Mics #1 are a set of Audio Technica 835 shotgun mics (purchased for this project) on the outside corners of our stage, mounted just under our side screens, pointed out into the room.  These are the primary audience pickup source because so much of the audience’s energy is directed towards the stage that these do a great job of capturing without adding too much PA to the mix.  They’re inexpensive and sound good for what I’m using them for.  You could certainly upgrade the make/model here to something more boutique but this serves our purposes well.

Mics #2 are a set of Crown PCCs placed on the lip of the stage at the 1/3 and 2/3 lines from left to right.  These combine with the shotguns to provide some presence and immediacy to the signal since another set of shotguns wouldn’t be acceptable aesthetically in these positions.

Mics #3 are a pair of Shure SM81s hung from the first catwalk, almost at the half way point of the room, also on the 1/3 and 2/3 lines to the stage.  These mics serve almost entirely the purpose of room ambience – making the mix sound like it is happening in the auditorium rather than happening in a dead studio.

The three sets of ambience mics serve dual purpose for us – ambience for IEM and ambience for the broadcast/record feed.  In the IEM world, we lean most heavily on the shotguns at the front of the room at the corners of the stage and supplement that with the PCCs on the front of the stage towards the center.  These mics are used mainly because they provide localization of what the artist is hearing in their ears.  For example, when someone to the artist’s right calls to the stage, we want everyone on stage to turn their head in that direction.  Likewise, if someone on the front row is singing their heart out, it’s cool for the artists to be able to sense that from those PCCs on the front of the stage.  That localization goes leaps and bounds towards breaking down the isolation.  Every artist is different with how much ambience is just right.

We may still look to add an additional set or two but I’m stuck because adding them will mean needing to deal with delay times between those mics and the rest currently in place.  Two of my current three sets are directly in line with the PA so there’s little issue there.  The delay induced by the third set certainly does some phase stuff to the mix but the added space it puts in the mix when the speaker is up is worth the compromise to me.  So we’ve dodged the bullet to this point and I’d like to avoid having to go there with more mics.  This is one of the only limitations of creating the broadcast mix inside the Venue rather than in an outboard mixer/processor.  There is no way to have the degree of time alignment control that would be needed in the broadcast feed without making other more significant sacrifices.

The shotguns are the most important piece of the puzzle for me because their pickup pattern is most effective at picking up the audience and rejecting PA and stage bleed.  The PCCs are next important to fill in the center stage imaging – think of the shotguns panned hard left and right and the PCCs panned at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock or 10 and 2.  The hanging mics are almost halfway back in the room and that time delay adds depth to the ambience space. For IEMs, it can be distracting.  But for broadcast, it enhances the size of the room and makes it feel more real when you’re listening back.

Kick: Shure Beta91 inside, Audix D6 outside

Snare: Shure SM57, Audio-Technica ATM450, Sennheiser MD421

Toms: Audix D2 & D4, Shure Beta98, Sennheiser MD421

Hat: Audio-Technica ATM450, Neumann KM184

Overheads: Rode NT4, Shure KSM141 or KSM44, Audix IX5

Percussion: Countryman Isomax, Shure Beta56 & Beta57, CAD E-60

Bass: Demeter Tube DI, Radial JDI

Guitars: CAD E100 (original series), Shure SM57, Sennheiser E609, Sennheiser MD421, Shure KSM44

Keys: Radial PRO8 DI

Vocals: Shure SM58, Beta58, SM86, Beta87, KSM9, AKG C535, Sennheiser E935

• The signal chain is instrument, into the wireless transmitter/receiver, then out of that receiver and into their pedals/processing, and finally to the amplifier.  It is important that the wireless receiver be in close proximity to the rest of the rig since it will be passing instrument level signal in order for things to stay clean and happy.
• Getting all of a musician’s gear, including the wireless unit, on the same electrical ground is crucial to a zero noise rig.  I wire each guy’s rig so it is on its own quad with their pedals or processing, amps, and wireless units.  That way it is simple to troubleshoot if noise magically appears during the course of rehearsals.  Often times someone inadvertently added something to that circuit and it is a quick fix to eliminate.  I find that many times the ground on the wireless receiver also still needs to be lifted.
• During setup, have the artist go back and forth between the wireless unit and a cable in order to set wireless gain in the chain and make it match the hardwired setup as closely as possible.  This is very important for proper signal to noise and making sure processing, pedals, and tubes respond as expected.
• A wireless electric guitar player’s best friend is the Radial Dragster.  I’ve written about them before.  
• A new tool that’s also indispensable when you need to remote locate a combo amp is the Radial SGI system.  Goodbye noise, tone change, and interference when you need to pass a guitar level signal further than 20 feet.  These are like gold come holiday time at KCC.
• It should go without saying, but allow plenty of time with each player who will be wireless to iron out issues and get their rig functioning properly.  Doing this early on in the rehearsal process pays dividends later in not having to worry about it come crunch time.
• Use as little wireless as you can get away with.  There is always a price to pay sonically and reliably for wireless, so if it can be done with a cable, do it.

