nice to get good feedback from artists and not just the complaints. otoh, they also complimented the acoustics here over the acoustics in the last venue they were in (another house in town i mix at). the acoustics here aren't particularly good or bad, i'm just making the best of the room and the gear i have to work with. in this case i'm mostly succeeding despite the gear and room, with the cool mic being a notable exception.

[AxeSlash]

Interesting mic choices are a rarity in my world, although I have seen the old bookshelf-monitor-used-as-a-kick-mic trick used once or twice.

Interestingly, I've seen just about every mic ever invented used to mic up french horn sections.

I once used an analyser mic as a hihat mic as a last-ditch effort. It actually worked. Just.

[pounce]

yeah, i suppose the thing is when mic'ing a drum kit for a rock act, we are all gonna do more or less the same thing. i just did a bunch of live shows in a festival type setting, and we weren't given the opportunity for any creativity. we had to mic things quick, so standard choices and placement were what it was about.

[AxeSlash]

yeah, i suppose the thing is when mic'ing a drum kit for a rock act, we are all gonna do more or less the same thing. i just did a bunch of live shows in a festival type setting, and we weren't given the opportunity for any creativity. we had to mic things quick, so standard choices and placement were what it was about.

Nail on the head.

It's rare, but once in a while we get a more laid-back gig where we have time to mess around. BBC Big Band is one that springs to mind, but unfortunately the beeb bring their own mics and I'm usually babysitting the FOH guy while they mic up.

I don't think it's particularly "unusual", but we do a lot of orchestral stuff using a mid/side mic, and then spot mic the LF instruments (double basses, timps etc etc), which are sent to the subs via an aux. It seems to work quite well if you know all the "rules" associated with that method. But then again, orchestral stuff isn't my strong suit, so what the hell do I know? :D

[Jason Phair]

But then again, orchestral stuff isn't my strong suit, so what the hell do I know? :D


I do a lot of orchestral stuff.


Of the anywhere between 30-50 mics onstage, guess which one usually sounds best?


















The 58 that the maestro uses for his announcements, because it's right behind him.

[CloseToTheEdge]

I use an SM57 to mic my guitar amp, but may not be the first to come up with this idea.

[clicktrack]

I recently did a show where one band pretty much mic'd the entire stage with 57's. This was a show where they had their selection of some pretty good kit...nope...just 57's.

The lead singer put up a 57 just offstage with a plastic bag taped over it. All she wanted in her mons was the feed from this offstage mic and her vocals.

And for our mobile, they insisted I not use any of the raw vocal track. Instead, they had the vocal put through a vocal amp which severely overhyped the 3.2k of the vox. This went directly (and only) to the mobile. They preferred the sound of this on broadcast apparently. Oh...and what was the vocal mic?

A 57.


Naturally.


Very interesting show.... :)

[Mr. dB]

I really like the AKG D112 on guitar amps.

Other kick drum mics do not fare so well for that off-label application, the worst being the Audix D6. Ouch.

But the D112 sounds huge, sits well in the mix, and is otherwise surprisingly normal. It's good if you're looking for more warmth and less snarl than you'd get from a 57. A variable high-pass helps though.