Suggestion for 'Room Mic'

Spenser Hamilton

Spenser Hamilton

Senior
Sep 12, 2012
653
6
18
SW Ontario
Getting tired of video guys showing up at the last minute (or at least, well after soundcheck is done) and wanting an audio feed, looking for a good set of room mics that I can attach to our balcony rail and hand a set of XLR to these last minute guys. I have a pair of NT3 that seem like they may work but I'm open to any suggestions.
 
Re: Suggestion for 'Room Mic'

Spenser Hamilton said:
I have a pair of NT3 that seem like they may work but I'm open to any suggestions.
Click to expand...

How good do they need to be? / What is the budget?

An NT4 would give you 2 mics locked into an XY pattern in one mic body, though using two NT5's (same capsule) would be a more versatile purchase if you might want to use the mics for other things.

Chris
 
Re: Suggestion for 'Room Mic'

With digital consoles I usually have record feeds ready to go just in case. I'll just patch an output or two to a post-fade aux.

If analog without a press mult, carrying a few XLR splits to use with an aux output could do the trick without eating up more than one output.


A board feed will probably sound better than room mics(you could patch those condensers to the console and only feed it to the aux if you want some ambiance), and interfacing positively with everyone even if they aren't the direct client is always a positive.
 
Re: Suggestion for 'Room Mic'

Kevin Hayes said:
With digital consoles I usually have record feeds ready to go just in case. I'll just patch an output or two to a post-fade aux.

If analog without a press mult, carrying a few XLR splits to use with an aux output could do the trick without eating up more than one output.


A board feed will probably sound better than room mics(you could patch those condensers to the console and only feed it to the aux if you want some ambiance), and interfacing positively with everyone even if they aren't the direct client is always a positive.
Click to expand...

I will usually set up something for the video guys if I can, the problem is some of them like to show up 5 minutes before doors - while the talent is usually gone to dinner - and I've had less than satisfactory results giving them a board feed in those situations.

I did a graduation yesterday, 2 podiums, a choir and a jazz band. I mic'd the podiums and the choir, but the jazz band was able to carry itself in the room without reinforcement (short of a keyboard DI). After the house had opened a video guy shows up (the client didn't communicate that there would even be video), asks for a board feed and then proceeded to complain that there was only keyboard in the mix. I ended up just setting up a 914 in the booth, apologized and explained that this was the best I could do with the house open, and handed him an XLR to patch into his mixer. At the end of the show, he said the audio was satisfactory.

I've heard some very good audio captured by hand held units placed in strategic places, I assume there must be something else out there that could delivery audio that is as good or even better.

I will check out the NT4 and KSM141.
 
Re: Suggestion for 'Room Mic'

If you have a lot of stuff not in the FOH mix, a house mic sounds like a great solution. For any event where video is such an afterthought as to show up 5 min before doors, I doubt that an expensive mic would be any better than a cheap one. Depending on your throw distance, you may possibly want to look at a shotgun mic to get more stage and less house.

For board feeds, I would hand the video person the output of one of these: Radial Twin-Iso, as who knows what is going on with Uncle Larry's camera.
 
Re: Suggestion for 'Room Mic'

Video guys at the last minute? You don't say...well I never...:?~:-?~:???:


I have one of these up in the cats at each of the spaces I work for. Video guys love them, as they can be set to M-S, varying degrees of stereo, or mono.
Video guys love them some Mid-Side.
 
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