Getting your mic positioning in order…

Microphone positioning and technique is largely a matter or personal tastes – usually whatever “sounds right” probably is right.  Nevertheless it’s a good idea to remind ourselves of some of the basics for getting there.

Following are a few tips that you might consider following when micing musical instruments for sound reinforcement.

• Try first to get the instrument to sound good acoustically before miking it.
• Use a mic with a frequency response that is limited to the frequency range of the instrument.
• To determine a good starting mic position, try closing one ear with your finger. Listen to the sound source with the other ear and move around until you find a spot that sounds good – put the mic there.  Remember, this may not be practical (or healthy) for extremely close placement near loud sources.
• Remember that the closer a mic is to a sound source, the louder the source is compared to reverberation or ambient noise.
• Place the mic only as close as necessary, keeping in mind proximity effect.
• When possible, use as few microphones as possible due to the Potential Acoustic Gain rule which tells us (among other things) that the volume level of a system must be turned down for every mic added in order to prevent feedback.
• If the sound from your loudspeakers is distorted even though you did not exceed a normal mixer level, the mic signal may be overloading your mixer’s input.  To correct this situation, use an in-line attenuator or pad to reduce the signal level from the microphone, or just back it away from the source some.
• More than anything, experiment and listen!

(Thanks to Shure for the tips.)

A resource you need to know about!

If you work or serve in any level of production, I have a resource for you that has come through for me a number of times now and I want to share!  I think I’ve written about them before, but regardless…

Audiovend is a wireless rental specialist – Shure & Sennheiser, Lectrosonics, wired & wireless IEM, Comm – if its wireless, they deal with it.  They also have a very large inventory of specialized mics and wireless capsules.  I first learned about Greg Stevens and Audiovend a few years ago when I needed to rent 12 string mics (DPA 4061s).  One of my friends suggested talking to Greg due to a recommendation from DPA.  They were very easy to work with and provided exactly what I needed for the weekend.  On top of that, rental rates for such specialized mics were fair and reasonable.  It was a win/win for everyone.

Since that time, we’ve done a couple of other similar rentals for special service elements.  A few months ago, however, a unique opportunity came along for us to partner on a higher profile and that event’s success is the inspiration for this post.

Every summer, Kensington does an outdoor baptism event at a local park/beachfront.  Hundreds of people participate to declare their love for Jesus, with several thousand spectators lining the beach to picnic, celebrate, and support.  This event is always one of the highlights of the year.  As a part of the production needs, we have utilized waterproof microphones in the water so that the pastors can make things more personal for each participant and lead everyone through the event.  The concept is REALLY cool and the event hinges on these mics’ success, but for the past several years of attempting this, the execution has been marginal due to poor support from our previous vendor – a large national rental company.

After last year’s experience, I suggested that we seek out a new direction this year and approached Greg for his help.  He designed a Lectrosonics 6 channel system with waterproof transmitters and headsets, helical antennas, and the needed distribution and cabling to remote the antennas 100 feet from the receivers.  Everything was shipped to us to arrive the day before the event.  It was sent in such a way I could unpack, make the necessary RF and audio connections, and be good to go.  Greg did a frequency coordination plan prior to shipping so when the system arrived, it was ready to rock.

Below is an excerpt of the email I sent Greg following the successful evening…

“…Everything worked as it should for the entire event.  This event hinges on these wireless working and your system delivered for the first time in several years of trying!  The headsets sounded really good with little channel EQ, lithium batteries saved the day – we powered transmitters on at the beginning of event and made it all the way to the end with no battery swaps, helicals were great – no RF issues at all.  It was so great to be able to turn the transmitters on and go because the frequencies were all taken care of from the start.  In the past the team has always had to guess and tune with mixed results.  Everyone on our team was very impressed.

You have a raving fan in Kensington – we’ll certainly be making this an annual thing   You made me look very good today but I know you and your team are the real heros.  Thanks again for all you do!”

What is most ironic is that Audiovend provided a similar set of actual gear as our previous vendor – I think the biggest difference was their proper planning, implementation, and improved RF distribution.  Greg and the team are obvious experts at the art form of wireless audio systems.

If you’re also placed in situations where you need to deliver wireless solutions for high-profile events, I HIGHLY recommend Greg Stevens and his team at Audiovend Wireless.  His expertise is vast, his prices fair, and the service and support is excellent.  He’ll make you look very good as well!  Let him know I sent you…

Some “new” mics…

I’ve written a lot recently about our new PA at Kensington, the d&b T-Series rig, as well as lots and lots about our Digidesign D-Show Profile console. The final piece of the mixing puzzle is the mic selection.  Good mics + good console + good speakers + good mix = audio awesomeness.  If the first three parts of the equation are the best they can be, the mix part comes together MUCH easier.

I’m really excited about a couple of “new” additions to our mic collection that are making a big difference in the quality of my mixes.  There’s some mix samples at the bottom of the post.

The first is an ultra-vintage original AKG D12E.  We’ve been looking for one of these for a long time because they are quite rare and hard to find in great shape.