I asked him for advice regarding the challenges to tone that come from a wireless stage since we can get such pushback from musicians on the degradation of their tone when we add a wireless transmit/receive path to their signal chain.  He suggested the most important thing for success is clear artistic vision from the producer.  In Shania’s show, that was Mutt Lange – everybody knew what Mutt wanted and it was assumed wireless was for the greater artistic good of the show.  Because of this, the guys in the band spent plenty of time in rehearsal dialing in their rigs so they could be wireless and still get what they needed for tone.

Is it as true as a cable between the guitar and pedal board?  Obviously not.  But it was refreshing to know that there was no magic smoking bullet I’ve missed to suddenly make wireless sound exactly like a cable.

The one piece of gear we’ve found at Kensington in the past 6 months that has made somewhat of a difference is the Radial Dragster.  If you ever do wireless guitars, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  From the Radial website, the Dragster restores the full rich tone you lose when you plug your guitar into a wireless transmitter or other types of buffered inputs like those of effects, mixers, sound cards or recorders.  Dragster’s exclusive Drag™ control makes passive pickups think (and sound like) they’re connected directly to a amplifier input by allowing you to precisely dial in the correct amount of impedance loading.  Result? Your guitar tone regains it’s warmth – it feels ‘right’ again and your performance sounds great!

While not perfect, this little thing makes a big difference in just about every case we’ve tried it with.

I think the biggest difference in the drum sound I’m going for in this season has been a shift from an overheads-driven sound to a close-mic driven sound. Historically, I’ve always been one to make much of my overheads placement to get a cohesive, stereo image of the entire kit, and then supplement what’s missing and what needs more emphasis with close mics. The problem I’ve found with that technique is that it is so reliant on the drummer having a slammin’ kit mix before I mic anything. And the reality in the campus-model we are in at KCC is that this is not always the case with the wide variety of skills and experience in drummers that play for me.

I’ve been trying over the past few months a nearly 180 degree shift to relying largely on close mics for all of the drums and using overheads simply as cymbal mics. In this paradigm, placement of the overheads is still extremely critical because I want to reject the drum sounds from this mics as much as possible and only pick up cymbal sounds so the close mic tone will remain true and uncluttered when adding in overheads. This means the overheads are closer to the cymbals and much more spread to the corners of the kit then they would be in a overhead-driven micing technique.

Regarding mic selection, still the Beta52 on kick, although I’m relying much less, if at all, on the Beta91 in the house other than having a clicky kick tone for wedge monitors that maintains clarity there. On toms, so far my favorite tones have come from SM57s on the rack toms and a MD-421 on the floor. On our DW kit, the 57s just sound really true to what the sound of the drum actually is, and it is translating much better from drummer to drummer than anything else I’ve tried. I still plan to try a few other mics and aiming techniques that I haven’t gotten to yet. More on that later.

There’s a really good article in this month’s issue of Mix Magazine on mixing guitars that is worthy of mention.  Although the article’s primary focus is studio mixing, many of the concepts and techniques also work in the live world.  Great content here and I’m glad it is posted online.

Check it out here… 

So you want to know how to attach a microphone to an actors head, and make it invisible? Where are the mics? It seems to be the most frequently asked question, next to could you turn it down, or could you turn it up. Here’s a little guide that may help you understand how mic rigs are built and used.

http://www.brightandloud.com/microphone-placement

This is one of the best practical articles I’ve ever seen on this topic. Along the way, I’ve found a really cool industry magazine if you have to work with actors, theater, and such called Stage Directions. The site for subscriptions is down in my links