The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128491 Message #2877400
Posted By: buddhuu
01-Apr-10 - 11:04 AM
Thread Name: Tech: Mic'ing a ballad / acoustic session.
Subject: Tech: Mic'ing a ballad / acoustic session.
I run an informal ballad session / acoustic jam in a small pub in rural Hertfordshire, UK. The session has been going for a few years now.
Quite recently, circumstances resulted in a split. A band that evolved from the early version of the session kind of abandoned the pub, so I quit that band to concentrate on hosting the session. The band, who run mics and PA, now play one Tuesday a month (I still sit in with them then, but I don't gig out with them now), and the open session continues on all the other Tuesdays.
Basically we have a bunch of up to 8 or 9 guitars, mandolins, tenor banjos, whistles, 'ukuleles etc with various participants singing / playing anything they like from Trad dance tunes to folk songs and acoustic versions of 60s and 70s songs. It's not a purist gig.
The pub gets pretty full and I need to get some mics in place. I have a fair bit of gear from my time in the band, but how best to use it?
There isn't room to set up stands and mics for everyone. I thought of dangling a single condenser mic from the ceiling in the middle of the shenanigans and upping the gain with my little mixer in order to try to capture some of the group sound. Problem with that is that we're packed into a smallish rectangle. One of our guys is in a wheelchair and thus kind of prevented from getting as close as most, but he sings.
So I wondered about dangling two mics... or dangling one and then having another on a stand whch can be whirled around to emphasise the individuals who lead the various tunes/songs.
Any thoughts / ideas?
Thanks.