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RobJe -> RE: Pick me up! (Jul. 4 2007 14:01:16)
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My opinion – don’t do it!
There are 3 issues to consider in challenging sound contexts.
1. The quality of signal that you capture in the first place, pre-amplification and fx.
2. amplification and transmission of the signal (your own or using the in-house system)
3. How much control you have over what is going on
I have never had any real problems about capturing a good signal. I usually use old dynamic Beyer M69s or Beyer M1000s with a hypercardiod pattern.. They have worked well in small (studio theatre, restaurant) to fairly large (indoor sports arena) locations and outdoors. Positioning is vital and some means of controlling feedback and reducing bass frequency caused by the proximity effect when the mic is very close to the guitar is also desirable. A bit of Fx is handy. I can see the attraction of ‘plug and go’ because you don’t have to be so careful about positioning but I can manage without sticking stuff on my guitar – I have only just accepted machine heads as an acceptable part of a guitar!
In house amplification and transmission if it exists should be good enough (but isn’t always). Ideally it should have been installed to take account of local problems. If you turn up with your own gear and say a couple of speakers you might find it difficult to position them for coverage of the audience (especially the base frequencies).
In my experience, control is the biggest problem. Turning up in a restaurant with a couple of dancers and hooking your preamp up to an in-house system when someone has altered all your careful settings to play some CDs or make an announcement can be a nightmare. Such gigs don’t pay for a travelling sound engineer! Last week I had to borrow a couple of radio mics because the dancing area had no power supply close and someone over the other side of the restaurant wiped me out totally by fiddling with the controls. This is the area to work on – don’t play until you have really checked out the settings – warn people against fiddling with the controls!
Rob
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