On the recommendation of our music director, an accomplished drummer in his own right, this is a unique mic for live kick.  The D12E is the original mic that the D112 was based off of.  It’s funny, though, because if you ask me, the two mics couldn’t be more different.  The AKG D12E has a dynamic transducer with its special handmade “Bass Chamber”. The Bass Chamber boosts the lower frequencies in the 60 to 120 Hz range. Its unique sound established the D12E as the world’s standard microphone for bass drum and bass instrument pick-up. the D12E’s frequency response extends down to 40 Hz, and the slight peak in the 60 to 120 Hz range enables the microphone to do full justice to the mellow, intimate quality of the trombone, tuba, or flügelhorn.

It is the complete opposite of an Audix D6 or Shure Beta52 – feels really organic, uncolored, and natural.  As soon as you hear it, you can recognize the sound from many classic records over the years.

The second addition to our collection is a pair of AKG C414-ULS mics.  Again, we’ve been looking for a special pair for many months and a set that was in immaculate condition literally dropped into our laps.

If you’re familiar at all with the history of the 414, there have been several incarnations over the years of this classic.  My favorite by far has been the ULS series because it is the most neutral of the bunch.  The TL & TL-II utilize a different capsule based on the classic C12V.  While the TL series are great mics in their own right, the ULS has a very uncolored and natural sound that is awesome for overheads and electric guitar.  On our d&b rig, the entire kit takes on a 3-dimensional quality that is simply missing with the Rode NT4, Shure KSM32, KSM44, or KSM141, or SM81s.

Another plus towards the older ULS over the current 414 incarnations is that these mics still have hard switches for pattern control, roll-off, and pad.  The new mic’s have an electronic button that remembers the position when the mic is provided phantom power.  This is annoying because it means when you’re setting up the mics, you must have the console on and phantom applied to the channel in order to be able to set the mic’s options while setting up rather than making a special trip to the stage during soundcheck.

If you’re willing to take your time finding a matched pair in great shape, I think they are well worth the marginal investment.  It’s awesome that you can easily save $1,000 over the current versions of the 414 by finding a solid used set of 414-ULS, plus they sound better and are more versatile to boot.  Definitely check them out!

Now for the mix samples…

The first is a board mix of the kit mics isolated during soundcheck.  Kick is the D12E, snare is a SM57, hat a Neumann KM184, Audix D2 & D4 on toms, and the 414-ULS for overheads.  The 414′s are high passed around 140 hz so they are capturing a large chunk of the overall kit sound.  Because of this, the tom mics especially are thinned out just a bit so they will work well with the overheads.  Check out that kick tone!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The second sample is the same kit mics in context of a full band worship tune.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Mic Inventory

In the quest for uniform audio bliss at our regional campuses, I’ve set the goal to standardize our mic inventory so we’re all working with the same set of tools and will have more consistent natural results with less channel EQ.  Below is the list I think we’re settling on based on all of the things we’ve learned at the Troy Main Campus this past year.  The final list is a result of trying to achieve the highest  bang for the buck.  It isn’t practical to consider a set of 414′s everywhere or Neumann KM184s instead of the 141s.  Our normal setup is a standard 5 piece band (drums, bass, 2 guitars, & keys).  Occasionally we might have a string player or a couple horns but because anything we do must be accomplished identically at 5 locations, we don’t stray from the norm very often.

With this lens in mind, I’m still curious for feedback on other suggestions we might be missing or should check out.  Thanks in advance.

Own The Mix.com

In the past few days I’ve come across a resource for church audio that I think everyone associated with house of worship markets should know about called OwnTheMix.com. I’ve never seen anything like this so please consider this a must investigate for your team!

From their website…OwnTheMix.com is a comprehensive audio training solution for the modern church. Created by Buckhead Church’s Audio Director, Dustin Whitt, and Music Director, Chris Green, you will learn secrets to creating irresistible worship environments. Whether novice or professional, there is plenty for everyone inside. Subscribers have an all-access pass to every video, and are connected to all of OwnTheMix.com’s users through a state-of-the-art social network that includes forums, blogs, and groups based on like interests or topics.  What makes this content unique is that there is an important balance between tech & music – they get the necessity of this unique partnership that is so critical to audio success in churches.

Training topics include basic EQ, compression, and gating for bass, electrics, keys, drums, & vocals, miking instruments, combat mixing, console gain structure, basic drum tuning for engineers, mixing musically, EQ and mic placement for speech, transitions, working with musicians, working with drummers, and much more.  There’s also training content that currently focuses on the Digidesign Venue platform, although videos are coming soon that will also train on Aviom & the Yamaha M7CL.  Finally there are several multi-part interviews with other members of the Northpoint audio team such as Dave Stagl and Chris Briley, and notable FOH engineers such as Jeff Sandstrom (Chris Tomlin).

A 1-year subscription starts at $200 for a single seat and the price per seat goes down as you add more users from your organization to the site.  The really cool thing is that if they were to put an accurate price tag on what is taught in this site, it wouldn’t be affordable for many churches.  The value is extremely high!  If you paid a contract soundguy $50 an hour to run your Sunday services just for one morning, you’ve paid for an entire year of training for a committed volunteer. The site really is one-of-a-kind and content is still being added weekly.

