Advice for re-enforcing wedding ceremonies with lapel mics?

B

Boyd Williamson

Freshman
Mar 1, 2016
22
0
1
I find myself doing quite a few wedding ceremonies these days. Pretty standard standard stuff - a cab either side placed as optimally as the site / venue will allow, and lapel mic's on the celebrant, and the groom (whose mic generally will also pick up the bride).

At times I still struggle with gain before feedback, particularly in more reverberant halls. I've already got a dual 15 band EQ patched as Inserts across the lapels, with some pretty judicial cuts as required. Outdoor ceremonies are a little less demanding for feedback, but often encounter wind noise, which at best I can add a fluffy windsock & a significant bass roll off.

I suspect upgrading to higher end lapels may help a bit, and perhaps a different P.A. with more optimum dispersion characteristics, but I'm also wondering, am I missing something in terms of alternate techniques, microphone types/placement, or other tips & tricks???

One that has been suggested to me, is placing a mic in the top of the celebrants 'book', although I doubt this would be practical, as we work with a variety of celebrants, and it's hard enough training them to wear clothing suitable for lapel mic'ing, let alone aiming a mic at the bride & groom!

I've been working in the sound & lighting industry for quite some years now (small town - do a bit of everything type work) but I'm finding the weddings to be the most technically demanding work so far.

Your thoughts and advice would be much appreciated.
 
Use a good cardiod lav like a Shure MX185 on the speakers body, two speakers means two mics. Position the mics high on the torso and as close to center as possible, over the sternum is ideal. Carry stiff pieces of white and black cardboard to create a rigid backing to flimsy clothes to clip the mic to. Turn down the mics not in use by at least 10db even if it means mixing sentence by sentence or use an automixer like a Behringer XR18 has. Use the channel EQ to scoop out the 500 hz hollowness that the chest location creates & a third octave EQ inserted into the lav channel for feedback tuniing. Even high quality 1/3 octave graphics are cheap on Ebay these days. Use delay speakers for the lav and announcements only.. Having a small pair of voice only speakers mid way down the room is the only assurance that you will get a weak voice to the back of the room.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: eytan gidron
+1 on Riley's advice. Good quality lav mics do make a difference. If you can use an automixer that's also really helpful. Personally I don't ever use graphic EQ, I find that parametric EQ is far more effective. Graphic EQ (especially 15 band) is the equivalent of an audio chainsaw - while Parametric EQ is the surgical knife. If you need to, stack them to get more EQ bands. This is of course easier with a digital console, as most newer consoles have plenty of EQ bands available.
 
Thanks for your replies. I'm aware the 15 band graphic is less that ideal, but the budget here for new gear is pretty tight, we already had it on hand, and it's a whole lot better than the fixed 3 band eq on the desk! The upside is it's pretty quick to deal to any pre-feedback ringing that might occur. Delay speakers are an interesting idea, we're not in a position to implement that at this point in time, but I'll keep it in mind for future upgrades. I've never encountered an auto-mixer before, are they a common tool for these applications?

Any opinions on lapel mics? Sennheiser vs Shure, specific models etc?? I'm pretty sure this is our first port of call.
 
Boyd Williamson said:
Any opinions on lapel mics? Sennheiser vs Shure, specific models etc?? I'm pretty sure this is our first port of call.
Click to expand...

If size isn't an issue, the Shure WL183/4/5 series are pretty widely used on Shure wireless, and seem to be reasonably well behaved. Not particularly expensive, either. There's better out there, but at significantly higher cost.

Obviously, an earset will get you a better mic location, but with greater visibility.
 
Lapel mics for live reinforcement are always a bit of a challenge. For recording, they are much easier.

One thing to remember is loudest sound at the mic wins. The further away you get from the sound source, the more competition that you have to get good sound. A mic 3 feet away from someone's mouth has to be dealt with VERY differently than one that is right at their lips.

Personally, I prefer to mic each person. Shared microphones eliminate your ability of control. While the minister may be the one talking the most, not being able to hear the I do's can be frustrating. You can mic the bride and groom and then keep their mics off until they are speaking their parts.

The mic element you choose will make a HUGE difference in your GBF. Not all mics are created equal. The flatter the mic response, the better. Some can have a wildly varying response curve at different volume levels and will seemingly take off on you without warning. This behavior rarely shows up on published spec sheets, as those are watered down to make them look better. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for here. The Shure WL18x mics are very popular for their flat response and low price tag. The only downside is the capsules are physically larger than others. A white unit can often be fairly easily hidden in a bride's dress, even with the larger size.

A 15 band EQ is just barely better than a 3 band eq. Getting a compact digital box, such as the X-air 12 at $250 would give you far better control of your mics. That's actually quite a powerful little monster for a ceremony rig.

As far as what to upgrade, you haven't listed your equipment yet, so other than doing something about the 15 band EQ, there's not much else to be said.

 
".........One that has been suggested to me, is placing a mic in the top of the celebrants 'book', although I doubt this would be practical, as we work with a variety of celebrants, and it's hard enough training them to wear clothing suitable for lapel mic'ing, let alone aiming a mic at the bride & groom!......"

I, for one, always clip the lapel mic to the top of the officiant's book/folder. I do it every time. Never a problem with gain, feedback, etc.

Ceremonies tend to be quiet speaking events and making all party's voices "DJ loud" may detract from the event IMO.
Maybe your feedback issues have something to do with the proximity of the microphone to the speakers you use....?

Try putting the speakers behind the attendees.....the attendees directly in front of the ceremonial site will already be able to hear the participants acoustically.


 
Thanks for your input, and apologies for only replying just now. The situation is that this is a small lighting & sound business I work for, in a small town (which happens to be very popular for weddings due to the stunning vistas) for which I am primarily the sound tech. Budget for new gear is very tight, but I've just managed to convince them that we "need" better lapels :) Probably sennheiser, as we have good availability for them here. Mic'ing the bride is a big no-no, so the grooms mic needs to pic up the bride. for this reason, and that we tend to do quite a lot of outdoor weddings with wind noise, I'm inclined towards omni's (but open to opinions/suggestions). I think the lapels we've been using are pretty crap. We cross-hired some senn's for the last one, and that probably gave me another 6db's gbf, which was enough to get the job done (horribly reverberant hall).
Any specific Sennheiser models anyone can recommend?
 
I'd start using speakers from the back of the room instead of the front. That way you can get significantly more gain before feedback. then you can mic the groom and officiant with LAVs, and pick up the whole area.

As a musician, it really bothered me at first to be having the sound come from a different direction than the people producing the sound. I really want the speakers to flank the stage. But a couple of my crew started doing the back of the room thing, and I found the customers really really like it. The back row hears better. The front row doesn't need it anyway. And there's no longer any speakers in the photos. And it doesn't bother me nearly as much as I though it would.

Plus -- it really solves the gain before feedback thing with LAVs when I can't convince the officiant to use a handheld and hold it up to people when they speak.
 
Top Bottom