I’m proud to say Kensington Church has secured a license for our entire audio team and I will be leading our team through this content over the coming year.  It has been on my heart for months to find a way to focus on basic audio concepts and develop more of a culture of organized continuing education for the team but had yet to find a means that would be the right fit.

I showcased a new book I picked up this past winter called “Mixing Audio” on this blog that is the best resource I’ve ever read for the art of mixing music.  The problem is that a large percentage of our audio team are also campus tech directors or work full time jobs in other industries entirely, so I expected a tough sell to get everyone to read such a large, focused book and get together for discussions.

OwnTheMix is perfect for us because we can “assign” a handful of videos for guys to watch on their own time that are reasonably short for those with ADD attention spans (it seems most average 3-6 minutes) and pack lots of solid concepts in each one.  Then we’ll meet together every other week for an hour to unpack what we’re learning and discuss questions or applications.  I’m excited to see what God will do in our team over the coming months!

I can’t recommend this resource enough.  If you are involved in church audio in any way, RUN to this site and sign up for you and your team.  I’m certain you won’t be disappointed!

Kick Drum Experiment

One place in my mix where I’ve been experimenting the past few weeks is the kick.  Ever since I bought an Audix D6 last summer, it has been my staple and the results have generally been much improved from the Beta91/Beta52 combo that I inherited when I started this gig.  However, I know that many friends who use the D6 nearly always use it in conjunction with a Beta91.  For me, great results with this partnership have been illusive.

A few weeks ago I was reading some forums and had the revelation that the reason I might not have been blown away by the B91/D6 combo was that I was using the D6 for the bulk of my tone and supplementing with the B91.  On a whim, I decided to swap those two and use the B91 full range down into the subs and then use the D6 for extra “body” in the kick tone.  Along with time aligning the mics by 30-some samples on average and a bit of compression from Channel G, the results were awesome.

Fast forward to earlier this week and I was reading another forum and came upon a few posters singing the praises of a Yamaha Subkick with the Beta91.  This caught my interest because we own a Subkick that someone purchased years ago.  However, each time we’ve tried it we’ve been less than impressed and the thing has literally been gathering dust in the basement.  This forum post caused me to revisit the Subkick, this time using it much like I do the D6.

If you’ve never checked out the Subkick, here’s the scoop.  Yamaha took a 6.5″ speaker, mounted it in a 10″ drum shell and reverse-wired it to an XLR jack to convert the speaker diaphragm into a microphone diaphragm. This huge diaphragm allows the SubKick to pick up the low end that a normal microphone can’t. And as a dynamic microphone it can handle extremely high SPLs.  Mounting the SubKick speaker into a drum shell focuses the sound to direct the signal into the diaphragm. It also protects the SubKick transducer from mechanical noise and damage.

For the first time, I experienced this weekend an application where the Subkick is awesome.  The Beta91 communicates a very “present” kick sound.  The beater is nice and present and the overall tone is “current” to me…exactly what you’d expect to hear from a much larger rig than mine.  The problem is that it feels like its missing some of the 60-300 hz “body” that makes the kick good and round to balance the click.  Enter the Subkick.  The Subkick captured a lot of fundamental in the 60Hz range, had a significant dip at 300Hz, a smaller peak in the 600Hz range, and dropped off steeply after that.  Frequency response is spec’ed to 2kHz, and there’s some information captured as high as 3.5kHz, but not much.  It seems the perfect compliment to the Beta91.

There are a number of things to like about the Subkick, most of all its sound. It definitely gives you the thump you’d usually have to dig for with EQ when using a traditional setup. I’ve found I really like it as the source feeding kick to the subs because the low end is so focused and feels like it extends lower than the 91.  Also, the rock-solid snare stand and tom mount used for “mic” placement are ingenius. In every application, it was a quick and easy setup without drift or drop. It stays where it’s put.

I A/B’d the Subkick with my usual D6 outside the kick setup, and it blew it away. Because of the nature of the beast, it completely ignores any cymbal or drum spill over 500 Hz, making for a nice, clean track at the bottom of your mix. A nice trick is to use the naturally clean Subkick signal to feed the key on a gate used for the internal kick mic, resulting in an easily accomplished clean kick signal.

Here’s a few samples of what I’m hearing.  See what you think and it might be worth checking out.

This first sample is a Beta91 and Subkick.  The clip starts out with both blended then isolates each one.  I think it will be pretty obvious which tone is the Subkick.  Warning that you probably won’t hear the Subkick on regular laptop speakers like the ones on my Macbook Pro.  Good IEMs or headphones are recommended.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The second clip is the entire kit and alternating back and forth between the Beta91/Subkick combo and the Beta91/D6 combo.  I can see times when each of these tones would be a great fit artistically.  I think my conclusion is that I may end up putting all three mics up most weeks and then I have great flexibility for what I go with depending on the tune.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.